Fantasy Theology: Would a Fantasy World Need a Jesus? Or… 4 Theological States of Inhabitable Planets

I wonder about the question of universal redemption from evil.  It’s the question that started me writing my science fantasy Curious Origins of a Restless World.  Here’s my thoughts on the purely theoretical question of fantasy theology

Or is it theoretical?

Fantasy Theology

Ancient Planet photo credit: Lamerie via photopin cc

1.  Non-Sentient

Let’s first consider a planet with life but no life that has come to self-consciousness.

Without self-consciousness, life is without moral choices.  Without moral choices, life has no potential to choose any different than what is its nature.

A dog behaves as a dog, not more or less than expected.

A protozoa does what a protozoa does.

Atoms behave within the laws of physics.  As far as we know they don’t choose to go one way or another; they simply react to the forces upon them.

No expectations other than what is.  There is what there is.

Redemption is the bringing back of what has been separated to the Creator.  Redemption needs a Redeemer, and that’s a Jesus.

On this first type of inhabitable planet, redemption is not needed because there is no difference between what is and what should be.

‘Should be’ would be indefinable.

Our problem on earth is that a human more often than not doesn’t behave as he should either by society’s expectations or by his own. 

2.  Sentient and Pure

Next consider a planet with a sentient species that is perfect and not only that but having no ability or choice to be otherwise.

These beings would have built within them to forever be spiritually non-separated from their Creator.  Self-conscious beings could easily be given moral choices, but not necessarily.  On the planet under consideration, people act as they should because they have been fashioned in such a way that they cannot choose another way any more than a tree can refuse to leaf in the spring.

Ah… sounds like heaven.  And it may be.

Here, too, is no reason to be brought back to God because this species never left and won’t.

But it seems to me these people would love the Almighty just because they love the Almighty.  No choice.

That’s not love as we know it here on Earth.

3.  Sentient and Unfallen

The third state would be a planet with self-conscious people given the opportunity of at least one moral choice but having – at least so far – always made the right choice.

Again, no one to redeem.  Redemption would be incomprehensible to such a species.

This is Eden before the fall:  Having the choice to love or despise the Creator, but having chosen to stay with Him.  On Earth this state lasted less than a generation.  In Curious Origins of a Restless World it lasted into the second generation.

Then all was lost.

4.  Sentient and Fallen

This is the people we know… and are.  Self-conscious, faced with moral choices, and many times making the worst of it.

Here is death and cruelty and sorrow and suffering.  Here we live.

So what’s this free choice anyway?  Free choice leads to such a mess.  But it also has the potential to lead to love.  Love is love when it is chosen.

Love does what love does when there’s a choice to not love.

This kind of world is the subject of another blog.

Or a novel.

Fantasy Theology

, , , , , , , , , , ,

Comments

  1. August 8, 2013 #

    I love this, Drew. So incredibly glad you are writing! So proud!!

    • August 8, 2013 #

      Thanks, Debbie. It’s fun to be creative. And you know that from your own creative self!

  2. August 10, 2013 #

    Drew, Congratulations on your book! I am glad that you kept at it after Donna died and that you made your goal of writing this book. Be blessed! 🙂

    • August 10, 2013 #

      Mary, thank you so much!

  3. August 20, 2013 #

    Interesting thoughts Drew. I never thought about other worlds in this light. Good stuff. You are a deep thinker 🙂

    • August 20, 2013 #

      Thanks Jeff. I don’t know if it’s a deep thinker or just a weird thinker.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. 3 Spiritual Upshots of the Death of Stars | Drew Ellenwood - August 31, 2013

    […] This sounds fishily like Jesus.  (You saw that coming, did you?)  He had the audacity to say He was not of this world.  “… […]

  2. Humans Are the Universe's Search for Meaning | Drew Ellenwood - September 14, 2013

    […] there came to pass that a sentient species arose on the little planet.  The species – fools though they were – sought out a concept called […]

  3. 3 Human Questions Fantasy Novels Face | Drew Ellenwood - September 28, 2013

    […] your imagination desires.  Yet if they’re sentient at all, your creatures need to be about […]

  4. Lessons Learned from Dona, Part 1: We Meet - December 17, 2013

    […] wonder if this is what Jesus thinks when He looks at His […]

  5. The Problem with Invincibility | Drew Ellenwood - January 15, 2014

    […] glad Jesus is not […]

  6. 3 Fantasy Christmas Movies for the Family | Drew Ellenwood - January 28, 2014

    […] elements of a good fantasy are here.  There’s an alien world with alien people and an even more alien villain.  I mean, he’s […]

  7. A Classic Christmas Fantasy... By Dickens! | Drew Ellenwood - January 28, 2014

    […] That’s Jesus. […]

  8. Starting a Fantasy Novel The Moment That Is Different | Drew Ellenwood - January 28, 2014

    […] with a day that changed the whole planet, its present and its future, the day the planet’s ‘Adam’ makes his first bad choice.  But one story is hard to write for an entire planet, so I limited […]

  9. Contrary but Similar Motives in Heroes and Villains | Drew Ellenwood - January 29, 2014

    […] other life from bacteria on up.  But beyond survival, personality strives for a bit more than mere existence.  The striving can range from base power mongering to high sacrifice for a noble […]

  10. The Fantasy World of Narnia | Drew Ellenwood - January 29, 2014

    […] Here we go!  This is the reason behind the books:  To explain in story the Great Story of redemption. […]

  11. Lessons Learned from Dona: The Christmas Edition | Drew Ellenwood - February 1, 2014

    […] Dona made decorating the tree into a time to think about Jesus. […]

  12. Fantasy Worlds in a Real Universe | Drew Ellenwood - March 26, 2014

    […] the Space Trilogy are still in our physical universe.  Lewis makes sure the worlds remain in our spiritual universe as well.  Using this perspective, he can discuss in story our own failings and needs as mere […]

  13. The Essence of Me: What It Means to Be a Person | Drew Ellenwood - April 26, 2014

    […] In writing science fantasy, I’m not interested in simply ‘human’.  Human is a species.  I want to know what it means to be a person no matter the species.  A person is an entity with cognitive and creative functions, with self-consciousness, with spiritual aspirations. […]

  14. Languages in Fantasy and Science Fiction | Drew Ellenwood - May 7, 2014

    […] also come back to the language issue several times in the show and give you an idea of what other species’ languages sound like, which is pretty cool.  Although they don’t have fully functional […]

  15. What If? The Story Idea as a First Step to Publishing | Drew Ellenwood - May 21, 2014

    […] another world have these same problems?  I’ve discussed the four spiritual states of inhabitable planets.  The summary:  Any planet that has a history like ours, full of suffering and death, must be a […]

  16. 3 More Lessons Learned Leading Up to Dating | Drew Ellenwood - June 3, 2015

    […] know, I think that Man who walked out of His grave knew […]

  17. 6-reasons-signs-is-a-better-christian-movie-than-christian-movies - May 8, 2018

    […] me wrong, I love the gospel. It is my reason for living, my hope and joy. I want all to hear the gospel, but by golly, do we have to be force-fed it by a terrible actor? Gospel presentations in movies […]