This issue aims to publish essays on climate fiction and its related topics that are approached through the lens of Christian theological and literary interpretation. 

 Climate fiction, or “Cli-Fi,” has boomed as genre of fiction in the last decade or so, with scores of novels produced, and in response, a burgeoning body of literary criticism as well.   Imaginative and thought-provoking, these novels at times create a future post-apocalyptic world.  At other times they elucidate matters in our present day that contribute to climate change, or they might even look to the past to examine historical forces and causes.  While thinking about environmental change in literature is not new, and various writers in previous centuries have also considered this topic, recent novels are often compelling intellectually in new and different ways as they treat and introduce important philosophical, scientific, cultural, historical, and literary questions for our time.  For example:  What has been and should humanity’s relation to Nature or the material world be?  How should the concept of the Anthropocene help us to formulate new ways of thinking and understanding reality?  What does it mean to be human on an earth which is physically changing due to humanity’s actions, yet which also exerts power over human life itself?  How do we assign responsibility and intervene on a global scale when the roots of climate change are historically rooted in the West, but its effects have altered life in all regions of the world?  Will we acknowledge and accommodate the fact of increasing climate migration?  The list of themes goes on.

 The accelerating publication of such fiction highlights the important role literature holds in this time of climate change and indeed, impending crisis.  Many authors, critics, and publishers clearly see fiction having important ethical functions, shaping and grounding its readers while at the same time opening them to new perspectives, possibilities, and ways of being in light of climate change.  Well-known authors such as Cormac McCarthy, Ian McEwan, Margaret Atwood, Barbara Kingsolver, Amitav Ghosh, and Kim Stanley Robinson have written climate fiction, as have a wide number of other emerging authors.

 Yet despite these increasing trends in fiction and literary studies, there is a scarcity of Christian voices intervening in the field of climate fiction.  Most of the authorship of such fiction and much of the scholarship, while doing important work and offering many truths, does not explicitly offer a theological approach.  Yet surely the earth as God’s creation; concepts of human sin; Christian responsibility for the neighbor; the global church; faith, hope, and love; and many other biblical and theological concepts are foundational for considering the future of humankind and our shared earthly life amidst climate change.  Various predictors indicate many of the earth’s inhabitants will face a radically different way of life within a few decades.  The time could not be more ripe, and indeed more critical, for Christians to develop new ideas and forms of storytelling for imagining climate change and thinking about the future of our life together on earth.

 Potential topics for essays include:

*concepts of the earth as God’s creation (or not) in recent fiction

*approaches to creation care and the ethics of caring for the earth as imagined in climate fiction

*Christian perspectives on the Anthropocene and its future in light of recent climate fiction

*the relationship of the material to the spiritual; new approaches to materialism

*the ethical responsibilities of writing futuristic fiction

*the relation of science and faith in imagining and approaching climate change

*concepts of “Nature” and “Culture” and their relation

*Christianity, modernity, and technology

*global connectedness and Christian responsibility for our neighbors

*the role of literature in shaping a global imagination regarding climate change

*the limits and benefits of various genres of fiction for imagining climate change: science fiction, fantasy, utopia/dystopia, new weird fiction, speculative fiction, solarpunk, etc.

*the novel as a genre: its limits and possibilities for imagining climate change

*biblical apocalyptic literature and its relevance for climate fiction

*concepts of hope, despair, presumption, and lament in climate fiction

*treatment of sin, reconciliation, confession, and the Church in climate fiction

*the climate refugee, wanderer, immigrant

*the earth’s resources, poverty, gender, and/or race in climate fiction

*non-Western climate fiction (e.g. Afrofuturism)

*what Christians can learn from “secular” approaches to climate fiction and vice versa

*the possibilities of human creativity/imagination for guiding us into the future

*specific Christian fiction writers who treat climate change

*Christian perspectives on necropolitics as portrayed in climate fiction

Deadline: July 1, 2026 

Full-length essays (6,000-9,000 words) and shorter (4,000 words) “think” pieces are both welcome. Essays should be formatted according to the Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition.

Manuscripts must be submitted by July 1, 2026, to the journal’s submission portal:

ScholarOne Manuscripts

Guidelines for the journal’s formatting and citation style can be found here:

https://www.christianityandliterature.com/journal

Contact: Lynne Hinojosa, Associate Professor of Literature in the Honors Program, Baylor University, and Associate Editor, Christianity and Literature

Please direct all inquiries to:  Lynne_Hinojosa@baylor.edu