The Truth Is Out There: Christian Faith and the Classics of TV Science Fiction [Paperback]

Thomas Bertonneau (Author), Kim Paffenroth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2006

How does Star Trek's Captain Kirk live by the Golden Rule? How does The Twilight Zone show the effects of original sin in our world? And how do the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse make an appearance in The X-Files? In The Truth Is Out There, Thomas Bertonneau and Kim Paffenroth examine these and many other Christian themes in six highly popular science fiction television series-Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, The X-Files, Doctor Who, The Prisoner, and Babylon Five. The authors analyze each series to show its insight into many central aspects of Christianity, such as the battle between good and evil, virtue, community, grace, and the apocalypse. Their discussion will interest science fiction fans and will be a useful guide for church groups or undergraduate courses in pop culture.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In a growing category of titles that mine popular culture for theological significance, this addition is notable for its scholarly aspirations and weight of critical apparatus. English professor Bertonneau and religion scholar Paffenroth "read" their DVD collections of classic TV sci-fi with tremendous seriousness, reflected through the literary and anthropological sensibilities of thinkers including Mircea Eliade, Nicolas Berdyaev and René Girard. The classics are an eclectic bunch, including iconic standards like Star Trek, The Twilight Zone and The X Files as well as series that found a smaller (but certainly devoted) following: Dr. Who, The Prisoner and Babylon 5. These series justify in-depth attention when they raise moral, intellectual and religious questions in imaginative ways. But even the most literate fans will struggle with the overstuffed academic style: "the Time Lords show a tendency to take their own rules and exegeses with an unbending, Pharisee-like seriousness; while not Gnostics, they display at times a characteristically Manichaean hauteur." Even readers suitably familiar with TV science fiction and humanities scholarship will wish for a lighter tone in discussing what is, however worthy of analysis, primarily intended as entertainment. (June)
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About the Author

Thomas Bertonneau (Ph.D., UCLA) is an English professor at SUNY College at Oswego in Oswego, New York. Kim Paffenroth (Ph.D., University of Notre Dame) is a professor of religious studies at Iona College in New Rochelle, New York.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Brazos Press (June 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587431262
• ISBN-13: 978-1587431265
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,599,637 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What is truth?, August 9, 2006

By 

FrKurt Messick "FrKurt Messick" (Bloomington, IN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Truth Is Out There: Christian Faith and the Classics of TV Science Fiction (Paperback)

This is very much a book that I wish I had written. I have been a fan of science fiction for as long as I can remember (I can't quite remember the original Star Trek in first run, but it was in recent re-run when I first acquired sentience and memory...).

One of the hallmarks of successful science fiction (as opposed to the significant volume of bad science fiction that comes out each year) is that it doesn't rely exclusively on futuristic ideas of where science and technology will go, but rather delves deeply into the meaning of life and other significant issues of existence, relationship and cosmological understanding that people find important regardless of the time and technological period in which they live. A case in point is Star Trek - issues arise in most episodes of most of the series that deal not just with life and death, but what is important in life? By playing off against in-human or un-human characters like the Vulcans or the Klingons (or even more exotic, albeit often poorly constructed, creatures), the important aspects of human nature can be brought forward in ingenious ways.

Authors Thomas Bertonneau and Kim Paffenroth begin the text by discussing the relationships of science, religion and storytelling. There is a long history of this triad, which have rarely all been pulling together in the same direction, but not always opposed to each other, either. Bertonneau and Paffenroth trace the origins of science fiction back to ancient Greece, whose writings at the time combined elements of philosophy, religion and science in ways that often did not recognise a distinction between the fields the way modern academia and popular imagination does. Of course, these all contain ideas that lead into each other and the human condition. 'In giving us a cosmic perspective on ourselves, science and science fiction restore us to a proper humility - a meekness before the awe of creation appropriate to our station.'

One might wonder at the absence of films here - after all, the Joseph Campbell/Star Wars mythology would seem a natural tie-in for the subject. However, the authors liken the television shows to epic poetry - the serial aspect shows (generally speaking) the same sets of characters in recurring dilemmas, much the way epic poetry did. Most films do not have that aspect (although the Star Wars series approaches epic proportions). Also, television gives a kind of accessibility that films (until recently) did not have - an 'in-home' quality that is analogous in ways to Jesus' parables, which are much more home-spun in nature when compared to philosophical treatises of Greek and Roman writers of his same time.

