View source for Religion in The X-Files

{{DISPLAYTITLE:Religion in ''The X-Files''}}
{{use mdy dates|date=August 2024}}
[[File:The X-Files classic logo.svg|300px|thumb|right|''[[The X-Files]]'' banner]]
''[[The X-Files]]'' is an American [[science fiction]] television series and a part of [[The X-Files franchise|''The X-Files'' franchise]], created by screenwriter [[Chris Carter (screenwriter)|Chris Carter]]. The program originally aired from {{start date|1993|9|10}} to {{end date|2002|5|19}}. The show was a hit for the [[Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox]] network, and its characters and slogans, such as "The Truth Is Out There," "Trust No One," and "I Want to Believe," became [[popular culture]] touchstones in the 1990s. The series followed the quest of [[FBI Special Agent]]s [[Fox Mulder]] ([[David Duchovny]]), a believer in [[supernatural]] phenomena, and [[Dana Scully]] ([[Gillian Anderson]]), his [[skeptic]]al partner. Several episodes, characters, and story arcs deal directly with the notion of religion.

A main facet of the series is that, despite Mulder being the believer and Scully being the skeptic, Scully was a devout [[Roman Catholic]]. Throughout the series, her Catholic faith served as a cornerstone, although at times a contradiction to her otherwise rigid skepticism of the paranormal. Due to her career in science and medicine, she drifted from her Catholic upbringing but remained somewhat entrenched in her religious beliefs. Several of the stand-alone episodes deal with Scully's faith, her questions about God, and her mission in life. Mulder, on the other hand, often cast organized religion in a more negative light, believing that many religious acts were caused by insanity.

==Religious themes==
The first overt occurrence of religion occurred in the fourth episode of the [[The X-Files (season 1)|first season]], "[[Conduit (The X-Files)|Conduit]]". At the end of the episode, Mulder sits in a church, crying as he looks at a picture of his sister.  [[Howard Gordon]], who wrote the episode, stated that the imagery did not mean to imply Christianity, but rather a symbol of "a sanctuary, a place for him to reestablish his helplessness and the missing of his sister".<ref name="EW excyclo1"/>

However, in "[[Beyond the Sea (The X-Files)|Beyond the Sea]]", the notion of religion and the afterlife was explored further, this time with Dana Scully. In the episodes prior to "Beyond the Sea", the protagonists of ''The X-Files'' are firmly established in the roles of believer (Mulder) and rational scientist/skeptic (Scully). "Beyond the Sea" is the first episode in which these roles are reversed.<ref name=Jagodzinski /> Scully, vulnerable after the death of her father, is persuaded by Boggs' apparent psychic ability.<ref name=Kowalski132 /> Meanwhile, Mulder refuses to believe the serial killer, discounts any evidence in Boggs' favor and will only consider rational explanations. According to Jan Delsara, Scully is inclined to believe Boggs because she identifies with him: they both understand the pressure of high family expectations. Scully strongly desired to make her father proud, despite not fulfilling his expectation that she become a doctor, and Boggs, in killing his family, had hoped to kill their expectations and judgment of him.<ref name=Delsara118 /> In contrast, Mulder's relationship with his parents, based on resentment of them for their failure to protect his sister (themes developed later in the series), makes him unwilling to identify with Boggs.<ref name=Delsara118 /> While Scully follows her instinct and solves the case, Mulder gets shot and ends up in the hospital because of his doubts and skepticism.<ref name=Malach /> According to Joe Bellon, as the episode progresses, even Scully's personality becomes like Mulder's and "for all narrative purposes, she becomes Mulder for almost an entire episode."<ref name=Bellon /> According to Dean A. Kowalski, this role reversal of the partners represents a "blending" of Mulder and Scully's characters that is present throughout the series.<ref name=Kowalski130 /> Scully's co-option of Mulders' usual role also demonstrates the complexity of her character. Although she is strongly influenced by her scientific background, she has religious faith too.<ref name=Peterson /> Paul C. Peterson notes that although this episode is not directly about religion, it shows the first of several visions Scully experiences throughout the series; later visions appear in episodes more directly related to religion and Scully's faith ("[[One Breath (X-Files Episode)|One Breath]]", "[[Elegy (The X-Files)|Elegy]]" and "[[All Souls (The X-Files)|All Souls]]").<ref name=Kowalski130 /><ref name=Peterson>{{harvp|Peterson|2002|p=184}}.</ref> In this episode, her faith in her father ultimately proves stronger than her belief in the paranormal as she refuses to be tempted by Boggs. Rather than take him up on his offer to help her contact her father, Scully visits her partner in the hospital.<ref name=Kubek181>{{harvp|Lavery|Hague|Cartwright|1996|pp=181–182}}.</ref>

