The Religious History of the Space Race

Last updated on: October 30, 2018 at 1:41 am by Chris Gehrz

The Religious History of the Space Race 2018-10-29T10:49:43-04:00 Chris Gehrz

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

One of my favorite things about sharing a blog with the fine people of this Bench is that they often share with each other recommendations for books, articles, documentaries, etc. It’s taken me several months, but I finally took David’s advice and started reading To Touch the Face of God: The Sacred, the Profane, and the American Space Program, 1957-1975. (Yes, yet another reference to John Gillespie Magee’s poem.) In that 2012 book, historian Kendrick Oliver seeks to address the two-sided neglect that historians of NASA and those of religion have for the implications of each other’s fields.

“Such neglect,” Oliver notes, “seems strange.” Scholars of religion assumed that it remained relevant “amid all the cool empirical instrumentalism that marked the condition of modernity. Where better, then, to test the issue than the space program?” After all, if the invention of airplanes could produce a “winged gospel,” isn’t it easy to imagine that having the potential to escape Earth and enter the heavens might inspire its own “techno-religion”? Oliver notes that at least one historian of technology thought so:

For David F. Noble, the development of new technologies has almost always expressed a hope of redemption, of recovering the dignity that man forfeited in the Fall. Spaceflight, specifically, conjured with the symbolic tradition that redemption and divinity were manifested in motions of ascent toward heaven. The point was proved, he thought, by the presence of committed Christians across the ranks of NASA employees. Whereas the secularization thesis anticipated a technocratic venture untouched by transcendent concerns, Noble took the view that transcendent concerns, in actual fact, had directed the program’s goals and continued to inspire its personnel. He was not inclined to celebrate the theme. More than any other technology, he judged, the machinery of spaceflight involved an explicit, and immoral, evasion of earthly priorities for the sake of chasing phantoms of the sacred beyond the sky.

In chasing their atheistic Soviet rivals to the stars, in other words, Americans were too heavenly-minded to be any earthly good.

Is that true? First, says Oliver, we need to consider that inquiring after the ways that the metaphysical motivated NASA astronauts and engineers — or shaped how they made meaning of their work — “is no simple historical procedure.” Public professions of faith by post-WWII Americans “may have been an act of social pragmatism rather than a marker of genuine commitment and belief.” Or such words might be easily misinterpreted, consisting of “secularizations of the sacred, not sacralizations of the secular.” (So “aesthetics of futurity intermingled with evocations of the medieval church,” as astronauts prepared for each “mission” in what one of them called the “monastic world of crew quarters.”)

But then, you can only grapple with problems of interpretation if you have historical evidence to interpret. What if astronauts like Neil Armstrong and the engineers and administrators behind them kept their faith to themselves? How do we interpret such silences?

As the wariness of skeptics who knew that “[f]or those who professed no faith in God, life in the 1950s palpitated with the threat of excommunication from this national church” of anti-Communist civil religion?
As the reserve of mainline Protestants who were accustomed to keeping faith private, and separate from work life?
Or as a recognition that it would be inappropriate for an initiative of the state to speak the language of the church, or that it would be “difficult to declare a more precise religious inspiration for American adventures in space without weakening their appeal to the large, non-Christian sectors of their principal market: international opinion.”

Drawing not just on public statements but diaries, letters, and other private papers from NASA archives (I’m reminded here of Will Inboden’s use of similar sources from early Cold War policy makers to recover the “soul of containment”), Oliver comes to a more complicated conclusion than Noble’s. I’m only a few chapters into the book, but what stands out right away is Oliver’s description of NASA as exemplifying “[n]ot secularism… but secularity”:

“At Cape Canaveral,” writes Oliver, “on the nights before a mission the rocket on the launch pad was bathed in white light, resembling a holy shrine”

The program was no bastion of secularism: elements of NASA’s institutional style and at least some of its activities spoke to an open concourse between place of worship and place of work. But the thesis that the program was conceived and brought to term in anticipation of a Christian millennium, enforced by analogous movements of ascent and promises of immortality, is not persuasive. Indeed, religious faith was rarely an inspiration for the project of spaceflight; it was salient mostly as a source of validation….

The space program, for all of the Christians in its midst, for all of its evocations of transcendence, was a product primarily of profane, sometimes prosaic, ambition…. It was mostly left to those outside the program, if they so wished, to reflect on the relation between exploration of the cosmos and cosmological tradition, to judge whether the space age would be friendly to faith.

