Of all the genres, science fiction and fantasy are the ones where humans can tackle their deepest societal problems and thought experiments. Because of this, it’s a natural place for people to explore ideas about religion, faith, and the meaning of life…
Religion can also be an emotional and contentious topic for people. For people who choose to leave a religious tradition, science and science fiction can become the home they didn’t find in a church or temple, and can also provide a way to critique the life they left. For others, the flexibility of the genre allows them to express their faith, or their questions about their faith, in deeper ways than any other medium would allow.
I thought it would be interesting to look at some examples of books and short stories that have tackled religious questions in respectful and positive ways. While these stories sometimes go to uncomfortable places, they each take faith seriously, and would be worthy additions to the TBR stacks of believers and non-believers alike.
Witches of Lychford and The Lost Child of Lychford by Paul Cornell
In Paul Cornell’s Witches of Lychford series, witches and religion coexist so peacefully that one of the titular witches is an Anglican vicar. Judith is an elderly witch, and she’s been keeping an eye on the town of Lychford her entire life. But when a big box grocery store threatens to open a gateway to a hellish dimension, she enlists two younger witches to help her. Autumn is a New Agey atheist who runs a magic shop, and her former best friend Lizzie is Lychford’s newly minted vicar—who is also suffering a crisis of faith and a terrible depression following the death of her partner. But both women were born with an inclination to witchery, as well. Once Judith baptizes them as witches, and teaches them how to see the spiritual elements around them, they can be practicing witches without disturbing their other spiritual practices.
The religion is handled as deftly as the magic:
She found the space in her head where she prayed and she did that and there was nothing there to answer, as there hadn’t been for a while now, but after a minute or so she was able—as always—to get up and begin her day.
Not only is Lizzie’s faith, and lack thereof, treated respectfully throughout this book, but also her role as a vicar becomes central to the plot in the sequel, The Lost Child of Lychford, where her Christmas obligations become entangled with her magical practice in a terrifying way.
Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson
Alif the Unseen takes a similar tack, including faithful Muslims and a respectful treatment of Islam alongside a more magical tale of a group of djinn. Alif’s long-gone father is Muslim, but his mother was Hindu, so he lives in the margins of his primarily Muslim city. He helps both pornographers and revolutionaries online, staying just ahead of state censors… most of the time. But when he’s given a mysterious text called the Alf Yeom—which is the “1001 Days,” an inversion of the 1001 Nights—he finds himself in a much larger battle with the apparatus behind the state, a battle that he’s only going to win with a little help from his djinn.
The novel features a range of approaches to Islam, including an imam who was also imprisoned by the state, who describes his faith:
I have had much experience with the unclean and uncivilized in the recent past. Shall I tell you what I discovered? I am not the state of my feet. I am not the dirt on my hands or the hygiene of my private parts. If I were these things, I would not have been at liberty to pray. . . . But I did pray, because I am not these things. . . . I am not even myself. I am a string of bones speaking the word God.
While the book’s plot is more concerned with Alif’s work as a hacker, the book returns to questions of religion repeatedly, to explore Islam as a faith and as an identity.
The Sparrow and Children of God by Mary Doria Russell
The Sparrow and Children of God caused a sensation when they first came out, and I remember reading both of them in a rush, completely taken with the way Mary Doria Russell took Emilio Sandoz’ religious faith as seriously as his linguistic studies. And I would still say this aspect of the book holds up—Emilio’s belief in God is fierce and unshakable, it just shifts from love and obedience, before Rakhat, to bitterness and resentment afterwards. Since he comes to believe that he and his friends have been used as tools, it forces him to look at the idea of “God having a plan” in a whole new way. That idea can be comforting, but when the God that you’ve dedicated your life to returns your love by treating you like a UPS package (not even the guy driving the truck—the package), it can kind of mess you up.
Both books look unflinchingly at Emilio’s feeling of betrayal, but they also explore the idea that the long game he’s caught up in more important than any of the people getting hurt. Russell is also careful to balance Emilio’s fervent beliefs with those of Sofia Medes, whose dedication to Judaism is treated just as respectfully as Emilio’s Catholicism. One of the highlights of the first book is their ongoing theological conversation, as she challenges him to explain his rituals and compares them to her own.
