Theo-fiction — why? Out of essential need? Is the idea of Theo-fiction a form of protection? But what exactly is it? Theo-fiction, or “Deo-fiction”? Is it something new, or not? Is only the term new? A sense of déjà vu? This text explains my own perception of Theo-fiction.

The name Theo-fiction came to me spontaneously, without any deliberate effort of thought. Deo-fiction, however, would have been more accurate, since it is entirely of Latin origin. I must admit that I did no research to determine whether this compound term already exists in any kind of writing.

Theo-fiction can either precede or follow the Sacred Game. These ideas are intimately connected. We can relate them to dreaming, because dreaming is human. It is human to want to celebrate one’s heroes, one’s guides, one’s daring spirits. It is from these initial impulses that Theo-fiction is born.

As with the Sacred Game, Theo-fiction lies within the reach of anyone endowed with a fertile imagination.

I am not a theologian. I am an artist who reflects on spiritual life. Religion was very important to me as a child, and it still stimulates my thinking today; it shapes me, informs me, and distorts me at the same time. It has led me both to act and to react in my creative work. It is like a kind of game between religious principles and my art—hence the expressions Sacred Game, spirituphile art, and Theo-fiction.

Let us imagine the world of creation as a region, or a country of the imagination—a world where one may create whatever one desires. In such places, there are three-dimensional images or models that inspire us. These are our experiences and our achievements. But... there are also henchmen, guards who come to harm us whenever we break the laws of those places. These represent problems of conscience arising from the accumulation of religious and social principles learned from childhood up to the present day. And yet there are artists who have broken through that wall of brigadiers. I shall naïvely name Madonna here.

Theo-fiction is also the distortion of legends or dreams once described around a fire, whether complex or simple, imagined by human beings in order to understand their existential questions from the beginning of humanity up to the present day. But it may also be as simple as science fiction describing divine worlds—their origins or their structures—without being conceived with the intention of applying them within a Sacred Game.

Theo-fiction may be conscious or unconscious. Conscious, in the sense that the divine structure is reflected upon, imagined, and proposed. One need only think of the various doctrines that have emerged in different countries. Theo-fiction may be unconscious if the originating idea arises from a subconscious need.

But is Theo-fiction indispensable?

There is Theo-fiction with a serious, even severe purpose, serving certain religious organizations. There is also amusing, even innocent Theo-fiction, such as my comic-book versions 1.0 and 2.0. And that is a fact! I allowed myself to be carried away by it. Like many others, I have created Theo-fiction (or Deo-fiction), but I have touched the Sacred Game only slightly, and only at the margins. To conclude... let us all be heroes, each at our own level, and if their descendants or contemporaries decide to create Theo-fiction... well, too bad for them, because they will be playing with other people’s consciences! What I forgot to mention... is that at home I have two crucifixes that remind me of my upbringing and mean a great deal to me. Now you may laugh!