{"id":70128,"date":"2021-03-21T06:11:18","date_gmt":"2021-03-21T10:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=70128"},"modified":"2021-03-21T06:11:18","modified_gmt":"2021-03-21T10:11:18","slug":"the-past-present-and-future-of-christianity-in-science-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2021\/03\/the-past-present-and-future-of-christianity-in-science-fiction.html","title":{"rendered":"The Past, Present, and Future of Christianity in Science Fiction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Here is the poster for a talk I will be giving in April:<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/p>\n

Yes, that is the Red Angel from Star Trek: Discovery as depicted in the stained glass window of a church that was whisked away from Earth during World War III. In addition to so much science fiction in writing, longstanding television shows like Star Trek and Doctor Who as well as recent additions to the genre such as The Expanse and Devs engage not just with Christianity in general as a cultural phenomenon, but questions about its history. Science fiction offers unique resources for exploring this topic by means of time travel to the past, interplanetary and interdimensional travel to visit parallel Earths in our universe and whole parallel universes, and stories about the future that imagine what Christianity may look like in that context. Mark your calendars for April 15th and join me as I explore this topic!<\/p>\n

You may also want to mark your calendars from now that starting on October 11th there will be a multi-day online conference dedicated to the exploration of Christianity and science fiction, the first of what is planned to be a series of annual conferences focused on Christianity\u2019s intersection with and relationship to some particular form or stream of popular culture. There will be some really fantastic speakers reflecting a range of different approaches and areas of expertise.<\/p>\n

Also of related interest:<\/p>\n

The Gospel Meets Sci-Fi: Pastor Anna from The Expanse<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/3quarksdaily\/2021\/03\/pretenders-to-the-throne.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Is God or extraterrestrial intelligence more useful for making a moral argument<\/a>?<\/p>\n<p>Not about science fiction but science, my former colleague shared some things she read in the summer and fall of 2019 that I meant to draw attention to. They have languished in a draft blog post for too long. They remain of interest and relevance.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"oh0ZmoAZmA\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/mulledscience.com\/2019\/09\/08\/summer-reading-2019\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Summer reading 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"\u201cSummer reading 2019\u201d \u2014 Mulled Science\" src=\"https:\/\/mulledscience.com\/2019\/09\/08\/summer-reading-2019\/embed\/#?secret=xvy6UKNEpr#?secret=oh0ZmoAZmA\" data-secret=\"oh0ZmoAZmA\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"OlwpfYvJOC\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/sheilakennedy.net\/2019\/09\/the-word-of-the-day-is-epigenetics\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Word Of The Day Is Epigenetics<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"\u201cThe Word Of The Day Is Epigenetics\u201d \u2014 Sheila Kennedy\" src=\"https:\/\/sheilakennedy.net\/2019\/09\/the-word-of-the-day-is-epigenetics\/embed\/#?secret=bOlvDfRTCy#?secret=OlwpfYvJOC\" data-secret=\"OlwpfYvJOC\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ncse.ngo\/beauty-and-majesty-science\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">The beauty and majesty of science\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mulledscience.com\/2019\/11\/30\/fall-reading-part-i-math-matters\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Erin Gerecke reviews a book on why math matters<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here is the poster for a talk I will be giving in April: Yes, that is the Red Angel from Star Trek: Discovery as depicted in the stained glass window of a church that was whisked away from Earth during World War III. In addition to so much science fiction in writing, longstanding television shows […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[119,131,86],"tags":[1312,1846,2116,16308,9339,10886,10890,13188],"class_list":["post-70128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academia","category-christianity-religion","category-science-fiction","tag-book-review","tag-christianity-religion","tag-conference","tag-erin-gerecke","tag-popular-culture","tag-science","tag-science-fiction","tag-university-of-michigan"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>The Past, Present, and Future of Christianity in Science Fiction<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here is the poster for a talk I will be giving in April: Yes, that is the Red Angel from Star Trek: Discovery as depicted in the stained glass window of a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2021\/03\/the-past-present-and-future-of-christianity-in-science-fiction.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Past, Present, and Future of Christianity in Science Fiction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here is the poster for a talk I will be giving in April: Yes, that is the Red Angel from Star Trek: Discovery as depicted in the stained glass window of a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2021\/03\/the-past-present-and-future-of-christianity-in-science-fiction.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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