The innate power of the science fiction genre lies in its ability to take real-world “rules” and push the boundaries of them in order to provide an alternate, yet plausible reality. By shifting the world in this way, the genre is able to present to the audience a different perspective from the one to which they have become accustomed. In the process, the author is able to create a sense of parallax for the audience and create an unexplored avenue for critiquing not only the world, but humanity itself. In today’s global economy, the growing importance of understanding religion and religious-driven actions has become all-too apparent. James Morrow has become a forerunner in the science fiction community for investigating the role that religion plays in contemporary society. Science fiction itself serves as the perfect location for the All-Out-Super-Brawl-Battleground debate between science and religion. Morrow takes this debate head-on, but, rather than focusing on proving/disproving religious beliefs, emphasizes the modern era’s treatment and utilization of religion. He pits faithful religion used for self- and social-betterment against commercialized religion used for personal and political gain.
James Morrow’s novel, The Philosopher’s Apprentice, pays homage to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in both plot and character. In Shelley’s novel, Victor Frankenstein’s hubris drives him towards a goal of accomplishing God-like feats. James Morrow, a prominent atheist, presents an interesting take on these God-like aspirations in his own novel. The novel, much like Shelley’s work, mirrors Milton’s Paradise Lost and presents Mason Ambrose, who serves as a representative God-character due to his creation and moral instruction of Londa Sabacthani, who, herself, serves as Satan in her ultimate rejection from her home and her ontological issues regarding her own unwilling birth. However, while it may seem easy to read Londa as Satan, cast away from her creator due to a conflict of ideals which culminates in a loss of self, it remains important to realize that Londa’s name is derived from the Aramaic translation of “Eli, Eli, lamma sabacthani”, which translates to the famous line “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me”, spoken by Christ during his crucifixion. This provides a means to read Londa, not only as Satan, but as Jesus Christ himself and, therefore, the concept of Christianity as a whole. With this understanding, her casting out into the real world is reminiscent, not only of Satan’s banishment, but of Christ’s mission of redemption for humanity. Society’s treatment of Londa, then, raises rather interesting questions for the audience, and I believe that it is in this reading that Morrow’s view of religion’s place in society becomes most apparent. In the world of religion, the battle has not become one centered on morality, but one in pursuit of money, power, and judgement.
Londa, cast out from her island and into the cold, enters the unforgiving world of the modern era. In this world, she comes to conflict with nearly all of society, particularly Felix Pielmeister, a devout theologist, who seeks to torture and punish her in the name of religion. Pielmeister first enters the novel during his adamant defense of his religious views against Mason’s dissertation proposal, Ethics from the Earth, which sought to reestablish mankind amongst the rest of the earth’s evolutionary line in order to take responsibility for the issues currently plaguing the planet (Morrow 10). Pielmeister’s violent rejection of this proposal, stemming from a perceived attack on his own religious views, highlights his priorities: not the betterment and welfare of the rest of humankind, but the defense of his own personal, deep-seated core-beliefs. The belief or disbelief in intelligent design, in this case, is almost entirely irrelevant to the matter; the core of the rejected dissertation sought to improve society by proposing alternative modes of approach, a foundation denied by Felix, the novel’s resident religious figurehead and physical manifestation of the bridge between the religious views of the masses and those with the power to enact change.
Pielmeister’s assault continues throughout the novel, aimed primarily at Londa after her attempted assimilation into the world. Upon leaving her island she seeks to help the world through moral teachings and scientific advancements, which are met with violent protests from the conservatively religious masses of the society. These eventually culminate in a final mass murder of the inhabitants of Themisopolis (Londa’s headquarters for these advancements and proposed utopia) by the immaculoids born from the aborted fetuses of women. Such an event is laden with issues regarding the supposed “War of Christianity”, made literal by Morrow. However, what’s interesting here is the motive and means by which Pielmeister wages his war.
Immediately prior to Londa leaving the island, Mason warns her against any attempts to help humanity, claiming that “even Jesus failed to bring heaven to earth” (159). Of course, Londa brushes this off, claiming that she has the financial means to help society, which, according to her, Jesus lacked. She quickly establishes her city of Themisopolis—this cements Londa’s role as a religious savior, noted by the creation of the fictional PBS documentary covering the Golden Age of the city, titled She Walked Among Us (168)—in an attempt to create a better world and reestablish ethics in an age of declining morality; a sort of saving grace for humanity. As Jesus was hated on religious grounds and crucified for his work in his time, so is Londa in the modern era. The religious masses of general society rebel against the city both in action and policy. Eventually, Pielmeister sends his army of aborted fetuses to destroy the city and kill the inhabitants in the name of defending Christianity’s societal value.
