Faith, Fallout, and the Future

In the early postwar era, from 1945 to 1960, Americans confronted a dilemma that had never been faced before. In the new atomic age, which opened with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in August 1945, they now had to grapple with maintaining their faith in a peaceful and prosperous future while also controlling their fear of an apocalyptic future resulting from an atomic war. Americans' subsequent search for reassurance translated into a dramatic increase in church membership and the rise of the evangelical movement. Yet, their fear of an atomic war with the Soviet Union and possible nuclear apocalypse did not abate. This article discusses how six post-apocalyptic science fiction novels dealt with this dilemma and presented their visions of the future; more important, it argues that these novels not only reflect the views of many Americans in the early Cold War era, but also provide relevant insights into the role of religion during these complex and controversial years to reframe the belief that an apocalypse was inevitable

Cognitive reframing · Dilemma · Environmental ethics · Faith · Nuclear weapon · Political science · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · Theology · Vision · Anthropology · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · Gothic Literature and Media Analysis · History · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Religious studies · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices · Social Psychology

• Atomic Metaphors, Victims, and the Contestations of Nuclear Discourse

  Open Access•Rachel Dinitto•Religions•2021

  Añadir item

• Millennial Dreams and Apocalyptic Nightmares

  Angela M Lahr•Millennial Dreams and Apocalyptic…•2007

  Añadir item

• The End of the World

  Open Access•Maria Manue Lisboa•The End of the World•2011

  Añadir item

• Uses of the End of the World

  Connor Pitetti, Connor Pitetti Connor Pitetti•Science Fiction Studies•2017

  Añadir item

• The End of the World as We Know It

  David Elton Gay•Journal of American Folklore•1999

  Añadir item