Christian Eschatology and Science Fiction: An Study of HG Wells’ The Time Machine

Abstract

Eschatology, a stream of theology has been concerned primarily with the final events of history, the final fate of mankind, and the end of the world. Different Religions grapple with these questions in different manners, portraying the end times as a period of destruction, followed by resurrection, regeneration, and finally rebirth. Similarly many works of Literature till date have tried to present alternative discourses regarding the final events. The Question of Eschatology, is a particularly important theme for the Science Fiction Writers. When they place their subject in a time far removed from their present times, the question of “the end” stares them in the face. H.G Wells in his acclaimed Science Fiction Novella The Time Machine sends his time Traveller to a distant future, where he finds humankind evolved into two species. However, travelling further in time, he finds all life reduced to an indistinct mass. The much feared Apocalypse is not sudden, but a gradual process that continues over millions of years. This Paper attempts to analyse Wells’ treatment of Eschatology in the novel and show how Wells as a precursor to modern Science Fiction brings home the idea that Christian Eschatology holds little to no substantial value when juxtaposed with the events that would shape the advanced Future. This paper also seeks to show how Wells treatment of the subject matter makes the religious ideas of being reborn and united in the final events seem like a farfetched reality or more so, an impossibility.