Theology, Religion, and Dystopia

The editors’ big tent approach to utopian studies and their consideration of the intersection of theology, religion, and dystopia has produced a wide-ranging volume that opens up as many questions about the nature of dystopia and dystopian literature as it answers. In this regard, it provides a welcome and important departure for further considerations of a number of critical questions. * Utopian Studies *
Donahue-Martens’s chapter on Lois Lowry’s The Giver, Simonson’s on Isaac Asimov’s Foundation novels, and Shayna Sheinfeld’s on Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games series and Veronica Roth’s Divergent series all stand out for their focus on American literature, as does the first chapter, ‘Dystopia as Demythologized Apocalyptic’, by Simonson and Donahue-Martens . . . This introduction establishes themes that will return across the book, such as the rise of dystopian fiction as a manifestation of a post-Christian cultural paradigm that privileges scientific rationalism over a mythological vision, leading towards analysis of the function of judgement in apocalyptic time wherein the dystopic re-engages with myth, implying a veneer-like function of Enlightenment rationalism. * The Year's Work in English Studies *
In this timely book, Donahue-Martens and Simonson have edited together an opulent blend of dystopian wealth. This volume puts recent dystopian narratives into dialogue with biblical text, Ricoeurian thought, and a diversity of religious thinkers, pointing readers to varied understandings of this key topic. Beginning with dystopia as demythologized apocalyptic, the reader is invited into conversation with both our present and future. Drawing from books, films, and television, the volume presents a broad and intricate examination of both the theory behind dystopia and religion as well as its results. I will definitely be reaching for this volume on my bookshelf in the future. -- George Tsakiridis, South Dakota State University
The 21st century has witnessed an astonishing increase of dystopic themes in popular culture—no accident in light of new ecological disasters, the COVID-19 pandemic, an upsurge in racially motivated violence, and a resurgence of totalitarian governments around the world. This remarkable collection of essays brings religious and theological studies to bear on dystopia from a wide range of methodological approaches while engaging a variety of popular cultural phenomena, including television, movies, literature, and social practices. Readers will find the volume provocative and engaging as it takes the intersections of religion, dystopia, utopia, and apocalyptic in new and insightful directions. -- Bryan Stone, Boston University School of Theology
The value of examining dystopia, particularly for its religious and theological elements, could be no more timely than right now. Whether it be film, television, comic book, or novel, at the soul of any dystopia lies both truths and warnings about our own society, and Theology, Religion, and Dystopia takes an unflinching account of these troubling futures. In dissecting and naming the spiritual drives, aims, and bogeymen that undergird these fictions, Donahue-Martens and Simonson’s contributors do us a service of marking such territory within our own faiths and lives. -- A. David Lewis, MCPHS University