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Severance, Jesus, and the Soul: A Sci-Fi Thought Experiment

Severance, Jesus, and the Soul: A Sci-Fi Thought Experiment

Last updated on: February 24, 2025 at 11:29 am by James F. McGrath

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Severance, Jesus, and the Soul: A Sci-Fi Thought Experiment 2025-02-24T11:29:08-05:00 James F. McGrath

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Led To Severance By Jesus

I did not expect the latest episode of Severance to feature a character saying that he had been led to severance by Jesus. I have been watching Severance avidly since it first aired. Such an interesting concept, not unlike that explored by Daniel Dennett in his short story philosophical thought experiment “Where Am I?” I’m teaching a course on religion and the mind, and so the show also connects somewhat with that.

There had been speculation that the show was really a parable of what it is like to be in a religious cult. My own working hypothesis was that it was mostly about exploring grief and loss, with the severance technology exploring whether one could create a separate version of a person whose wife had been killed and have them be happy, not even aware of the fact, so much so that this separate instance of their person could meet the wife who is thought to be deceased and not even realize who she was. But as I said at the start of this post, I did not expect the latest episode of Severance to bring church, pastoral advice, and Jesus himself explicitly into the story.

There’s no way to summarize this that doesn’t assume the basic premise of the show, so if you haven’t been watching I apologize that this will be confusing. The show’s premise is that a technology has been developed that allows a person to be severed, keeping their work self completely separate from their self outside of work.

As In Christ

In episode 6 of season 2, Irving goes to the home of Burt (whom his innie, meaning his work self, developed a romantic attraction to at the company where they both work, Lumon). In the outside world, Burt’s outie is married to a man named Fields. At dinner, Burt reveals that it was Jesus who led him to Lumon, prompting Irving to ask “As in Christ?”

Apparently, Burt had been quite a scoundrel (you’d expect nothing less of a character played by Christopher Walken). Eventually, Fields asked Burt if he believed he was going to heaven, and although he pretended to think about it, he knew the answer was no. Fields didn’t want to go to heaven without Burt, and so dragged him to church. At that service at a Lutheran Church, the pastor addressed the new technology of severance and proposed that innies have souls and can be judged separately from outies. Burt getting severed was thus an attempt to ensure that some part of him would go to heaven with Fields, even if his outie might simultaneously be burning in hell.

Twins Create All Kinds of Problems

You just know that this question is going to make it into my Religion and Science Fiction class the next time I teach it!

The episode, together with the last couple, has been getting at the same question through other characters. If Dylan’s outie’s wife kisses his innie who doesn’t know her as his wife, is that infidelity? Innie Mark has as of this episode slept with both Helly R and her outie pretending to be her innie. (It reminded me of the Friends episode in which the guy who had been dating Ursula started dating Phoebe then slept with Ursula thinking she was Phoebe, them being identical twins.) A lot of discussion of individuality ignores how messy it is. Identical twins create all kinds of problems for the “life (or rather personhood) begins at conception” stance, as I have emphasized before.

At a more fundamental level, there is the question of how Mark’s innie’s relationship with Helly relates to the realization that his outie’s wife, presumed dead, is apparently alive and also working at Lumon. At dinner, Fields tells Burt and Irving that he had spoken with Pastor Gale about the subject and he truly believes that innies deserve to find love, and if Burt’s innie does so with Irving’s innie, that does not mean that outie Burt was unfaithful to him. You can see why this show is fascinating and a great basis for exploring and discussing serious topics.

Speculative Narratives

There are a lot of mysteries that are unresolved and unlike some viewers, I don’t necessarily need to know what exactly Lumon is doing with goats and with people wearing antlers and engaging with goats. For me, it is enough that the show is highlighting that “The You You Are” is not a unified singular essence but complex and multifaceted. The reason I love science fiction so much is precisely because it allows us to perform thought experiments about the practical and every day through speculative narratives.

There is a lot more to say, but let me encourage discussion from blog readers. Have you been watching Severance? Have its religious themes grabbed your attention before now? What did you think of the last episode?

If you haven’t seen it yet take a look at this video made using AI on how to tell if you are in a cult.

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About James F. McGrath

Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. BD University of London, PhD Durham University. Author of John's Apologetic Christology, The Only True God, Theology and Science Fiction, and The Burial of Jesus, as well as (with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) the two-volume Mandaean Book of John critical edition, translation, and commentary. Also author of numerous articles (and a few science fiction short stories) and the editor or co-editor of several volumes. You can read more about the author here.

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