This summer looks to be a pretty interesting one for fans of Sci Fi films. X-Men Origins:Wolverine, Abram's Star Trek, Terminator and the Transformers are all making an appearance in a few months. Which one(s) are you looking to see?
On a similar topic, The City Journal has an interesting look at the Sci Fi genres recent forays into things Spiritual and even things gospel. For me the connection has been easy to make over the years...if the grand story of all of history is redemption through a chosen savior...Sci Fi has no choice but to rip off the grand narrative for its own purposes.
We all agree on the following basic facts and this is where Sci Fi tends to tread quite often
- The world is jacked up
- It needs to be fixed or somehow "saved"
- It seems we fight between cynicism and hope - recently I have realized that there is even a rightful place for a cynical hope.
- The world will end up being saved OR end up in some hell (nuked, climate catastrophe, cold heat death...)
The problem with the secular view today is that it has no Savior. It logically leads to nihilism, which is hopelessly resisted by existentialism (try to think you are a super hero or just indulge pleasure to get by) and ends up in despair. We are all just dancing along to our DNA in a blind, mindless universe that simply does not care. So the western secular mind is left hoping and fearing with no path ahead save the perennial political saviors which promise the world and take your life and your money. Or maybe defending our "rights" to freely indulge in every sort of base behavior invented by men.
To be honest, I love the Sci Fi genre - my friends at Jacob's Well tease me about it - but to me the saving stories are not simply hopeful fancies of far out futures, they are the fabric of reality. We are living in a fallen story, a world of madness, but walking in hope towards a world redeemed for a Savior has come and in invading the present through good news. One of the ancients put it this way we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe...One thing is sure, this salvation is much better than terminator salvation.
Wolverine, Star Trek, Terminators or Transformers? Lots of back story type narrative coming it seems; so what are you looking forward to?