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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Aspects of religions (non-Christian) > General
Using everyday "newspaper" English, Dr. Demaray brings a fresh new
aproach to the deeply meaningful message of Thomas Kempis' "The
Imitation of Christ" which, next to the Bible, is perhaps the most
widely-read book in the world.
This book examines science fiction's relationship to religion and
the sacred through the lens of significant books, films and
television shows. It provides a clear account of the larger
cultural and philosophical significance of science fiction, and
explores its potential sacrality in today's secular world by
analyzing material such as Ray Bradbury's classic novel The Martian
Chronicles, films The Abyss and 2001: A Space Odyssey, and also the
Star Trek universe. Richard Grigg argues that science fiction is
born of nostalgia for a truly 'Other' reality that is no longer
available to us, and that the most accurate way to see the
relationship between science fiction and traditional approaches to
the sacred is as an imitation of true sacrality; this, he suggests,
is the best option in a secular age. He demonstrates this by
setting forth five definitions of the sacred and then, in
consecutive chapters, investigating particular works of science
fiction and showing just how they incarnate those definitions.
Science Fiction and the Imitation of the Sacred also considers the
qualifiers that suggest that science fiction can only imitate the
sacred, not genuinely replicate it, and assesses the implications
of this investigation for our understanding of secularity and
science fiction.
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