THE SPIRITUALITY OF FIREFLY

I am currently working towards an MA in Leadership, Renewal and Mission through Cliff College.

For my dissertation I intend to explore the spiritual themes of the sci-fi/western series ‘Firefly’ and the film ‘Serenity’.

The dissertation has to be completed by the end of March 2009. So far I've formulated the following outline:

Chapter 1: Setting the context by describing the characters and storylines presented in ‘Firefly’ and ‘Serenity’.

Chapter 2: What insights into the nature of spirituality and the emerging church are gleaned from these programmes? (eg: What is learnt from the way in which community is formed on board the spaceship ‘Serenity’.)

Chapter 3: Re-imagine a new storyline for the show – ‘How might the church emerge in the ’verse?’ or ‘Where will the search for Serenity lead’

Chapter 4: Reflection on the above exercise asking ‘What is a church?’ and ‘How can it be allowed/encouraged to emerge in an alternative society?’

Chapter 5: Critique of the usefulness of the above exercise.

My hypothesis is that an imaginative/fictitious exercise (Chapter3), which engages with ‘popular culture’ and with ‘the emerging conversation’, can reveal useful insights into the way in which the church can be re-imagined in the twenty-first century.

I'll be using this blog to record my observations as I work through this process.

I'm keen to develop a conversation with other people who are interested in spirituality, sci-fi (in particular 'Firefly'/'Serenity') and the emerging church.