As the series progressed, religion was explored further. The first-season episode "[[Miracle Man (The X-Files)|Miracle Man]]", for instance, featured a young boy who could raise the dead. Originally the script had called for more overt religious imagery, though censors at Fox objected to depictions of faith healer Samuel being beaten to death whilst in a cruciform pose, leading to scenes being cut.<ref name="prod2">{{harvp|Cantor|2003|p=228}}.</ref>

==Background==

Several episodes of the series have directly borrowed themes from novels focussing on religion—the [[The X-Files (season 3)|third season]] episode "[[Talitha Cumi (The X-Files)|Talitha Cumi]]" was influenced by "[[The Grand Inquisitor]]", a chapter in [[Fyodor Dostoyevsky]]'s novel ''[[The Brothers Karamazov]]'';<ref>{{harvp|Lowry|1996|p=18}}.</ref> while the [[The X-Files (season 7)|seventh season]] episode "[[The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati]]" drew inspiration from [[Nikos Kazantzakis]]' novel ''[[The Last Temptation of Christ (novel)|The Last Temptation of Christ]]''.<ref>{{harvp|Shapiro|2001|pp=28-29}}.</ref> Both episodes were written by [[David Duchovny]], and used Christ-like imagery in the series' overarching [[Mythology of The X-Files|mythology, or fictional history]]. In "The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati", [[Fox Mulder]] is likened to Kazantzakis' depiction of Christ, experiencing a vision of an idyllic life while suffering on a cruciform operating table.<ref>{{harvp|Shapiro|2001|pp=19-29}}.</ref> "Talitha Cumi" sees [[The Smoking Man]] and an alien healer replicate a conversation between Christ and the titular Grand Inquisitor of Dostoyevsky's work, debating humanity's need for true faith in God versus faith in what an authority figure has decided is best for mankind.<ref>{{harvp|Lowry|1996|pp=219–222}}.</ref>

==Reception==

The use of religious imagery in the series has been met with mixed reactions from critics. The first-season episode "[[Miracle Man (The X-Files)|Miracle Man]]" has been derided for its depiction of "a stereotypical Bible-thumping Southern milieu";<ref name="EW excyclo1">{{cite magazine |url=https://ew.com/article/1996/11/29/ultimate-episode-guide-season-i/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021202922/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,295174_4,00.html |url-status=live |archive-date=October 21, 2012 |title=X Cyclopedia: The Ultimate Episode Guide, Season 1 |magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]] |date=29 November 1996 |access-date=23 March 2012}}</ref> with its Christ-like central character treated in a "kind of goofy" manner.<ref name="AVC miracle man">{{cite web |url=https://www.avclub.com/the-x-files-young-at-heart-e-b-e-miracle-man-1798204623 |title=The X-Files: "Young at Heart" / "E.B.E." / "Miracle Man" |first1=Zack |last1=Handlen |website=[[The A.V. Club]] |publisher=Onion, Inc. |date=24 July 2008 |access-date=23 March 2012}}</ref>

