Although I love reading books and watching movies of all kinds, I’ve never really cared for science fiction as a genre. The extent of my science fiction experience pretty much begins and ends with Star Wars so I was not particularly excited to read Perelandra, the second book of C.S. Lewis’s science fiction trilogy and the first book on our class syllabus. Before reading the book, I didn’t know much about it except that it takes place on the planet Venus. However, after I finished reading Perelandra, I was surprised to discover that it is more than just a science fiction story about a man who travels to another planet. We discussed in class how Lewis’s goal was to write science fiction that was more than just entertaining. He wanted his story to have truth and meaning, which he successfully accomplishes through the spiritual struggle that the characters experience. Although Perelandra is filled with imaginative descriptions of a new world with vibrant colors, floating islands, and strange creatures, the real story is about our free will to obey God that allows us to walk in love and trust in Him while experiencing the joy and gifts He desires to give us. Our class also discussed how Perelandra brings science and God together despite society’s reluctance to mix the two. The story illustrates that it is not impossible to combine science and spirituality; after all, science does not exist without God. Some of Lewis’s concepts were a bit difficult to grasp at first thought, such as free will existing while God knows the past, present, and future - a seeming paradox. However, Perelandra made these ideas much clearer to me, something that surprised me because of my previous distaste for science fiction all together. I was surprised how C.S. Lewis combined the scientific and the spiritual in Perelandra in a way that I had never experienced, and I feel like I now have a better understanding of the relationship God desires to have with me.
Written by: Hilary Phillips
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