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller
When I mentioned Long Game a minute ago—A Canticle for Leibowitz unfolds slowly over several centuries. We begin in a dark, post-apocalyptic dystopia, about 600 years after a nuclear war has destroyed civilization. A tiny monastery has formed in the desert, with monks who live by the tattered remnants of Catholicism, but who have a new saint—Edward Isaac Leibowitz. Leibowitz was an engineer who converted to Catholicism after the “The Flame Deluge” and spent the rest of his life trying to preserve books in the face of the “Simplification”—a dark period when the Deluge’s survivors rejected science and learning of any kind for fear that it would lead to another war. Those of you who understand how sainthood works should realize that Leibowitz is long dead at the beginning of the book, and was actually martyred by a pro-Simplification mob.
Of all the books here, Canticle probably has the most uncomplicatedly positive view of religion—which is hilarious, because it’s an incredibly bleak book. (But also funny!) The Catholicism of the post-apocalypse is all that holds society together, preserving knowledge and culture much as European monasteries did after the collapse of the Roman Empire. And while the church itself is just as harsh as it was during the Middle Ages (and has just as problematic a relationship to women), this future version of the Church is also even more dedicated to science and the promotion of education than its pre-Deluge counterpart. It is also completely committed to the idea that the Church is the sum of its parts, and that it will outlast human folly.
Ten Billion Days and One Hundred Billion Nights by Ryu Mitsuse
Ryu Mitsuse’s Ten Billion Days and One Hundred Billion Nights is an interesting take on religion (though not always a positive one) and mashes up figures from several different faiths into one time-spanning adventure. Written in 1967, and then revised and republished in 1973, the book has recently come out from Haikasoru and found a Western audience. Plato spends ten billion days studying “the true systems of the world” while Jesus, Siddhartha, and the demigod Asura spend One Hundred Billion Nights traveling to the future to witness the heat death of the universe. Now, this is where things get more interesting: “Asura” is usually a catch-all term referring to a group of demigods or demons in Hinduism, but here they’re personified by a single young girl. Plus, Jesus is a cyborg assassin? And he and Asura are fighting over the fate of life in the universe? The book can be read as a conversation between Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism, with some Greek philosophy thrown in for good measure… or just as a picaresque that is by turns wacky and unsettling, as the characters hurtle toward the end of all life in the universe.
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light is set in the far future, where colonists from “vanished Urath,” or Earth, have set up shop on a planet full of understandably hostile indigenous people. In order to survive, they use their ships tech to mutate themselves and eventually to MacGyver a type of reincarnation by repeatedly transferring their souls into new bodies. They use this tech against the planet’s native population, setting themselves up as a pantheon of “Hindu” gods, and instituting an ironclad caste system. Obviously, they have to keep the tech out of the wrong hands in order to stay at the top of society… which is where Sam comes in. Originally named Mahasamatman, he prefers to go by just Sam, but before that he was Siddhartha. The Buddha. And now he’s decided to ally with the pantheon of the native people, reincarnate repeatedly, and generally go full trickster god to make sure everyone has access to technology, and end the tyranny of the caste system once and for all.
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
The Goblin Emperor was one of my favorite books of 2014. The main character, Maia, is a sweet, loving, but painfully shy young man who has grown up in exile as the fourth, unwanted half-goblin son of a powerful Elven emperor. When his father and three elder brothers die in an accident, Maia has to ascend to the throne, despite his lack of training or support. Maia has to fight his court on many fronts to prove his fitness to rule, but one of the most interesting challenges is religious. Officially, the Elven court worships several gods and goddesses, has regular religious services, and holds formal weddings, coronations, and funerals that all involve religious elements. They also employ people known as Witnesses for the Dead, who commune with those who have died by accident or foul play in order to determine justice. However, this religiosity seems to be mere lip service for most of the court, and there are references to fashionable skepticism when it comes to the gods. Maia, who spent the first few years of his life with his loving, mystically-minded mother, has a very different approach to faith. Not only does he sincerely believe in the goddesses he worships, but he also associates his beliefs with the only happy time in his life.
