After much deliberation, I have outlined my chosen texts for a year long Unitarian Universalist Religious Education Class in Theology in Science Fiction. I have no current plans to offer this class anywhere, but have been dreaming of teaching it for many years. Someday, it will happen. Until that time, you can read on your own!
The class is designed to read one book per month. We will have one class per month, where we will use seminar style theology discussions on various theological topics in each book. I have gone back and forth on papers, but have always envisioned that I will offer a few special events where I show a movie, a television show episode, and a full Saturday where we watch a mini-series.
The goal of the class is to teach good theological exploration and discernment through engaging literature and story. While I love Science Fiction for its access to theological creativity, I believe this model could work with many different forms of literature.
To see the earlier posts on this class, visit here and here.
I am simply going to lay out the reading list as I have designed it. It is designed for one church year.
September — “The Last Question” by Isaac Asimov (Short story will be read in the class and discussed)
Watch “Jaynestown” Episode, Firefly series
October — “The Positronic Man” by Isaac Asimov
November — “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” by Phillip K. Dick
December — No Book, we will watch movie “Blade Runner” and discuss (Long Class)
January — “The Dispossessed” by Ursula K. Leguin
February — “The Worthing Saga” by Orson Scott Card
March — “Stranger in a Strange Land” by Robert Heinlein
April — “The Service of the Sword” by David Webber
May — “Contact” by Karl Sagan
June — “Dune” by Frank Herbert
June Saturday Party — Watch “Dune” Miniseries