Christian Speculative Fiction discussion

I wasn't sure what to call this category, but since we are talking about Christian speculative fiction, we could look at this two ways. Either it's speculative fiction that is Christian-friendly, or it's Christian fiction with a speculative bent.

In either case, I wonder what great science fiction you have read that is either friendly to the concept of belief, or opens the reader's mind to the implications of belief and the possible existence of God.

I will start: A Canticle For Liebowitz is a classic book that explores both man's future and the future of belief.

A classic science fiction short story that includes the value of belief and the possibility of the existence of God in a scientific world would be "The Nine Billion Names of God" by Arthur C. Clark.

Who's next?

Cordwainer Smith's Norstrilia and The Rediscovery of Man are both very good at that. I also liked Gene Wolfe's Litany of the Long Sun.

Chris Stasheff's Saint Vidicon to the Rescue is so-so, but it treats faith with respect, if slightly heterodox. An indie book I read, Running Black was a nice cyberpunk which was respectful to faith too.

Thanks for that, Dmdutcher.

Good question. I can't think of any off the top of my head. One of the catalysts for RB was I was tired of faith, specifically Christianity, being grossly simplified or misrepresented in much of speculative fiction. I found Christians are too often portrayed as simpletons or villains, and God as the by-product of wishful thinking, or a cruel hoax.

If you can think of others, I'd be happy to read them.

I got into a discussion about this with students the other day. Most times when the idea of God is brought up in a science fiction story--I can think of one episode of Stargate and another one on the original Star Trek--the question is never truly answered, but the possibility is left open, so that believers and non-believers can both be happy. In a sense it's a copout I think.

You did a good job, Patrick. Many Christian writers tend to go overboard in the opposite way, making any unbelievers one-dimensional too: either conversion bait or the evil enemy. Running Black was nice in that both Christians and nonchristians defied pigeonholing. It also was a good read, period.

Some others that I thought of:

The Harvest is written by an atheist who seems to be haunted by Christianity. But it's a good novel about when humanity gets Raptured by an alien race, all residing in a giant sphere I think hovering in the atmosphere. Those that are left behind have to deal with it.

It's surprisingly even-handed, and sells the dread of being left behind. Refusing being transformed into something more than human.

One that does so very slyly and surprisingly is the young adult dystopia Divergent. You don't think so until you read till the end, find she dedicates it to God, and then it clicks into place. Still a bit muddled, but it can be read as faith friendly.

Orson Scott Card is a practicing Mormon, and some of his books obliquely hint at it. His Homecoming books I think, and maybe Speaker for the dead and Xenocide. Been a bit since I've read them though.

James Blish wrote a couple novels in that vein, like Black Easter and A Case of Conscience.

Unfortunately I really don't know of much more without getting into Christian SF written specifically for Christians. I don't think it's because of any overt bias, but just few Christians seem willing to write pure SF for the secular market, and these days the market really seems too conservative even for decent non-religious SF.

I've seen Divergent advertised on Amazon. I'll have to pick it up. Thanks for the ideas.

A lot of it comes down to the important question: as Christians writing in science fiction, what is it we are trying to say? I think there are a variety of messages that can be shared with a generally nonbelieving science fiction audience. Some are cop outs, some are challenging, and others are confrontational. It's a matter of courage, creativity and common sense as to what we say and how we say it.

The speculative faith blog has been having some good discussion on that very topic, Glen. If you haven't checked it out, you should. It's at http://www.speculativefaith.com

It also has a library of christian spec fic which might help you find more titles. I discovered Splashdown Press from browsing there.