Plus, if he’s going to follow his religion properly, he needs to meditate, which requires solitude…which is the one thing, as Emperor, he’ll never have again. He has to find ways to assert his right to his religion, while also making sure his secular courtiers don’t think he’s a fanatic. This plotline is submerged fairly deeply in the novel, but hinted at throughout, and gradually becomes more important as Maia finds his footing as a ruler. Addison handles it delicately, showing the reader how Maia expresses his faith through his actions rather than trying to explain theological rules.
The Time Quintet by Madeleine L’Engle
Madeleine L’Engle, like C.S. Lewis before her, wrote children’s sci-fi and fantasy, adult books, nonfiction, and Christian commentary. She wove religious themes into many of her books, but they’re particularly strong in her Time Quintet. A Wrinkle in Time is fairly notorious for its use of religious imagery. (I still remember when we studied AWiT in 7th grade, when we hit the chapter where centaurs sing about God, my teacher smiled at us and said, “And in this chapter, there are some religious themes that we are not going to talk about!” and hurried us on to Camazotz.) AWiT seems to be a straightforward sci-fi story when L’Engle takes a hard turn into religious territory, as Mrs. Who quotes the opening of the Gospel of John, and Charles Wallace responds by yelling out that Jesus is fighting the Black Thing. However, L’Engle keeps the story from becoming a pure vehicle for proselytizing when the three children name other historical figures who have fought, including Euclid, Copernicus, Bach, Gandhi, and the Buddha. This does two things: For a secular reader, they’ve just realized that they’re reading a story that has a spiritual element to it, but they’ve been reassured that they’re not going to be hit over the head with Gospel allegories. At the same time, a Christian reader might be offended to have Jesus show up simply as part of a list of great Earthlings. By introducing the religious aspect of the fight this way, L’Engle is marking her book as a liberal Christian story, that invokes Jesus and New Testament quotes, but also leaves room for other religions and science to be important elements in the human fight against hatred. This has led to the book being challenged and banned for either being too religious or not religious enough.
The rest of the Time Quintet continues this tap dance, as the children meet Cherubim, learn to love people they consider enemies, and discuss the value of sacrifice in A Wind in the Door; deal with an irascible angelic unicorn and cancel the apocalypse in A Swiftly Tilting Planet (whose title, by the way, is a line from a popular Celtic Catholic prayer called St. Patrick’s Breastplate); and literally help Noah build the ark in Many Waters. Then St. Patrick’s Breastplate is revisited a generation later, as Meg Murry’s daughter Polly recites it when she’s nearly sacrificed by ancient Celts after she accidentally goes back in time during a walk in the woods… look, it makes sense in context. The religion presented in the books is based in compassion and love, but doesn’t get too bogged down in denominations—the constant refrain is simply that the universe is much bigger than any of the individual character, and that everyone deserves space and respect, and that maybe your own narrow view of the world isn’t the only one.
“The Star” and “The Nine Billion Names of God” by Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur Clarke’s short story “The Star” is more in line with The Sparrow: A priest is coming home from a mission to the far reaches of the solar system. He and his fellow astronauts find the remains of a great civilization, that knew it was going to be wiped out in a cosmic event, and had enough time to preserve their culture and art in a massive archive. Without spoiling the story, what they find there rattles the priest’s faith in a particularly interesting way. The sudden shock of realizing that just because you believe there’s some sort of plan to the unfolding of the universe, doesn’t mean you’ll ever understand that plan. It doesn’t mean that the plan is “fair” according to your own narrow, mortal definition of that word. Likewise, “The Nine Billion Names of God” puts a pair of computer technicians in conflict with a group of Tibetan monks who are using a new computer to calculate the titular names of God, believing that this will cause the universe to reach it apex. Unfortunately (from a human point of view), that will also mean that the universe will reach its end…
“The Man” and “The Fire Balloons” in The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury took a similar tack in several stories in his classic collection, The Illustrated Man, but tackled question of religion from two different directions. Both focused on Christianity. In “The Man,” a pair of interstellar explorers named Hart and Martin come to a planet where the entire population seems to be ecstatically happy; and when the suspicious captain questions the people, he learns that a holy man has visited the planet and brought peace to everyone. “He didn’t have a name. He didn’t need a name. It’d be different on every planet, sir,” Martin tells Captain Hart. (Spoiler alert, it’s Jesus, he’s been planet-hopping for the last few thousand years, and he’s finally found one where people don’t murder him for suggesting we should all be nice to each other.) The captain has a psychotic break over this information, first insisting that the townspeople’s happiness is a scam, then becoming obsessed with finding “The Man” for himself. He takes the ship and flies off, planning to chase The Man down to the ends of the universe. Martin chooses to stay and find peace with the townspeople, and is promptly rewarded with the news that The Man is still on the planet. The story seems to be poking at the idea the some people will always see happiness as an impossibility or a deception.
