The God Engines and the Old Testament God

I finished The God Engines by John Scalzi over Christmas break. It was a short read. At first, I didn't like it, but I myself returning to it in a thinky sort of way. And here we are.

Scalzi's book isn't a pleasant read. The book is set in a faith-based society where one god has usurped and enslaved all other gods. The people in the society are ethnocentric. There actions are justified quite literally because God is on their side. When the machinations of the church become involved in conversion for the god's personal purposes, and when our protagonist discovers that his god isn't what he though it was, events unravel. We have a skillful tale of cultural examination, faith disillusionment, and at what cost belief is bought.

I'm not sure how much of this Scalzi set out to do on purpose. I'd love to ask him how and why this book came about, and what he is trying to say. What I'd really love is to have him come and sit in one of our Disciple Groups discussions about Old Testament God and add to it.

I'm in the most intellectual Disciple group. We're liberal Christians. We don't believe in hell. We do believe in evolution. And when we study the Bible, we have lots of questions about who wrote it and to what end. This semester's course is an overview, and we've been looking at Old Testament Jehovah. He's one contrary dude.

I'll warn you that there might be some God Engines spoilers under here, and there are certainly some Bible spoilers. Also, if you tend toward a literal interpretation of the Bible, you probably don't want to look under here.

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Mirrored from Writer Tamago.