Octavia Butler and the Parable Series

Selected Books by Octavia Butler

Parable of the Sower (1993)

Parable of the Talents (1998)

for more about Butler’s unfinished “Parable of the Trickster”

Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation by Damian Duffy (Adapter) & John Jennings (Illustrator) (2021) 

Dawn (1987) (part of the Xenogenesis Trilogy)

More About Octavia Butler

Conversations with Octavia Butler by Conseula Francis (2009)

God is Change

Religious Naturalism

Religion is Not about God: How Spiritual Traditions Nurture our Biological Nature and What to Expect When They Fail by Loyal Rue (2006)

Nature is Enough: Religious Naturalism and the Meaning of Life by Loyal Rue (2012)

Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon by Daniel C. Dennett (2006)

Religious Naturalism Today: The Rebirth of a Forgotten Alternative by Jerome A. Stone (2008)

The Thou of Nature: Religious Naturalism and Reverence for Sentient Life by Donald A. Crosby (2013)

More Than Discourse: Symbolic Expressions of Naturalistic Faith by Donald A. Crosby (2015)

The Sacred Depths of Nature by Ursula Goodenough (2000)

Everybody Is Wrong About God by James Lindsay (2015)

Evolution & Cosmology

“The Epic of Evolution and Earthseed’s Destiny” by John Halstead (2016)

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari (2015)

The Meaning of Human Existence by Edward O. Wilson (2015)

The Universe Story: From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era–A Celebration of the Unfolding of the Cosmos by Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry (1994)

Hymn of the Universe by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1969)

From Teilhard to Omega: Co-creating an Unfinished Universe by Ilia Delio (2014)

Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe by Robert Lanza and Bob Berman (2010)

Born With a Bang: The Universe Tells Our Cosmic Story: Book 1 (The Universe Series) by Jennifer Morgan (Author), Dana Lynne Andersen (Illustrator) (CHILDREN’S BOOK)

Pantheism & Process Theology

She Who Changes: Re-imagining the Divine in the World by Carol Christ (2004)

Dancing with the Sacred: Evolution, Ecology, and God by Karl Peters (2002)

PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion by Glenys Livingstone (2005)

On the Mystery: Discerning Divinity in Process by Catherine Keller (2008)

Reenchantment without Supernaturalism: A Process Philosophy of Religion by David Ray Griffin (2001)

Shape God

Ecology

Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work that Reconnects by Joanna Macy (2014)

The Voice of the Earth by Theodore Roszak (1992)

Person/Planet: The Creative Disintegration of Industrial Society by Theodore Roszak (1978)

Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth by James Lovelock (2016)

The Nature Principle: Reconnecting with Life in a Virtual Age by Richard Louv (2012)

Biophilia by Edward O. Wilson (1986)

The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems by Fritjof Capra (1997)

Economics

Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered by E. F. Schumacher (1973)

This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate by Naomi Klein (2014)

Agriculture/Permaculture

Sacred Seed by Global Peace Initiative of Women with an introduction by Dr. Vandana Shiva

The Soil Will Save Us: How Scientists, Farmers, and Foodies Are Healing the Soil to Save the Planet by Kristin Ohlson (2014)

Climate Change & Peak Oil Civilization

The Long Descent: A User’s Guide to the End of the Industrial Age by John Michael Greer (2008)

Collapsing Consciously: Transformative Truths for Turbulent Times by Carolyn Baker (2013)

The Five Stages of Collapse: Survivors’ Toolkit by Dmitry Orlov (2013)

Racial Justice

Strange Matings: Science Fiction, Feminism, African American Voices, and Octavia E. Butler, edited by Rebecca Holden and Nisi Shawl (2013)

Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva (2013)

America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America  by Jim Wallis (2016)

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander (2012)

Feminism 

Strange Matings: Science Fiction, Feminism, African American Voices, and Octavia E. Butler, edited by Rebecca Holden and Nisi Shawl (2013)

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2015)

Asking for It: The Alarming Rise of Rape Culture–and What We Can Do about It by Kate Harding (2015)

Politics 

“Earthseed for Anarchists” by Locusts & Wild Honey

Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by adrienne maree brown (2017)

“Change Is Divine: How Sci Fi Visionary Octavia Butler Influenced This Detroit Revolutionary” by Adrienne Maree Brown (June 18, 2014)

“Octavia Tried to Tell Us: Parable for Today’s Pandemic” with Monica A. Coleman and Tananarive Due (Webinar Series) 

Religion

God is Change: Religious Practices and Ideologies in the Works of Octavia Butler, edited by Nanda & Crosby (2021)

Invented Religions by Carole M. Cusack (2013)

The Destiny

Touching the Face of the Cosmos: On the Intersection of Space Travel and Religion, edited by Paul Levinson& Michael Waltemathe (2016)

Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space by Carl Sagan (1997)

The Uplift Saga by David Brin (FICTION)

“The Last Question” by Isaac Asimov (1956) FREE 

Interstellar (2014) (FILM)

The Science of Interstellar (2014) by Kip Thorne

“Escaping Earth: Human Spaceflight as Religion” by Roger Launius (2013)

Touching the Face of the Cosmos: On the Intersection of Space Travel and Religion by Paul Levinson (2015)

Fiction

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler (1993)

Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler (1998)

Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation by Damian Duffy (Adapter) & John Jennings (Illustrator) (2021) 

Dawn (1987) (part of the Xenogenesis Trilogy) by Octavia Butler

The Uplift Saga by David Brin

The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin (1972)

Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach (1974)

The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk (1994)

“The Last Question” by Isaac Asimov (1956) FREE   

Interstellar (2014) (FILM)

Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke (1987) FREE ON KINDLE