The God of Raised by Wolves

The new cable series, “Raised by Wolves” premiered on HBO Max on September 3, 2020. This new series is from so-called “father of modern science fiction,” Ridley Scott. If the word “so-called,” wasn’t enough for you to understand my contempt for that title being attributed, it’s because I don’t think he’s deserving of that title and he isn’t the writer or creator (created by Aaron Guzikowski) but is getting all the fan-fare. (And yes, I know Ridley is the Executive Producer and the director of the first two and possibly subsequent episodes, but still, he is not the father of modern science fiction).

SPOILER ALERT: This series of articles will spoil plots and surprises so please do not read unless you’ve seen the Series.

TV-MA: This series contains material that has earned it a TV Mature rating and contains the appearance of nudity (like superhero’s skin tight costumes), scenes of sex and bloody violence and other objectionable material. However mild it may be in comparison to other TV-MA’s, parents be warned.

After watching Season One of Raised by Wolves, I was intrigued by the writing and the various philosophical and theological ideas presented through the main characters. I always enjoyed science fiction because it was philosophical and theological in it’s approach, neatly wrapped by strange worlds and technology.

I decided that I wanted to explore those philosophical and theological ideas through an examination of the series through the lens of Christian beliefs. I agree that the series is not Christian by it’s author’s intent and I don’t claim that it is, but there are some interesting ideas that I think should be looked at in the light of the Biblical faith that Christians believe in (as well as Judaism and Islam).

Here are some basic definitions:

Philosophy defined as…

the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, especially when considered as an academic discipline.

Theology defined as…

the study of the nature of God and religious belief.

Religion defined as…

the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.

My goal is to examine each episode through those three words and feed Raise by Wolves through the Christian worldview.

Let’s start out with Episode One… The God of Raised by Wolves Season 01 – Episode 01