The Portrayal of Science and Religion in James Hilton’s Lost Horizon and Walter Miller’s A Canticle for Leibowitz

Abstract

In their fictional works, James Hilton and Walter Miller draw the readers’ attention to the negative impacts of scientific and technological developments on human civilization and the environment. They portray that Science and technology have become a tool in the hands of world powers for destructing humanity and the natural world. In James Hilton’s Lost Horizon and Walter Miller’s A Canticle for Leibowitz, science and technology are seen accountable for the nuclear wars that caused the annihilation of humanity and the natural world. The novels proclaim that scientists and educated people are a part of nowadays' problems as they are misrepresented by politicians. Thus, in Miller’s novel a worldwide effort begins to kill the scientists and burn all the books and other materials containing scientific knowledge. Nevertheless, a group of monks and religious men preserve the relics of the world’s scientific knowledge in the hope that one day humankind will be ready to use them decently. Moreover, both novels portray religion as an emblem of peace, rebirth, and survival of humanity; it helps science and humanity to recover and survive. This article discusses the role of science and religion as depicted in Lost Horizon and A Canticle for Leibowitz.