“ The Wrong Side of Heaven , the Righteous Side of Hell ”
How is God in the world ? Is He , according to Christian theology , both transcendent and immanent ? In other words , is He distant and separate from the world and humanity while at the same time working within both ? Or , did He create the universe and then remove Himself from it ? Are we able to comprehend certain aspects of God through our understanding of the order and beauty of the universe ? Or , do humans seek a God who is no longer interested ? Many science fiction writers have asked and responded to such questions including Ted Chiang in his collection , Stories of Your Life and Others . Several of his stories deal directly with these questions and we can read them as a critique of faith , religion , belief , and the nature of God . Chiang questions whether God has a role in our lives , what that role may look like , and the ability of religion to provide meaning . Furthermore , these stories are apocalyptic in nature , especially if we think of apocalypse as “ revelation ,” the Greek definition .
Frederick Krueziger further defines apocalypse as “ an unfolding ; hence a revelation through unfolding ” ( 5 ). Such unfolding always takes place within a story ; thus , we must consider the inherent connection between apocalypse and story . As Krueziger says , “ Apocalypse as story first of all reveals story as that which shapes our search for meaning ” ( 5 ). The revelation , the unfolding , therefore is the story itself as well as what the story means . We can read Chiang ’ s stories as apocalyptic because they reveal our disillusionment with our world and our inability to find meaning in religion alone . For Krueziger , science fiction as apocalypse illustrates our disillusionment with “ the failure of the promise of technology and science to deliver the world from poverty , ignorance , disease , war , famine , plague , and death ....” ( 6 ). Although I agree that many science fiction works address these particular disillusionments , Chiang ’ s stories , I would argue , have a certain similarity to
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