Why Does God Need a Starship?

[Editor's Note: In Sojourners' newest issue there's an interview with author Mary Doria Russell-whose Jesuits-in-space books The Sparrow and Children of God are runaway favorites amongst the Sojourners editorial team-and some capsule reviews of our favorite spiritually inflected science fiction of the past decade, with more blurbs online. But wait, there's more! To celebrate, we asked Gabriel McKee of the SF Gospel blog to put in his two cents.]

One of the biggest problems I encountered while writing The Gospel According to Science Fiction was Star Trek V. The film is the franchise's most explicit statement about religion, but it's also held in generally low regard-partly because of its finale, in which the Enterprise crew meets a being that claims to be God and wants to steal their spaceship. I knew I needed to say something about Star Trek V, but I didn't know what-its religious ideas seemed too shallow and unsubtle. Finally it hit me-in his confrontation with the malevolent God, Captain Kirk grills the deity, demanding to know: "What does God need with a starship?" That question sums up the entire attitude of science fiction toward religion: science fiction wants a God from whom we can demand answers.

Most SF about religion questions and reinterprets spiritual matters, seeking new interpretations of old ideas. The goal of the genre in general is to build the future, to envision possible worlds to help us deal with imminent changes in the real world. That often means leaving behind theories that no longer fit reality, and this puts the genre in opposition to traditionalism and fundamentalism: It's hard to imagine the religion of the future if you're bound to the past. There are some theologically conservative authors of SF-Orson Scott Card, for one-but even Card's orthodoxy is subordinate to his chosen genre's emphasis on making things new. In his non-fiction and op-ed pieces, he is a near-reactionary Mormon, but you'd never guess that from the liberal Catholic characters of Speaker for the Dead.

This doesn't mean, however, that SF is opposed to religion itself-just to religion's most closed-minded expressions. The exemplar of SF faith is Earthseed, the religion described in Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents. According to Earthseed, "God is change"-and embracing that change is essential to a healthy spirituality. Earthseed develops in a postapocalyptic setting, a world where nothing is permanent. The second novel pits this flexible faith against a rigid, theocratic fascism, driving home the point that hidebound fundamentalism is unsustainable. The future needs a faith that is open to change.

That's also the message of Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow. When this novel's Jesuit astronauts set out on a mission to an alien planet, they express an optimistic faith that God is guiding their expedition, that they will do well because "deus vult... God likes it that way." What does it mean, then, when the mission begins to go wrong? Emile Sandoz, the final surviving member of the party, is a tragic figure, but Russell gives his story a theologically satisfying conclusion. His experiences force him to be flexible in his beliefs, and by the story's end, his faith, which torments him for much of the novel, becomes an essential part of his healing. In Rose Marie Berger's interview with Russell in the November issue of Sojourners (which you can read here), the author reveals that The Sparrow was part of her decades-long journey from Catholicism through atheism to Judaism, and Sandoz's tortuous path shows evidence of all three. The novel was part of Russell's own interrogation of the divine, and the methods of SF -- extrapolating from an idea and theorizing about where it might lead -- led her to a faith that she describes as "Hardheaded. Pragmatic. Poetic. In that order!"

[For more of Gabriel McKee’s takes on religion in science fiction –- and to share your favorites -– see the recent blog post Spiritually Inflected Science Fiction, and scroll down to the reader participation section.]

Gabriel McKee writes the blog SF Gospel, which explores religion in science fiction and popular culture, and is the author of The Gospel according to Science Fiction: From the Twilight Zone to the Final Frontier (Westminster-John Knox) and Pink Beams of Light from the God in the Gutter: The Science-Fictional Religion of Philip K. Dick (University Press of America).