Sacred Space

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.

• 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.