Bertonneau and Paffenroth highlight six particular series: Dr. Who (the original British version), Star Trek (the original generation), The Prisoner, The Twilight Zone (Rod Serling's time), The X Files, and Babylon 5. The authors do not expect readers to be familiar with each of the shows (although the more obsessive science fiction fans - short for fanatic, of which I am one - will likely know them all), but expect because of the pervasive influence these shows have had on popular culture that every reader will be familiar with some aspects of some of the shows. However, these shows are in many ways counter-cultural, which the basic Christian message also tended and tends to be. 'Science fiction's determination to take a lofty view distinguishes it from other popular genres, which tend to be preoccupied with various forms of adolescent resentment.' Even so-called adult dramas tend to be replays of basic relationship patterns established early - the kind of discussion of the nature of good and evil or the nature of truth rarely comes up in these shows as it might in science fiction.

These are far from perfect shows, to be sure, and are not a replacement for the gospel. Ever mindful of the biblical injunctions against idolatry, authors Bertonneau and Paffenroth show how these science fiction shows take that issue as an important one - meanwhile, other shows are becoming idols (indeed, there is even a popular show right now with the very word in its title, but like idols of the ancient world, very little in terms of ultimate truth comes forward from them). Again Star Trek can be held up as an example here: 'it repeatedly examines the nature of good and evil, human nature, progress, reason and emotion, and most of all, virtue. Star Trek became and remains so popular because it does not just entertain but inquires into questions of ultimate meaning and purpose with thoughtfulness, ambiguity, and insight.' These shows tell stories that have a moral - and as often as not, these morals correspond to values the gospel message also tries to impart.

There are books out there bearing the title 'The Gospel according to the Simpsons,' 'The Gospel according to Disney,' and even 'The Gospel according to Sherlock Holmes,' but this book, 'The Truth is Out There,' doesn't have to put up as much struggle with its base subject to fit the underlying substance of theology and philosophy as the previous texts. The truth is out there, and in here, and can be found.

Pilate's question - what is truth? - is a question worth asking. Science fiction is one of the few popular forums in which this discussion continues.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Serious AND entertaining, June 22, 2006

By 

P. Busch "nietzscheteacha" (Philadelphia, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Truth Is Out There: Christian Faith and the Classics of TV Science Fiction (Paperback)

I have to disagree with the Publisher's Weekly review at the top of the page. Overall, the book isn't "stuffy" at all; it's easy to engage with and, yes, entertaining. You simply need to think it's cool that the more you know the Book of Revelation, the more you understand the X-Files.

In this genre (academics writing about TV shows) you can find some very good books and some very bad ones. The bad ones are all the same: academics who are bored with what they do -- theories of the self deconstructed blah blah -- try to juice it up by discovering it in the midst of a sitcom. The result is unpersuasive, condescending, and boring.

*The Truth is Out There* is one of the good ones. I'd rank it among the few (for example, Paul Cantor's *Gilligan Unbound*) that see how the best entertainment always has something serious at stake. You can try to make entertainment that takes *nothing* seriously, but that's a really serious development too. (See Thomas Hibbs, *Shows About Nothing*, another great example of what can be done with the genre.) As anyone who is really into these science fiction shows will tell you, they are most fun when you take them most seriously. That's what *TTIOT* does.

Just how Christian these shows are is a hard question, and the Christian readings advanced in the book will be controversial. All the better. I'd love to see the authors engage in phaser warfare with Cantor, who also deals with Star Trek and the X-Files but reads them very differently.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Very Satisfying Read!, June 26, 2006

By 

Denise Sollenne (Santa Barbara, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Truth Is Out There: Christian Faith and the Classics of TV Science Fiction (Paperback)

I found my read of "The Truth is Out There" by Bertonneau and Paffenroth enjoyable and satisfying. I'm not a scholar but I had no trouble moving through the chapters and I gained not only a new perspective on some of my favorite entertainment but I discovered a few fascinating facts that has me looking at it again.

The historical review of the classic "science vs religion" argument in the opening chapter was revelatory for me. I think anyone who isn't already familiar with the work of Rene Girard (whose theory of literary analysis is integral to the authors' thesis) will find the words, "Well I'll be darned!" escaping from their lips, paragraph by paragraph.

There is much more surprise to this book than just the unexpected subtitle, "Christian Faith and the Classics of TV Science Fiction". (I think the publishers should have dropped "Christian" as this rich insight into things religious is a mutli-faith one.)

I learned something about myself as well from Bertonneau and Paffenroth... there is good reason why so many simple but haunting images from the Twilight Zone and The Prisoner have lingered in my imagination for decades.

Read this book.