Critical reception to the [[The X-Files (season 3)|third season]] episode "[[Revelations (The X-Files)|Revelations]]", which revealed Scully's religious devotion was more positively received. Zack Handlen from [[The A.V. Club]] wrote positively of Scully's portrayal in the episode, noting "Really, this works best as a Scully episode. I prefer [[Darin Morgan]]'s version of the character…, but I doubt that version could support a full episode about God in the same way that this more searching, and lost, Scully does."<ref name=avclub/> However, Handlen was critical of some of the religious aspects of the episode, writing that the Christian God exists "does make it difficult for me to back it as fully as I'd like to" because it would "trump just about everything else that Mulder and Scully have spent their time on."<ref name=avclub>{{cite web|url=https://www.avclub.com/the-x-files-731-revelations-war-of-the-coprophage-1798165544|first=Zack|last=Handlen|website=[[The A.V. Club]] |publisher=Onion, Inc. |title=The X-Files: "731"/"Revelations"/"War of the Coprophages" |date=25 July 2010|access-date=25 December 2011}}</ref> John Keegan from ''Critical Myth'' noted that "Overall, this episode highlights Scully and her faith, and in the process, manages to presage many of the future plot developments for the series and her character. The spiritual war at the foundation of the series mythology is reflected in a situation that speaks directly to Scully and her upbringing, and though some of the religious metaphors are heavy-handed, it works well enough."<ref name=myth>{{cite news | url=http://www.entil2001.com/series/x-files/reviews/season3/3-11.html | title=Revelations |last=Keegan|first=John | website=Critical Myth | access-date=21 May 2012 }}</ref>{{self-published inline|date=January 2018}} ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' gave the episode a B+ and wrote positively of the episode's "inventiveness," which "derives from its choice of the most mainstream paranormality of all—Christianity."<ref name="ew">{{cite magazine|url=https://ew.com/article/1996/11/29/ultimate-episode-guide-season-iii/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120302191912/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,295173_3,00.html|url-status=live|archive-date=March 2, 2012|title=X Cyclopedia: The Ultimate Episode Guide, Season 3|magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]]|date=29 November 1996|access-date=21 May 2012}}</ref>

== References ==
=== Footnotes ===
{{reflist|colwidth=30em|refs=
<ref name=Kowalski130>{{harvp|Kowalski|2007|p=130}}.</ref>
<ref name=Kowalski132>{{harvp|Kowalski|2007|p=132}}.</ref>
<ref name=Malach>Malach, Michele in {{harvp|Lavery|Hague|Cartwright|1996|p=72}}.</ref>
<ref name=Delsara118>{{harvp|Delsara|2000|pp=118–119}}.</ref>
<ref name=Jagodzinski>{{Citation  | last1 = Jagodzinski  | first1 = Jan  | last2 = Hipfl  | first2 = Brigitte  |url = https://www.researchgate.net/publication/251011640 |access-date = 2024-08-06| title = Youth Fantasies: Reading "The X-Files" Psychoanalytically  | journal = Studies in Media & Information Literacy Education  | volume = 1  | issue = 2  | pages = 1–14  | date = May 2001  | doi = 10.3138/sim.1.2.002 | postscript = . }}</ref>
<ref name=Bellon>{{harvp|Bellon|1999|p=151}}.</ref>
}}

