I'm both a follower of Christ and longtime sci-fi fan (especially hard sci-fi, like Niven & Pournelle, and The Expanse). So science fiction with a Christian backdrop sounds great, to me.
But The Shift still managed to surprise me. I expected to enjoy it, but I didn't expect such an original plot, and I really didn't expect to be so drawn-in, emotionally.
Christian sci-fi is an unusual combination, these days. But it needn't be, and it wasn't always. Dante's Inferno was so close to being science fiction, already, that it inspired Niven & Pournelle to write a science fiction book of the same name, set in a modernized version of hell. C. S. Lewis wrote highly aclaimed serious theology, but he also wrote delightful fantasy -- and science fiction.
These days, it seems that most science fiction writers are encumbered by the prejudice that for a story to be scientific it must NOT be religious. As this movie shows, that's an entirely unnecessary restriction, and a really engrossing science fiction story can be built on a foundation of Christian assumptions.
But The Shift still managed to surprise me. I expected to enjoy it, but I didn't expect such an original plot, and I really didn't expect to be so drawn-in, emotionally.
Christian sci-fi is an unusual combination, these days. But it needn't be, and it wasn't always. Dante's Inferno was so close to being science fiction, already, that it inspired Niven & Pournelle to write a science fiction book of the same name, set in a modernized version of hell. C. S. Lewis wrote highly aclaimed serious theology, but he also wrote delightful fantasy -- and science fiction.
These days, it seems that most science fiction writers are encumbered by the prejudice that for a story to be scientific it must NOT be religious. As this movie shows, that's an entirely unnecessary restriction, and a really engrossing science fiction story can be built on a foundation of Christian assumptions.
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