New from Baylor UP

Sacred Space: The Quest for Transcendence in Science Fiction Film and Television 
By Douglas E. Cowan

Paperback, 326 pages $24.95
Published: 15th August 2010
ISBN: 9781602582385
Format: 9in x 6in

Subjects: All Cultural Studies, All Literature, Media Studies, Religion & Literature, Religion & Popular Culture

As humans, it is our trust in something larger than ourselves that invests our lives with meaning and value. We hope that outside the boundaries of everyday living there lies something greater. As Doug Cowan argues, science fiction is the genre of possibility and hope, a principal canvas on which writers, artists, and filmmakers have sketched their visions of this transcendent potential for generations. In Sacred Space, he leads readers in a compelling exploration of how this transcendence is manifested in science-fiction cinema and television of today.

From the millennial dreams of a future bright with potential to the promise of evolution from some as-yet-undreamed engine of creation, science fiction’s visions of transcendence animate the pages of Sacred Space. Drawing on the most popular examples—Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Babylon 5, and Stargate SG-1—as well as the lesser known but no less important, Cowan reveals the multivalent religious ideas present in this media. Why do these themes that consistently appear in science fiction matter? What do they reveal about the often ambivalent relationship between outer space and our spirits? Cowan insightfully shows how these films and shows express and reinforce culturally constructed conceptions of transcendent hope, and along the way provides a provocative reflection on what this ultimately says about our culture’s worldviews, hopes, and fears.

CONTENTS

Preface

Part I.  Science Fiction and the Quest for Transcendence

1. The Brightness against the Black

2. Pinocchio’s Galaxy
    Science Fiction and the Question of Transcendence

3. First Contact
    Human Exceptionalism in the Calculus of Hope

4. “Intellects Vast and Cool and Unsympathetic”
    The War of the Worlds and the Transcendence of Modernity

Part II: Science Fiction and the Modes of Transcendence

5. Heeding the Prophet’s Call
    Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

6. The von Däniken Paradox
    Stargate SG-1 

7. All Alone in the Night
    Babylon 5

8. So Say We All
    Battlestar Galactica

9. The Truth is Out There
    Transcendence and the Neverending Quest

Filmography

Bibliography

Index


Douglas E. Cowan is Professor of Religious Studies at Renison University College, University of Waterloo. His most recent publications include Sacred Terror: Religion and Horror on the Silver Screen; Cyberhenge: Modern Pagans on the Internet; and Religion Online: Finding Faith on the Internet. He lives in Waterloo, Ontario.