=== Sources ===
{{Refbegin}}
*{{Citation
  | last = Badley
  | first = Linda
  | editor-last = Helford
  | editor-first = Elyce Rae
  | chapter = Scully Hits the Glass Ceiling: Postmodernism, Postfeminism, Posthumanism and ''The X-Files''
  | title = Fantasy Girls: Gender in the New Universe of Science Fiction and Fantasy Television
  | publisher = [[Rowman & Littlefield]]
  | location = Lanham
  | year = 2000
  | isbn = 978-0-8476-9834-9
  | postscript = .
  | url = https://archive.org/details/fantasygirls00elyc
  }}{{Pages needed|date=January 2018}}
*{{Citation
  | last = Bellon
  | first = Joe
  | title = The Strange Discourse of The X-Files: What it is, What it Does, and What is at Stake
  | journal = Critical Studies in Media Communication
  | volume = 16
  | issue = 2
  | pages = 136–154
  | year = 1999
  | doi = 10.1080/15295039909367083
  | postscript = .
  }}
*{{cite book | year=2003 | last=Cantor |first=Paul A. | title=Gilligan Unbound: Pop Culture in the Age of Globalization | publisher=Rowman & Littlefield | isbn=978-0-7425-0779-1 }}
*{{Citation
  | last1 = Cornell
  | first1 = Paul
  | last2 = Day
  | first2 = Martin
  | last3 = Topping
  | first3 = Keith
  | title = X-Treme Possibilities: A Paranoid Rummage Through the X-Files
  | publisher = [[Virgin Books]]
  | year = 1997
  | isbn =978-0-7535-0019-4
  | postscript = .
  }}{{Pages needed|date=January 2018}}
*{{Citation
  | last = Delsara
  | first = Jan
  | title = PopLit, PopCult and The X-Files: A Critical Exploration
  | publisher = [[McFarland & Company|McFarland]]
  | year = 2000
  | isbn = 978-0-7864-0789-7
  | postscript = .
  }}
*{{Citation
  | last = Edwards
  | first = Ted
  | title = X-Files Confidential: The Unauthorized X-Philes Compendium
  | publisher = [[Little, Brown and Company]]
  | year = 1997
  | isbn = 978-0-316-21808-5
  | postscript = .
  | url = https://archive.org/details/xfilesconfidenti00edwa_0
  }}{{Pages needed|date=January 2018}}
*{{Citation
  | last = Farrand
  | first = Phil
  | authorlink = Phil Farrand
  | title = The Nitpicker's Guide for X-Philes
  | publisher = [[Dell Publishing]]
  | year = 1997
  | isbn = 978-0-440-50808-3
  | postscript = .
  | url = https://archive.org/details/nitpickersguide000farr
  }}{{Pages needed|date=January 2018}}
*{{Citation
  | last = Kellner
  | first = Douglas
  | authorlink = Douglas Kellner
  | title = Media Spectacle
  | publisher = [[Routledge]]
  | year = 2003
  | isbn = 978-0-415-26828-8
  | postscript = .
  }}{{Pages needed|date=January 2018}}
*{{Citation
  | last = Kowalski
  | first = Dean A.
  | title = The Philosophy of The X-Files
  | publisher = [[University Press of Kentucky]]
  | year = 2007
  | isbn = 978-0-8131-2454-4
  | postscript = .
  }}
*{{Citation
  | editor1-last = Lavery
  | editor1-first = David
  | editor2-last = Hague
  | editor2-first = Angela
  | editor3-last = Cartwright
  | editor3-first = Marla
  | title = Deny All Knowledge: Reading The X-Files
  | publisher = [[Syracuse University Press]]
  | year = 1996
  | isbn = 978-0-8156-0407-5
  | postscript = .
  | url-access = registration
  | url = https://archive.org/details/denyallknowledge0000lave
  }}
*{{Citation
  | last = Lovece
  | first = Frank
  | authorlink = Frank Lovece
  | title = The X-Files Declassified: The Unauthorized Guide
  | publisher = [[Kensington Books|Citadel]]
  | year = 1996
  | isbn = 978-0-8065-1745-2
  | postscript = .
  | url = https://archive.org/details/xfilesdeclassifi00love
  }}{{Pages needed|date=January 2018}}
*{{Citation
  | last = Lowry
  | first = Brian
  | title = The Truth Is Out There: The Official Guide To The X-Files
  | publisher = [[HarperPrism]]
  | year = 1995
  | isbn = 978-0-06-105330-6
  | postscript = .
  }}{{Pages needed|date=January 2018}}
*{{Citation
  | last = Lowry
  | first = Brian
  | title = Trust No One: The Official Guide To The X-Files
  | publisher = HarperPrism
  | year = 1996
  | isbn = 978-0-06-105353-5
  | postscript = .
  | url-access = registration
  | url = https://archive.org/details/trustnooneoffici00lowr
  }}
*{{Citation
  | last = Mizejewski
  | first = Linda
  | title = Hardboiled & High Heeled: The Woman Detective in Popular Culture
  | publisher = [[Routledge]]
  | year = 2004
  | isbn = 978-0-415-96971-0
  | postscript = .
  }}{{Pages needed|date=January 2018}}
*{{Citation
  | last = Peterson  
  | first = Paul C.  
  | title = Religion in The X-Files  
  | journal = Journal of Media and Religion  
  | volume = 1  
  | issue = 3  
  | pages = 181–196  
  | date = 2002  
  | doi = 10.1207/S15328415JMR0103_4 
  | s2cid = 144350548 
  | postscript = .
  }}
*{{Citation
  | last = Shapiro
  | first = Marc
  | title = All Things: The Official Guide to the X-Files Volume 6
  | publisher = Harper Prism
  | year = 2001
  | isbn = 978-0-06-107611-4
  | postscript = .
  }}
*{{Citation
  | last = Westfahl
  | first = Gary
  | authorlink = Gary Westfahl
  | title = The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy
  | publisher = [[Greenwood Publishing Group]]
  | year = 2005
  | isbn = 978-0-313-32953-1
  | postscript = .
  }}{{Pages needed|date=January 2018}}
{{Refend}}

{{X-Files}}

[[Category:Religion in science fiction|X-Files, The]]
[[Category:The X-Files (franchise)]]