During my college years I didn’t read fiction except for a few courses, such as Christian Faith and Contemporary Literature, that had fiction as required reading. But somewhere early in my seminary experience I encountered the novels of Elie Wiesel. which are fiction, but are almost in a category distinct from other fiction. Like all writers, Wiesel writes of what he knows. His early books, Night, Dawn, and Gates of the Forest are about that critical decade between 1939 and 1949 in which the world was transformed by the Holocaust and the establishment of the nation of Israel. Although the characters and specific scenarios of the novels are products of Wiesel’s imagination, the stories told are stories that must be told for the world to remember and process the horrors of our shared history.

Wiesel, in the introduction to one of his books, reports the true story of an encounter with a rabbi from his childhood after he has published a couple of books. The Rabbi asks Wiesel if he is writing the truth. Wiesel reflects, “Sometimes, in order to tell the truth you have to tell a story.”

None of us has a perfect memory. Even the most serious of nonfiction writers is influenced by the power of the human imagination. Then, once the book is read, people bring their imaginations to the reading and interpretation of the words. There are passages in the Bible from which different readers draw opposite conclusions. There is no doubt in my mind that our imaginations are critical to our understanding of the events of our lives.

These days I read quite a bit of fiction. It probably isn’t the dominant form of literature I read, but works of fiction constitute almost a third of the books in my library. One sub-genre that hasn’t been prominent in my reading is science fiction. Not long ago, I read a bit of Ray Bradbury because he has received so much acclaim. The book was well written, but the subject matter didn’t hold my attention for long. Unlike historical fiction, which gives some tools for interpreting events that actually occurred, science fiction tries to give meaning to the present by speculating on the future. I suspect that it is an acquired taste, and like some other acquired tastes, I just haven’t invested enough time for my palate to mature.

This past week, however. I have had a delightful journey through John Scalzi’s “Redshirts,” a very fun science fiction novel that gets the reader to speculate and think of the possibility of multiple universes and the relationship of timelines in different millennia. The writing is clever, and very funny for someone whose mind works like mine. The book was a gift from my son, who knows me well and who was, in part, sharing what he likes with me. Enjoying the story probably requires at least a surface familiarity with television science fiction such as Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica, but not much more than one gains simply by living and being aware of popular culture. You don’t have to be a fan of the shows or addicted to television to enjoy the novel.

Reading the book got me to thinking about the relationship between science fiction and genuine scientific exploration. In order to be good, science fiction has to be informed by academic science. But it also pushes the envelope of human thinking in ways that open up new avenues of scientific exploration. Some of the things imagined by science fiction writers are indeed possible. Some of the devices we use daily were first imagined by fiction writers. Star Trek communicators were imagined before we all began to carry smartphones in our pockets. Many of the things these devices do were purely in the realm of fiction only a few years ago.

If the world of scientific exploration is enhanced by the power of imagination through science fiction, it seems possible that using our imaginations in other realms of human endeavor might also be valuable for human progress.

Perhaps our world needs more humanity fiction. I don’t even thing such a genre exists, but what if creative writers were to imagine a world where there were no wars, no poverty, no racism and no injustice? What if we brought the best of our creativity and energy to creating stories where human lives are valued and human relationships are successful? If our world is shaped in part by our imaginations, why not turn our imaginations to topics beyond technological devices?

It seems, from a very surface analysis that much of science fiction is centered around problems that exist in the present. Most science fiction stories concern war and injustice. The authors can imagine incredible advances in technology, but can’t seem to imagine humans being capable of ending injustice or war. One of the things that makes much science fiction not appealing for me is that so much of it centers around battles and wars with a fairly large amount of killing of innocents. Another slice of the stores center around broken relationships and failed love.

If we are to imagine a future of progress, surely we must imagine progress in the value of human life and relationships. There is so much more to the history of human progress than the development of technologies. Far more critical in the story of human civilization is the continued development of complex understandings of the nature of the world. Ideas such as monotheism took multiple generations to emerge and then many more generations to become established understandings. A reading of the Old Testament illustrates human struggles with power and justice and human progress in the understanding of the need to care for widows and orphans and immigrants.

If who we are today is so largely shaped by theological and philosophical concepts, it seems to follow that who people will become in the future will also be shaped by the advancement of theology and philosophy.

Perhaps it is time to get our imaginations working on the future of faith. Perhaps it is time for a few good books imagining the future of theology.

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