The other story that touches on religion (in what I think is a more interesting way) is “The Fire Balloons.” A pair of Episcopal priests, Father Peregrine and Father Stone, travel to Mars as missionaries. The priests discover a race of sentient balls of light, the titular fire balloons, and decide to build a temple for them. First they’re unsure of the creatures’ sentience, but once they accept it, they become concerned that the Fire Balloons won’t be able to accept their message. They even make a blue metal sphere in place of a cross, to try to give the Balloons their own representation of God. Peregrine especially obsesses over whether they can be saved—and of course, if they can’t, that means that God created a race of beings that are beyond the reach of their message. Much like The Sparrow, this is simply the historical missionary story transferred to space—the missionaries believe they have the truth, and fear for the souls of those they meet. Like with most missionary stories, it looks like this is going to lead to some sort of terrible violence and tragedy, but, since this is a Ray Bradbury story, it goes in a more interesting direction. The priests finally realize that non-corporeal creatures can’t really commit sin—that they are beyond god and evil, essentially—and that maybe they have more to learn from the Balloons than vice versa. The story ends with the men realizing that the universe is far more complicated and interesting than they suspected.
What do you think? Have I’m sure I’ve missed stories that critique or celebrate religion in interesting ways, so be sure to tell me about them in the comments!
Leah Schnelbach still wishes she was a character in a Madeleine L’Engle novel. Come philosophize and theologize with her on Twitter!
Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion feature two main characters that are Catholic priests and another whose Judaism is an integral part of his internal and external struggles.
The first novel itself borrows from the structure of the Canterbury Tales and focuses on suffering and the human response to it. Very religion-positive in my read.
Nice list! An oldie but a goodie is James Blish: A Case of Conscience
Note: link fixed by moderator.
Max Gladstone’s Craft Sequence deserves to be in here: the struggle between the Craft and the religions it seeks to overthrow is a metaphor for modern capitalism, except when it isn’t, and sometimes both at the same time.
Also, Lois Bujold’s Five Gods books, which depict a theologically coherent polytheistic world that keeps the direct divine interventions to a reasonable minimum.
A superb list, thank you. Lord of Light in particular is a perennial favourite … however, I fail to see the positive take on religion in this book. The Hindu pantheon have become tyrannical overlords who treat their offspring from many bodies as servants and toys. Even Sam insists his religious postures are tools against his former colleagues rather than anything he espouses personally, let alone believes in.
Very nearly everything written by Gene Wolfe. This is very widely recognized, and written about by critics including Joan Gordon, John Clute, and myself.
I’d also note about Mary Doria Russell and Miller, Jr., that the Catholicism they present as enduring into the future is, at least liturgically, the Church before the Second Vatican Council. It’s never addressed whether the experiment with the form of the Mass and other liturgies in the vernacular (English or Spanish for most U.S. Catholics) failed and was subsequently ignored or never happened at all, an alternate timeline. Yes, one can find hints in the biographies of the authors, but it’s far more interesting as a deliberate ambiguity in the novels. Within English-speaking Catholic circles, there’s certainly been speculation that the earlier liturgies (in Latin, much more formal, much greater use of the Psalms and Old Testament, etc.) that formed writers like Graham Greene & Tolkien was far more powerful in forming a Christian imagination than the liturgy most Catholics have had access to for the last few decades.
