Over the last three decades a major cultural shift has taken place in the attitudes of Western societies toward the future. Modernity's eclipse by postmodernity is characterized in large part by the loss of hope for a future substantially better than the present. Old optimism about human progress has given way to uncertainty and fear. In this book scholars from various disciplines - theology, the social sciences, and the humanities - explore the move from a "culture of optimism" to a "culture of ambiguity," and they seek to infuse today's jaded language of hope with a new vitality. The Future...

What is the future of the American West? Is it fated to shine with the benign promise of Ernest Callenbach's Ecotopia? Or will it instead dissolve into postapocalyptic dust, as in Walter Miller's classic novel A Canticle for Leibowitz, or devolve into relentlessly dark and rain-soaked urban landscapes, as in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner?

William Katerberg takes a new look at works of utopian, dystopian, and apocalyptic science fiction to show how narratives of the past and future powerfully shape our understanding of the present-day West. Combining intellectual...