Science fiction as a genre uses science, either imaginative or real, as a central feature of the story. Science fiction helps us imagine what the future might look like as a commentary on the reality we are currently living. It’s not a far stretch to understand that science fiction and apocalyptic literature of the Bible have something in common: These stories speak to the moment they were written in more than to an imagined future.
Take the books of Daniel or Revelation: The apocalyptic imagery of the visions uses symbolism that is understood as commentary on the time when they were written. While most apocalyptic literature may have more in common with fantasy, with the mentions of dragons, beasts, and monsters, the future-oriented view leans toward science fiction.
Apocalyptic literature in the Bible employs speculative elements, and using science fiction to retell biblical stories is a way to understand how we might ground scripture in our experiences today. We’ve seen this often with messiah figures such as Neo in the Matrix movies or Anakin/Luke in the Star Wars universe. But the use of biblical imagery in science fiction goes beyond messianic figures. Perhaps Battlestar Galactica reminds us of the exodus or exile stories, of leaving behind an enslaving, genocidal Cylon empire to find a mythical promised land of Earth. Or the resistance to the empire by one Mandalorian and his adopted child, Grogu, in the Star Wars universe may remind us of resistance by marginalized people in Scripture.
While we can discover nuggets of our faith stories in science fiction, we can also turn back to the Scriptures themselves to retell the story. This might help unpack the scripture in new ways that also speak to our world today.
In my novel Fortunate Son, the survival of a people in a far-flung system of the galaxy requires unification around identity to survive oppression by other empires. How do you do that when you’re intermixed with different people from different worlds? You unite around a religion and a government that will enforce that identity, and you choose a charismatic leader who will make you want to be on their side. This retelling of King David dives into what happens when you dissent, and what you will lose in mistaking conformity for unity. As we see a rise of religious nationalism around the world, and especially white Christian nationalism in the United States, the science fiction setting of Fortunate Son explores both the good intentions and the bad outcomes of unifying religion, government, and national identity.
Next of Kin (set to be republished later this year) is a story of how to start your life over when your planet has been destroyed, and you’ve lost everything. In the biblical story of Ruth, when she loses her husband, she has lost everything. As Ruth is a more personal story, Next of Kin explores those personal aspects of how we hold onto faith in God when our personal world is destroyed. How does our relationship with God shape us when bad things happen beyond our control? The science fiction setting helps us understand what is happening inside our hearts by relating it to the concept of having one’s entire world destroyed.
The coauthors of the Captive’s War series have described it as Daniel’s story. This is even more evident in The Faith of Beasts, the second novel, which was released this spring. In the series, humanity has been attacked by an oppressive species called the Carryx, who committed genocide across the galaxy and kept only a remnant alive. Dafyd, the protagonist, makes a horrific choice: In order to survive, he does what he can to please his captors, even at the cost of turning in his friends. As the Carryx plan for the next generation of humans to be born in captivity, Dafyd tells another human what they need for the children: “I need stories. I need songs about how we might suffer now, but that we’ll get justice in the end.”
Immediately, a reader who knows the Bible will think of the Psalms, or of Jeremiah willingly going into exile instead of fighting a hopeless rebellion. This science fiction story reminds me of the intent of much of our biblical literature: to help us survive empire; to remind us of who we are, not only from before the horrific events, but during, in the aftermath, and for years beyond.
So how could this be a useful tool for you as a preacher or Bible study leader? Take a short story from the Bible, and tell it like science fiction. Maybe Jonah has been sent to a far-off world, the planet Nineveh, to declare that it will be overthrown. What would it mean for an entire planet to be destroyed? An entire people, a global ecosystem, an entire species—gone? The magnitude of the story, brought to a universal scale, helps us understand why God would never desire for an entire city to disappear. It might help us understand that acts of genocide destroy not only a people, but a culture, a way of life, and entire ecosystems, causing irreversible damage to the environment. Take a short story of scripture, and see what happens when you set it in a sci-fi universe. Can you get to the root of why this story matters now?
Retelling biblical stories through the lens of science fiction can help us get into the deeper story of being God’s people, reminding us of why these stories were passed down from generation to generation and of their relevance today.