My point is that the choice by the 2 authors she mentions to ignore the liturgical changes of the last few decades *MAY* also be commentary on liturgy as a powerful force on imagination.
True story: we did a Christmas play at church one year that talked about the universe singing songs of praise, and I thought “Did you read A Wind in the Door?” To this day I love the imagery that book uses to describe creation’s relationship with the Creator. A Swiftly Tilting Planet is also the best book you can read if (like myself) you hold to an Arminian view of theology: choices, it’s all about the little choices we make every day.
I also loved A Canticle for St. Leibowitz and highly recommend it. Agreed: it’s bleak in places, but then again, if you believe in the preservation of the saints, it’s not so bleak after all.
I’d also recommend a newer book: The Shock of the Night by Patrick W. Carr, first in the Darkwater Saga. I didn’t care much for his earlier series, but this one is amazing. He created a fully imagined semimedivial world with not one, not two, but four different creeds that all have to bump against and work with each other in this kingdom. The protagonist’s faith is not only tested by the politics he has to untangle (he’s the king’s Reeve, or lead investigator) and the magical undercurrents he pushes against, but also his lingering trauma as the only surviving veteran of his unit in a previous war. He’s also sarcastic as all get out. I just picked up the recently released second book today and can’t wait to dive in.
I really enjoyed C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy when I read it. He even throws in some shout-outs to fantasy in the third book, “That Hideous Strength”.
A lot to say about this one.
First, suggestions.
If you are at all interested in narratives dealing with the confluence of science fiction and religion, the number one book you should pick up (that is not on this list) is Hugo finalist Eifelheim by Michael Flynn. Ignore the frame story if you need to and dive into the insectoid aliens incorporating themselves into a small European community during the Black Death. Come for the jet packs and the alien culture, stay for the thoughtful approach of the aliens to prayer, communion, and Christianity, which many of them eventually adopt. So good, this book.
Dan Simmons’ Hyperion Cantos, especially the latter two books, Endymion and The Rise of Endymion chronicle the rise of a young female Messiah and the militant Catholic Space Empire trying to take her down. All the interplanetary action you could ever want.
Ted Chiang’s Nebula Award winning “Tower of Babylon” in Stories of Your Life and Others is a brilliant tale of men going to extremes to seek God. When one of them doesn’t find what he expects, he reacts in a beautiful and positive way. Chiang’s “Hell is the Absence of God” points out that even if we were assured that miracles were acts of God, the how and why would still be totally beyond our grasp.
For alternate history ideas, gotta go with The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon. A comical noir about a dead Messiah in Jewish Alaska. Weirdly it also contains passages that inform my Christian faith.
So here’s part two.
I don’t mention my faith on the internet because it is hard to explain to people that your are a Christian and also not a dick.
“a liberal Christian… that invokes Jesus and New Testament quotes, but also leaves room for other religions and science to be important elements in the human fight against hatred.”
“…based in compassion and love, but doesn’t get too bogged down in denominations—the constant refrain is simply that the universe is much bigger than any of the individual character, and that everyone deserves space and respect, and that maybe your own narrow view of the world isn’t the only one.”
I appreciate you summing up my inner life.
I would have to recommend C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy. Some may feel its a little heavy handed when it comes to its theological leanings. However its a really well told story. The third book in the series has a resident skeptic, Mr. MacPhee (no relation to Nanny) that is allied with the believers and offers a naturalistic view of the supernatural occurrences that are taking place around them. Another great recommendation would be the Book of Strange New Things by Michael Faber. Its about a pastor who goes on a journey to another planet to be a missionary to a race of aliens. He leaves behind his wife on earth. The story deftly weaves around themes of isolation, fear, doubt, unbelief, communication. Very well told story.
The Book of Strange New Things, by Michel Faber. Again a missionary on another planet, but it’s as much about the difficulty of communications within human society as with other species (who may have completely different religious ‘needs’).
