Howell, Alan

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Harding School of Theology

Harding UniversityScholar Works at HardingBible & Ministry Faculty Research and Publications College of Bible & Ministry8-2013“To Boldly Go”: Why Cross-Cultural MissionariesShould Read Science FictionAlan HowellHarding University, ahowell@harding.eduFollow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.harding.edu/bible-facpubPart of the Christianity Commons, and the Missions and World Christianity CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the College ofBible & Ministry at Scholar Works at Harding. It has been accepted forinclusion in Bible & Ministry Faculty Research and Publications by anauthorized administrator of Scholar Works at Harding. For moreinformation, please contact scholarworks@harding.edu.Recommended Citationfirst published at http://missiodeijournal.com/10/3/2019 Missio Dei Journalmissiodeijournal.com/issues/md-4-2/authors/md-4-2-howell 1/6“To Boldly Go”: Why Cross-CulturalMissionaries Should Read ScienceFictionA    H     The weary traveler arrives by aircraft, landing on the outskirts of a bustling metropolis.While in some ways this city reminds him of home, he is disoriented by the new languageand strange clothing. People stop and stare at him, touching his hair and skin. He feelsunsettled, wondering how he will be able to fit in and how he can find people who canhelp him accomplish his mission.Another voyager awakens in what seems to be a different age. She seems to have traveledback in time, as the people surrounding her use antique tools and weapons. They cookover open fires and prepare foods with strange names and smells. She is intimidated,wondering how she’ll be able to survive in this new environment.The two plot summaries detailed above could describe the latest movie releases in thescience fiction genre, or they could be descriptions of the challenges facing cross-culturalmissionaries. There are a number of similarities between frontier mission work and sciencefiction stories; from encountering new cultures, to learning how to live in alienenvironments, to the significant potential for misunderstanding and unintendedconsequences, there is much they have in common. Even the language that describes themis similar: exploratory ventures to other worlds are called—space missions.My family and I have been serving in northern Mozambique for almost ten years now, andevery time I read a work of science fiction I am surprised at how much the characters’challenges and emotions resonate with me. These stories often have unexpectedapplications to our work and context. What surprises me in talking to colleagues andfriends on the field is how few of us cross-cultural missionaries read science fiction. While Iam certainly not an authority on the genre, I believe it would be profitable for missionariesto explore science fiction.The Power of Fiction in FormationStories can effectively engage readers with difficult ideas and concepts. Jesus usednarratives of everyday life in order to expand his hearers’ imaginations and teach themabout life in the kingdom of God. As a master storyteller, he created fictions that resonatedwith members of an agricultural society and continue to touch us today even though timeand culture separate us greatly from that society. Whether it is Jesus’ story of the ProdigalSon, the Good Samaritan, or even Tolkien’s tale about Frodo and the Ring, good storieshave the power to shape us.10/3/2019 Missio Dei Journalmissiodeijournal.com/issues/md-4-2/authors/md-4-2-howell 2/6Fiction, by its very nature, has the ability to construct safe places for personal reflection.One science fiction author notes that “fiction, because it is not about somebody whoactually lived in the real world, always has the possibility of being about ourself.”1 As wedive into a fictional world that draws our attention away from ourselves, we are more apt tolower our defenses and make connections back to our own lives.Science fiction stories resonate particularly with cross-cultural missions, because they bothoften deal with the unknown and unfamiliar. The genre uses many of the same rawelements found in Christian missions and creates realms beyond us and our situations—places where we can get some distance from our own contexts, where hopefully we mayfind some new light to shine on our lives.Themes from Science Fiction that Resonate in Cross-CulturalMissionsHow, specifically, can science fiction illuminate aspects of a missionary’s life and work? Inreading works of science fiction I have come across a number of themes that resonate withour experiences in cross-cultural missions. These books are not necessarily written from aChristian perspective, and the reader may find some objectionable content or language, butI believe they are still very worthwhile. So, at the risk of spoiling some plot points, I willarticulate nine instructive themes from example works of science fiction.1. Encounters with alien environments have a great possibility formisunderstanding and unintended consequences.Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow tells the story of Father Emilio Sandoz, the onlysurvivor of a Jesuit mission to the planet Rakhat. This tragic story deals primarily with theunintended consequences of mission, one of those being the ruining of the missionary. Asthe story progresses, the reader realizes just how little the characters understood the hostculture and the ways their incorrect interpretations had heartbreaking consequences.Russell’s book is a helpful reminder of how significant differences in language and culturecan blind us to what is really happening around us.2. Mission is inherently risky and painful.If The Sparrow is a book about mission failure, then its sequel, Children of God, tells thestory of Father Sandoz’s redemption. Father Sandoz has experienced some truly horriblethings, and he is angry with a God who “abandoned” him. He has renounced thepriesthood and has begun to move on with his life when he is abducted and taken back tothe alien planet. We learn more about the unintended consequences, both good and bad, ofthe first mission to Rakhat. This book reveals more about Sandoz’s personal journey as hestruggles to see God in the midst of tragedy. A major theme in this work is forgiveness asSandoz comes to the realization that holding onto his anger at God or the people whowronged him will do him no good. He recognizes that the mission has ruined him, but stillfinds that he has an important part to play in the story.10/3/2019 Missio Dei Journalmissiodeijournal.com/issues/md-4-2/authors/md-4-2-howell 3/6These two books can challenge cross-cultural missionaries with the fact that, in spite of ourbest intentions, we or those we love may be ruined because of our decision to go. We mustwrestle with the real risks and rewards of following the call to a “new world.” And inaccepting the risks and pain inherent in mission we must prepare ourselves to deal withfeelings of abandonment.3. The mission team can be a major source of joy—and conflict.In Russell’s novels (The Sparrow and Children of God) we also learn about mission teamdynamics as the main characters are forced to work together in a dangerous and unfamiliarenvironment. The teams struggle with isolation, frustration with each other’s weaknessesand strengths, and the place of leadership on a mission team. While the team that Sandozis a part of in the first book has great rapport, they ultimately fail in their mission.In Children of God, though, Sandoz is part of a severely dysfunctional team, yet, theyachieve some success in the end despite the best efforts of certain team members tosabotage the endeavor.In these books we see how these fictional mission teams function for good and bad. Cross-cultural missionaries may relate easily with Sandoz and the way that so many of hismoments of both deepest happiness and greatest frustration stemmed from hisrelationships with teammates.4. The mission can be endangered by going alone.In The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin tells the story of a solitary emissary froma galactic network of planets who travels to the frigid world of Winter. The people of thisalien planet do not have one specific gender. Their maleness or femaleness changes as partof a monthly cycle. This characteristic shapes Winter’s language and culture and the storydives into the anthropology in a fascinating way. The lone emissary struggles to accomplishhis mission as he wrestles with the similarities and differences between Winter’s cultureand his own.At a number of points in this book the main character is at a loss for what to do andstruggles without a partner in this endeavor. The main character’s isolation leads tomiscomprehension, which endangers him, the mission, and his alien friends. This storyshows the real value of having colleagues to help interpret the “alien” environment.5. Mission involves equipping people to engage a reality that we ourselves maynot fully understand.In Orson Scott Card’s books, Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow, humanity lives in fear ofanother alien attack. These books tell the same story from the perspectives of two centralcharacters, Ender and Bean, children who have been selected by the world government formilitary training. We follow their journeys through Battle School, where they prepare foran eventual conflict with the alien enemy. Ender and Bean, while both extremely capable,are driven by different forces, and their teachers use what they know about theirpersonalities (Ender’s empathy and Bean’s intelligence) to manipulate their environmentsin order to facilitate their training.10/3/2019 Missio Dei Journalmissiodeijournal.com/issues/md-4-2/authors/md-4-2-howell 4/6A primary task of Christian missions is to develop followers of Christ from within that hostculture. The surprising ending of this story led me to reflect on cross-cultural discipleshipand training for ministry. The teachers at the Battle School were training soldiers to dosomething that the teachers themselves were unable to do. This book raises importantquestions about how a person from a different culture can equip people for service to theirown home culture: specifically, how can cross-cultural missionaries develop leaders withintegrity for a context that missionaries themselves cannot fully understand? How soonshould they share difficult truths with new disciples? And how can they train leaders tosolve currently unforeseen problems? While Christian formation certainly is not solelydependent on human initiative and planning, these are essential questions thatmissionaries need to wrestle with as we train followers of Jesus in a foreign context.6. Going on mission