Home
performing arts
social science
religion
Sacred Space

Preparing your PDF for download...

There was a problem with your download, please contact the server administrator.

DOWNLOAD BOOK FLYER

Sacred Space

Name: Sacred Space
Author: Douglas E. Cowan
ISBN: 9781481314879

The Quest for Transcendence in Science Fiction Film and Television

by Douglas E. Cowan

Published by: Baylor University Press

Imprint: Baylor University Press

To infinity and beyond, SciFi's missions to find humanity's great purpose

Sales Date: Tuesday, 15th Dec 2020

Hardcover
ISBN 9781481314879
326 Pages

$49.99

BUY

Digital
ISBN 9781602586949
326 Pages

$34.95

BUY

Paperback
ISBN 9781602582385
326 Pages

$39.99

BUY

Digital
ISBN 9781481305037
326 Pages

$39.99

BUY

Other Retailers:

Barnes & Noble
Amazon
Indiebound
Apple Books
Google Play
Bookshop
DK Books
Audible

Description
Contents
Authors

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 (Ph.D. University of Calgary) is Professor of Religious Studies at Renison University College, University of Waterloo.

Related Books

Paul

Gods Behaving Badly

Making a Meal of It

Between Truth and Fiction

Human Flourishing in Early Christian Theology

Light Within Light

Redeeming Mulatto

Teaching Global Theologies

Asian American Christian Ethics

Small Screen, Big Picture

Books

Authors

Journals

On The Site

Sacred Space

The Quest for Transcendence in Science Fiction Film and Television