Reviews of Theology and Science Fiction

Andy Hickman kindly reviewed my book Theology and Science Fiction on Goodreads. Here’s how his review starts:

James McGrath asks a lot of questions – great questions, necessary questions!

This is the book that I have long wanted to write myself, let alone read. McGrath’s observations echo those that many of us have percolating within our minds and hearts.

Over the past year I have read and re-read this book, often pausing after having looked at a paragraph – wishing I had others next to me to discuss and process these topics. This book encourages us to engage with science fiction as well as contemporary religions.

Do go to the website and read the rest of what he wrote. Going there led me to discover a number of other reviews, some of which I hadn’t been aware of. One of them is on a website that is now defunct, but you can still read it courtesy of the Internet Archive. That review is negative for the same exact reason that Andy’s review is positive: in the book, I don’t try to impose my own personal answers, but to help readers ask questions and find their own.

Of related interest, Alex Kurtzman talked recently about the challenges of being creative while remaining true to canon. Star Trek Discovery is returning, as you are hopefully already aware. But there is also a spin-off in the works that sounds interesting. And The Twilight Zone will also be making a comeback!

For those who may find themselves in close proximity to Harvard, there is a sci-fi art exhibit as well as a lecture that you’ll find of interest.

The BBC has an article about science fiction communicating to the public about climate change (connecting today’s post to yesterday’s references to dystopian fiction). Audie Thacker wrote about one of Ursula Le Guin’s most famous stories. There was also another review of the comic Kismet: Man of Fate.

Science fiction continues to become science fact as the first plants are grown on the moon. Of course, they died soon after when the craft carrying them was plunged into the frigid lunar night.

And on another of my current research topics, definitely related to this one but more focused on science than fiction, here is a short piece in New Scientist about how algorithms affect us, while Sabine Hossenfelder discusses the real concerns we ought to focus on when it comes to AI.