Faith, Fallout, and the Future: Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction in the Early Postwar Era

Michael Scheibach

doi:10.3390/rel12070520

Abstract

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.

Highlights

Martha Bartter, author of The Way to Ground Zero: The Atomic Bomb in American Science Fiction, argues that many Americans expressed guilt and anxiety after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, even though the bombings undoubtedly helped to end World War II
Alvin Rogness of Mason City, Iowa, expressed the belief that in order to have faith in the future, one needed to have assurance that God had a purpose for every life
A 1950 Gallup poll, for example, found that 57 percent of Americans believed an atomic war would occur within five years (Gallup 1955, p. 3)

Summary

Introduction

Martha Bartter, author of The Way to Ground Zero: The Atomic Bomb in American Science Fiction, argues that many Americans expressed guilt and anxiety after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, even though the bombings undoubtedly helped to end World War II. Daniel Wojcik, in his book, The End of the World As We Know It: Faith, Fatalism and Apocalypse in America, argues that the proliferation of nuclear weapons has resulted in “widespread fatalism about the future of humanity.”. Apocalypse in America, argues that the proliferation of nuclear weapons has resulted in “widespread fatalism about the future of humanity.” He writes, “The dropping of atomic bobmombsbsononHHiriorsohsihmima anadndNNagaagsaaskaikiininAuAguugsuts1t914954i5nitniiattieadteadnaenraeroaf onfuncluecalrearpaopcaolcyaplytip- citsicmismthatthhatahs aflsofuloriusrhieshdeidn iAnmAemriecraicnarnelrieglioguiosuasnadndsesceuclualracruclutultruerse”s”(W(Wojocijckik1919999,9p, .p1. “By asserting that history and worldly renewal are predetermined,” writes Wojcik, “religious apocalyptic belief systems affirm that the cosmos is ordered, . . . and that a millennial realm of peace and justice will be created” (Wojcik 1999, p. 4)

Findings

Discussion

Conclusions