TY - CHAP
T1 - 'Heretical…dangerous and potentially subversive'
T2 - The problem of science and religion in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World
AU - Harris, Mark
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Michael Fuller; individual chapters, the contributors.
PY - 2022/8/16
Y1 - 2022/8/16
N2 - This chapter presents an analysis of one of the best-known novels of the 20th century, Brave New World, arguing that its author, Aldous Huxley, provides an exploration of the relationship between science and religion in narrative terms. Contemporary readings of the novel often see it as a warning of what might be in store for our own society if certain kinds of individual liberty (especially religious liberty) were controlled or suppressed by the advances of science and technology (especially biotechnology). In this ‘standard reading’, it is assumed that Huxley is prophesying what may happen if secular society were to continue to encourage the free advance of science in the face of traditional moral and religious scruples. This chapter takes a contrasting view to the standard reading and argues that the novel may be read in quite the opposite direction, not as a prophecy but as a satire of the secularism thesis. Hence, this chapter suggests that Brave New World can be taken as a subversion of the myth of conflict between science and religion rather than as an illustration of the myth's fulfilment.
AB - This chapter presents an analysis of one of the best-known novels of the 20th century, Brave New World, arguing that its author, Aldous Huxley, provides an exploration of the relationship between science and religion in narrative terms. Contemporary readings of the novel often see it as a warning of what might be in store for our own society if certain kinds of individual liberty (especially religious liberty) were controlled or suppressed by the advances of science and technology (especially biotechnology). In this ‘standard reading’, it is assumed that Huxley is prophesying what may happen if secular society were to continue to encourage the free advance of science in the face of traditional moral and religious scruples. This chapter takes a contrasting view to the standard reading and argues that the novel may be read in quite the opposite direction, not as a prophecy but as a satire of the secularism thesis. Hence, this chapter suggests that Brave New World can be taken as a subversion of the myth of conflict between science and religion rather than as an illustration of the myth's fulfilment.
UR - https://www.routledge.com/Science-and-Religion-in-Western-Literature-Critical-and-Theological-Studies/Fuller/p/book/9781003213987
U2 - 10.4324/9781003213987-4
DO - 10.4324/9781003213987-4
M3 - Chapter (peer-reviewed)
SN - 9781032077123
T3 - Routledge Science and Religion Series
SP - 40
EP - 56
BT - In Science and Religion in Western Literature
A2 - Fuller, Michael
PB - Routledge
CY - New York
ER -