changes us, but the people we leave behind will inevitablychange as well.In Speaker for the Dead, Orson Scott Card’s sequel to Ender’s Game, we see Enderhopping through the galaxy alongside his capable sister, Valentine. Valentine’s marriageand pregnancy, though, mean that she will stay behind as Ender moves on to fulfill hismission on other worlds. Their conversations bring out the tensions that are often felt infamilies where one member leaves home to go on mission in a far-away context. Later inthe book Ender has to accept the fact that his sister has matured and changed in hisabsence. This theme is important to consider. Cross-cultural missionaries cannot expectfamily members and relationships back home to be frozen in time. While we are beingshaped by new “worlds,” our friends and family are growing and changing as well.7. The host culture is not static.One thing that I appreciated about Isaac Asimov’s novel Foundation is the way he usedscience fiction as a way to tell a story about the development of a society. Asimov’s storyspans hundreds of years and dozens of characters as it relates the way political, religious,and economic forces mold a culture over time.New Christian missionaries must do the important work of studying their host culture. But,there is a danger that these students of culture (fresh off the plane, notebook in hand,language flashcards in back pocket) may imagine themselves studying a civilization that isfixed. It is extremely important to remember that, especially in this increasingly urbanizedand technologically infused world we live in, cultures change. Asimov’s novel reminds usthat due to a number of forces, both seen and unseen, society has changed, is changing,and will change again.8. In mission we will meet evil in forms both familiar and unfamiliar.Some of the best science fiction to deal directly with the problem of evil comes fromauthors with an explicitly Christian perspective. C. S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy and MadeleineL’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time series have been some of my favorites since childhood. Inthese books the main characters travel to new worlds where they must wrestle with the10/3/2019 Missio Dei Journalmissiodeijournal.com/issues/md-4-2/authors/md-4-2-howell 5/6powers of evil. Interestingly, while Lewis portrays the evil in other worlds as beingconnected with or having origins in the evil at home on earth, L’Engle’s stories portray ourhome world as “a bulwark against evil, and the battle is fought on other worlds.”2As the characters in Lewis’s and L’Engle’s stories do battle with evil, their position as aliensmakes them all the more vulnerable. At times the evil reveals itself in familiar ways, and inother cases evil reveals itself in unexpected forms. As cross-cultural missionaries we mustrecognize the evil that exists in both our host cultures and our home cultures. And we mustbe aware that evil may take totally unfamiliar forms in our host cultures.9. Beware the messiah complex.Now we turn to a danger of reading science fiction. Frank Herbert’s epic novel Dune is anexcellent example “of the most frequent science fiction concept of the messiah—a humanbeing more advanced than those around him or her, a ‘man of the future’ who pulls societyinto a new age.”3In this story a young boy is brought to a new planet by loving parents, and after dealingwith tragedy he is able to fulfill his destiny as the messiah of a desert people.In reading science fiction we must not let the “messiah complex” be the narrative that weadopt for ourselves. Depending on the context in which one is serving, we may be temptedto put ourselves in the role of the messiah. As people gravitate towards us because ofwealth, nationality, or influence we may be drawn into patterns of behavior more fitting toa patron or savior. Missionaries must resist this tendency. Thankfully the people we servealready have a Messiah, and a good and all-sufficient one at that! So, in reading andapplying science fiction to our lives we must be careful about the characters we mostidentify with.ConclusionMy hope is that I have piqued the curiosity of missionaries, especially cross-cultural ones.The genre of science fiction is a treasure chest of resources for those who cross newfrontiers. My belief is that those of us called to “boldly go” on mission can benefit fromthese narratives as they shape our imaginations and aid us in effectively serving the peopleof these new “worlds.”Alan Howell, his wife Rachel, and their three girls live in Montepuez, Mozambique. Alanhas an MDiv from the Harding School of Theology. The Howells have lived in Mozambiquesince 2003 as part of a team serving among the Makua-Metto people. They blog about lifeand ministry in Africa at http://howellsinmoz.blogspot.com.1 Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game (New York: Tor Science Fiction, 1994), xxv.2 Gabriel McKee, The Gospel According to Science Fiction (Louisville: Westminster JohnKnox, 2007), 105.10/3/2019 Missio Dei Journalmissiodeijournal.com/issues/md-4-2/authors/md-4-2-howell 6/63 Ibid., 143.

“To Boldly Go”: Why Cross-Cultural Missionaries Should Read Science Fiction

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“To Boldly Go”: Why Cross-Cultural Missionaries Should Read Science Fiction

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