To the frustration of observers like Norman Mailer, who couldn’t understand how so transcendent an ambition inspired such mundane reflection from its participants, NASA was filled with engineers. And their model was “not so much the monks of St. Benedict, conceiving their labor to be a prayer to God, but the Zen Buddhist with his quiet, careful reveries: the engineer, utterly absorbed in his machine and in the rational, ordered process by which he will make it work.” So Mercury astronaut Wally Schirra evaded questions about religion at a 1959 press conference: “I think I should like to dwell more on the faith in what we have called the machine age. All of us have faith in mechanical objects.” Even a practicing Presbyterian like Buzz Aldrin, who famously asked his pastor to provide him communion elements for the moon landing, had “elements of his personality that conformed more to common typologies of the engineer…. Aldrin immersed himself in the theoretical and technical content of his work and achieved a measure of genuine mastery.”

To the extent that Oliver’s subjects were religious, faith seemed to have little to do either with each man’s choice of career or “how, day to day, that man went about his work.” But that is not to say that Christianity was unimportant. On the contrary, many NASA employees and their families found church participation to be essential. Christianity did not necessarily give them motivation or meaning for their work, but it did provide the social cohesion and moral support of religious community.

Armstrong’s photograph of Aldrin on the surface of the Moon – NASA/public domain

And here’s where To Touch the Face of God helps me understand something about my own current project. For the young Charles Lindbergh, his history-making flight to Paris was primarily a test of planning, engineering, and his own skill and stamina as a pilot; at least at first, he left it to others to make larger meanings of the feat. And as Oliver notes, Lindbergh initially “maintained neither confidence in God nor an attachment to any church.”

Over time, he rethought half of that attitude. How he became, in Oliver’s words, “convinced of man’s need for spiritual values and a belief in God” is the primary purpose of my in-process spiritual biography. But it’s already struck me that, for all his spiritual questing, Lindbergh never felt the need for “an attachment to any church.” It’s not just that he shared many moderns’ distrust of organized religion. It’s that he doesn’t seem to have felt any great need to be committed to any voluntary community. He maintained many friendships and participated in many organizations, but he’s neither like Buzz Aldrin, whose “involvement with Webster Presbyterian presented him, perhaps with a rare chance for social integration,” nor the NASA families who were kept grounded and supported by their religious communities.

“It was in space, not in the suburban church, that technological man looked for his challenge,” concludes Oliver. “Success in meeting that challenge could not compensate fully for its costs—to family most of all. It was in the hope of mitigating these costs that, in Houston at least, technological man turned to the church.” That Lindbergh never made even that religious turn is something I need to investigate further.

Previous Post

October 29, 2018

Where Did All The Ethnics Go?