I find it rather interesting that Morrow chose the immaculoids army to be composed of fetuses, as the issue regarding abortion is one that often splits the two sides primarily along the line of religious/non-religious individuals. In this sense, Morrow brings to light the morality of such a debate and calls into question the motives behind the religious pro-life argument. The novel portrays a clear definition of moral correctness during this motive, setting the realization of Pielmeister’s pro-life arguments against the backdrop of the mass violence taking place at Themisopolis, as per his command. This very act, then, is at odds with Pielmeister’s beliefs, yet claims to defend Christianity. This cognitive dissonance comes to define Pielmeister’s role within the novel. It reveals that Pielmeister is not fueled by piety, but by a desire for power and monetary gain. Thus, we see a battle, not between morality and immorality, but between Jesus and Jesus™.
The irony of his motives becomes clear in his vendetta towards Mason and Londa, stand-ins for God and Jesus, respectively. Pielmeister’s attack, then, against Mason and Londa is, unbeknownst to him, an attack against the core of his own Christian beliefs. The foundation on which Pielmeister’s moral code is constructed, therefore, reveals it to be false and disingenuous; his beliefs wholly manufactured for surface-level appeal with little depth for the values of Christianity itself. In fact, the representation of these religious figures highlights a key point in Morrow’s view of religion’s role in modern society: by using religious imagery in the novel to criticize religion itself, Morrow emphasizes what he perceives as innate flaws in a religiously-run world and its self-destructive tendencies that bring the rest of society down with it. Therefore, we get a serious interrogation of religion in a place of power used for profit and control, as opposed to religion as a personal practice used for self-betterment.
As I believe that Morrow is not saying that religion has no place in society, only that it should be left out of political purposes, what we are left with is an interesting and important query: how do these characters construct their individual moral codes and how do these constructions work with the rest of society? As discussed earlier, Pielmeister appears to develop his moral code through the use of religion but twists those beliefs to justify his ambitions of power. An interesting similarity that runs through the foundation of the theological Pielmeister’s and the philosophical protagonists’ moral codes is the utilization of story-telling as a primary source of instruction. The parallels between Mason’s philosophical thought experiments and Christianity’s parables comes to light, and it is in these teachings that a moral code and, thus, a sense of identity can be found in the individual. Mason establishes this tie between moral code and identity when he claims that, while he was not the one to physically construct and mold her, he did provide her with the ethical teachings that she desired and, therefore, is solely responsible for who she became (165). Here, we see Mason’s belief that identity is not the external manifestations, but the foundation on which one’s morality is built. However, Morrow provides an interesting twist towards the end of the novel when Londa, like Pielmeister, takes her teachings past all reasonable levels.
Londa, in a desperate, last-ditch effort to instill a sense of morality in an ever-declining society, kidnaps a ship full of powerful individuals and takes them hostage in her own, live-action, hands-on, high-stakes philosophical thought experiment. In this final arc, Morrow clearly frames Londa as an antihero who uses vastly unethical means in her attempts to instill ethics in her hostages. One can immediately link the parallels between the moral codes of both Londa and Pielmeister, and look closely at the boundaries in which one frames their sense of morality as well as the boundaries which they are willing to overstep. What Morrow provides, then, is a means to challenge the moral corruption which inevitably follows the bastardization of any thought construction, be it the teachings of religion or of philosophy.
Morrow not only criticizes religion in his novel, but calls into question the role that individual moral codes operate in a society. By allowing the audience to view both sides of the same coin attempting to implement their own beliefs and crumbling not in spite of, but because of themselves, Morrow challenges the foundation upon which anyone may base their world view. It becomes so easy to attempt to search for an objective truth-with-a-capital-T, an all-encompassing sense of right and wrong, but Morrow presents the right/wrong dichotomy and forces the reader to critically analyze the subjective nature of morality. Through showing the morally “right” behaving immorally, and the morally “wrong” behaving morally, The Philosopher’s Apprentice leaves the reader with one nagging question: in which values should we place our trust?
Works Cited
Morrow, James. The Philosopher’s Apprentice. Harper Perennial, 2009.