Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1671135 in Books
• Published on: 2000-11-17
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Faith Odyssey is an unusual take on the traditional Lent period of penitence, fasting and meditation; it's more of an introduction to a whole new way of thinking about salvation. Burridge has picked a Bible reading for each day of Lent and teamed it with a sideways glance at the plots and symbolism of his favourite science fiction films, TV shows and books.

While the Bible selections are almost all familiar passages, the literary comparisons are often bang up-to-date and not always easy to explain -- hence the many long interpretations of some complicated film plots. If you're a sci-fi fan you will adore the detailed references and parallels drawn, and if you're not, you may sometimes wonder why those film studios spend so much money on plot development and special effects when it's all been done before in the epic stories and spectacular events of the Bible. Once you become familiar with the frequent and sudden departures from the world of the Bible into science fiction (as if being beamed up to or down from the Star Ship Enterprise every second paragraph), you may begin to feel quite adept at travelling swiftly between these parallel universes. People finding their way through Lent for perhaps the first time, or who want a different perspective, may particularly appreciate this repackaging of Lenten themes in a new light. --Susannah Steel

Synopsis
This text takes the theme of journey as a way of understanding the Christian life, drawing on themes from science fiction as well as Bible stories and Christian classics such as "Pilgrim's Progress". Aimed at young Christians in their 20s and 30s, and those interested in relating their faith to popular culture, it contains 50 readings and reflections for use between Ash Wednesday and Easter Week.

Excerpted from Faith Odyssey by Richard A. Burridge. Copyright © 2000. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
Introduction
It's Bible Study, Jim, but not as we know it!

I am not sure what was my introduction to space or science fiction, though I do remember my first Fireball XL5 jigsaw puzzle and collecting Thunderbirds photocards. As I grew up (or got older anyway) TV series like Dr Who gave way to Star Trek, and my reading graduated through C.S. Lewis' stories about Narnia to J.R.R. Tolkien, Isaac Asimov or Olaf Stapledon. I was stunned by Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey, and its opening fanfares from Strauss' Thus Spake Zarathustra imprinted themselves in my memory as they repeatedly introduced TV coverage of the moon landings. Along the way, I inherited my grandmother's love for The Pilgrim's Progress, and eventually her illustrated copy when she died, while an initial fascination with the travels of Odysseus led to academic study of Homer's original hexameters and early Greek archaeology in my degree.

Through it all, I was captivated by the question of our place in the cosmos and whether there was anyone else out there. While I found some answers to those questions through my growing Christian faith, and my professional research and writing about Jesus of Nazareth, my imagination continued to be entertained by an ever growing deluge of Star Trek and Star Wars shows and films, and their many successors and parodies. Sometimes people laughed or objected about the combination, but other Christians seemed to share my interest.

Then I noticed that there was something familiar about the narrative which so many of these stories have in common. Often they begin with a hero or two in a mess, being oppressed or threatened. As the heroes seek to escape, they find a portal or gateway, some kind of amazing experience which sends them out on a journey. Along the way they find fellow travellers, fight against enemies, discover places to rest, and have to find their way to a great climax, which often involves great self-sacrifice. And then, of course, we all like a happy ending of home-coming and rejoicing.

But wait! I know this adventure! It is oddly like the story of salvation, of the journey from the old ways of sin through Christian initiation in baptism and conversion to sharing in the pilgrimage of the church towards the kingdom of God. And where shall we find a greater hero or self-sacrifice than in Jesus of Nazareth?

And so the ideas for this book were born. At one level, it is a very traditional series of Bible studies for Lent, which will take you through sin, baptism and the call of God, the church, spiritual warfare, prayer, guidance, silence, the Eucharist and so forth, until we come to the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus in Holy Week and Easter. On the other hand, it is an idiosyncratic collection of stories and excerpts from the science fiction films and other stories I have loved in my life. Each day, a chosen Bible passage is set alongside an extract or description taken from two or three other books and films. Hopefully, if you do not know one of them, you will recognise the others, and I try to explain them as we go along. The choices are not arbitrary or just for fun, but to inspire your imagination, which is one of God's gracious gifts to us. To misquote Mr Spock to Captain Kirk, 'It's Bible Study, Jim, but not as we know it'!

My hope and prayer is that those who know these Bible passages and traditional Lenten themes so well may find a new light cast on them by letting their imagination play with these other stories. Meanwhile, those who are fans of this kind of literature may be amazed to discover that the Bible has been telling them a similar story all these years, one which all our deepest human longings have pointed towards and which is actually the true story. If you want a technical term for it, call it 'inter-textual hermeneutics'-interpreting one text in the light of another. In other words, read the Bible passage and my comments, think and pray about the links, and let God inspire your imagination. Perhaps you could find one or two others who have similar interests and discuss it together (there are some suggestions for groups at the back)-and don't forget to enjoy it. This is Lent after all!
May the Spirit be with you!

Richard A. Burridge
King's College, London

Customer Reviews

the most exciting lent course that i have ever read
richard burridge has brought lent courses screaming into the twenty-first century. this is an extremely well written and well researched book that will bring to life the bible, giving the passages an everyday significance. the use of contemporary science fiction is innovative and exciting any reader would be enthralled by this book.