Next Post

October 31, 2018 Why Evangelical Christians Are Afraid of Halloween

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abolitionism Abortion Abraham Joshua Heschel Abraham Kuyper Abraham Lincoln Academia Activism Adam Renberg Advent Adventist africa African American Religion Agnes Howard Albert Camus American History American Religious History American Revolution American West Anabaptists Ancient History Andrea Turpin Andrei Tarkovsky Anglicanism Annales Ansley Lillian Quiros anti-Catholicism Antisemitism Anxious Bench apologetics Apparitions Arash Azizi Archaeology archives art Artificial Intelligence Asia Asian Americans Augustine Authors Bad Bunny Baptism Baptists Barack Obama Battle of Hastings Benjamin Franklin Bernard-Henri Levy Beth Allison Barr Beth Moore Bethany Mannon Bible Bill Cunningham Billy Graham Black Music Bob Dylan Body Boenhoffer Books Breastfeeding Bruce Springsteen C.S. Lewis Calvinism Cancel Culture Capitalism Carmelites Catholicism Cedric Robinson Cesar Chavez Charismaticism charity Charles Dickens Charles Lindbergh Che Guevara Chicago Children Chinese Christianity Chris Gehrz Christ Christian death Christian Higher Education Christian life Christian Nation Christian Nationalism Christianity Today Christmas Church life Church Practice cinema Civil Religion Civil Rights Movement Civil War civility Classics Climate Change Cold War Colonial Mexico colonialism Comer Communism community complementarianism Conference on Faith and History Congregationalism Conspiracies Conspiracy Conversion Narratives Coronavirus Costa Rica Council of Nicaea Covid-19 Creation Critical Race Theory Crusades Culture culture wars Daniel K. Williams David Barton David Swartz Death Ways death with dignity DEI democracy Democratic Party Devotion Digital Age Diplomacy discipleship diversity Donald Trump Drama Dua Lipa Early Church early modern Early modern Catholicism Easter Eastern Christianity economic exploitation Education elections Elie Wiesel Elizabeth II Elizabeth Taylor emotions Empire Engineering England enslavement Entertainment Episcopal Church Erica Ramirez eschatology Eurocentrism Evangelicalism Evangelicals Exegesis Family Feminism Film Flannery O'Connor folk music Food Foreign Policy founding fathers Franciscans Franciscus Junius fundamentalism Funerals G.K. Chesterton Gender Genocide genre geography George W. Bush George Washington George Whitefield Global Christianity Global church Grief Guadalupe guest post Guest Post gun control gun violence Gustavo Gutierrez Hamid Dabashi Harold John Ockenga Harvest Hate Hawaiian Christianity Healing health care Heather Cox Richardson Hell Heresy Hermeneutics Higher Education Hinduism Hippocratic oath Historical Fiction Historical Methodology Historical Profession Historical Profession Historical Theology Historical Thinking historiography Holidays Holocaust horror movies Human rights Humanitarian Work humanities Hummingbirds Hungary hymns Imago Dei Immigration Injustice Interviews Iran Islam Islamophobia Israel Ivan's Childhood Jacob Randolph James Bratt Janine Giordano Drake Japanese history Japanese Literature Jean Paul Sartre Jesse Miranda Jesus Jesus Christ Jimmy Carter Joan Baez Joan Didion Joanne Freeman João B. Chaves Joao Chaves Joey Cochran John Calvin John Fea John Tillotson John Turner Johnny Cash Jonathan Edwards Jonathan Tran Joseph Smith Josh Howerton Journalism Jr. Judaism Jürgen Moltmann Just War Justice Justin Brierley Karl Barth Katelyn Beaty koi ponds Kris Kristofferson Kristin Kobes Du Mez Latin American Religious History Latino Americans Lectio Divina Leisure Lent Leonard Cohen liberal arts liberalism Liberation Theology Linda Ronstadt Lisa Clark Diller Literature Lou Reed Lynchings Lynneth Miller Renberg Mainline Protestantism Malcolm Foley Marilyn Monroe Maritime history Mark Noll Marriage Martin Luther Martin Luther King Martyrdom Marxism Mary Masih Alinejad mass shootings material culture medieval Christianity Medieval Ethiopia Melissa Borja memory Mennonites Mental Health Mental Illness Methodism Mexican Americans Mexicans Mike Madrid Miles Mullin Min Jin Lee Miscarriage Missionaries Mister Rogers Mitt Romney modernity Monasticism Mormonism Motherhood Mothers of the Church Moving Music Musicals Nadya Williams Nahua Christianity Native Americans Natsume Sōseki New Contributor New England New Year New York Nico Non-Violent Protest Orthodoxy pacifism Paleo Evangelicals Palestinians Parenting Patti Smith Paul Kingsnorth Pedro Calderón de la Barca Pentecostalism Philip Jenkins Phillis Wheatley physician-assisted suicide pilgrimage Pilgrims pluralism Plutocracy Poetry Politics Pope Francis Pope Leo XIV post-modernism prayer preaching Presbyterians prosperity gospel Protest Public history Publishing Puritans purity culture Quakers race Race Massacres Racial Capitalism racial reconciliation racialization Racism Raha Bahloulipour Re-Enchantment reading Reformation Refugees religion and the university religion and war Religious Freedom Religious Nones Religious Pluralism Religious Symbols religious violence Republican Party Revival Rita Coolidge Ritual Roger Williams Roman Catholic church Royalty Russell Moore same-sex marriage Sarah Irving-Stonebraker Scandinavia Science Science and Technology Scopes trial Scriptural Interpretation secularism Selena Quintanilla seminary Seventh-Day Adventists sexual morality Sexuality Sikhs Silence slaveholders theology Slavery Slavoj Zizek social justice Social Media Southern Baptist Convention Southern Religion Spain Spiritual Autobiography Spiritual but not religious Spiritual Discipline Sports Stanley Hauerwas Suffering Summer Camps Sunday Night Odds and Ends Supernatural Supreme Court Syriac Christianity Tal Howard Taylor Swift Teaching Technology Television Thanksgiving The Beatles The Mission theater TheoBros Theology Thomas Dixon Thomas Jefferson Thomas Kidd Thomas Merton Tim Gloege Tim Walz Tom Holland Tourism tradition Tragedy Translation Transnationalism Travel Trump Ukraine Uncategorized Unitarians United Methodist Church US History Vanessa Chan Velvet Underground Verónica A. Gutiérrez Veronica Gutierrez Vikings Violence Virgin Mary Virtue Virtue ethics Visions Voting War WCTU Wendell Berry Westminster Assembly White Evangelicalism Wildfires Winnie the Pooh Witches women Women in Ministry Women's and Gender Studies Work Worship writing Yasunari Kawabata Zena Hitz

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

According to 2 Peter, what is the Lord not slow in keeping?

Select your answer to see how you score.

His promise His commandments His mercy His judgment