The Chaplain’s War by Brad Torgersen
Dresden Files does it very well. I remember watching some panel (on YouTube, I haven’t managed to see him in person) where Jim Butcher said he had beenapproached by both a Catholic and a Wiccan Priest at the same event (separately) and thanked for how he portrayed their faith.
Tony Boucher wrote the classic “The Quest for Saint Aquin” (the title does give things away a bit).
Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett. A brilliant work of satire, and one which presented a nuanced view of faith, instead of the stereotypical Only Fundamentalists are Religious view.
‘You can die for your country or your people or your family, but for a god you should live fully and busily, every day of a long life.’
Now, I could be opening Pandora’s box with this comment, since the religious views of the author and his overt anti-LGBT activism have been topic of extended, often unpleasant, discussions even on this blog – but I always found that books 2-3-4 of the Ender’s Series (Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide and Children of the Mind) have very interesting perspectives on these issues, especially considering the author’s own beliefs.
From one side, the exploration of Ender’s own “career” as a Speaker for the Deads and the development of the “Speaker” figure into a very influential “cult”, raises the issue of how much of a religion internal mythology really depends on its “creator” original intentions. On the other hand, a significant part of the story centers around the problem of the Catholic faith on Lusitania and its spreading to the Pequeninos – and I personally think that no point of view is ever trivialized or left unexplored, probably thanks to the varied array of characters that we are introduced to (the Pequeninos themselves, Quim, Ender, Novina, The Filos the la Mente, etc).
Finally, there is the provocative exploration of the Word of Path and its Gods (are they real or an intricate corporate construct?) and the intertwined issues of self-awareness, soul, human rights and AI (is Jane alive? Is she a God? does humanity have the right to “kill” her?).
Reading these books was incredibly provocative for me! I feel that all the topics exploited by the story are treated with criticism and deepness, and I find the arguments they present rich and never trivial for both the believers’ and non believers’ “side”.
ps. Thanks for the article and for all the recommendations in the comments! My reading list has suddenly become way bigger!
Dick story Faith of our fathers importantissimo
I have no new material to add. However, I do have a different take to the meaning behind Bradbury’s story “The Man” or at least a different interpretation of the reading. I am a Catholic…in fact, I’m VERY Catholic. My interpretation is the way Catholics view the Eucharist. We do believe that the Eucharist, IS the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, God the Son and Son of God. On the Feast of Corpus Christi, my priest explained it thus. When we digest any food, the food goes through our digestive tracts and pulls out vitamins, minerals, calories, and all the nutritional stuff which powers our bodies and in fact those things become part of our bodies. Hence, the Eucharist becomes part of our Bodies as well. Hence, we become Christ. This is the reason why, during the Holy Thursday Mass, the Gospel proclaimed is not from the Synoptic Gospels of the retelling of Jesus Transubstantiating the Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood, but the Gospel Proclaimed is from the Holy Gospel According to St. John, Jesus Washing the Feet of His Disciples, which is to show how we are to become Christ to one another. Therefore, if this planet had uniformly accepted Christ and had realized that they are to become Like Him, then Christ (though Jesus left the planet and went somewhere else) also physically remained because the People were Him. Also He may have left the Catholic Ritual of the Transubstantiation behind, so if there is a Transubstantiated Host anywhere on that planet, He is Truly there.
Also I think it’s very cool to have posted this article today on All Saints Day which is the day Catholics venerate those Saints who the Church hasn’t officially canonized yet but are still saints by virtue of them simply achieving heaven. Nice spiritual cleansing after the darkness of Halloween.
Something about the book American Gods by Neil Gaiman (maybe if’s the title) makes me think it belongs on this list. It certainly covers many of the multitudes of faiths that came to America over thousands of years. And certainly the idea that the faith of the believers giving gods their strength is an intriguing concept.
Religion is still just superstition and wishful thinking, no matter what slant is put on it. There is no hereafter, there is only here and now. The best stories of religion in SF and F are those where we learn to put it behind us and accept our humanity and work out how to use technology to benefit people while they are alive and without recourse to any goblins and fairies.
For that reason, the best handling of religion in SF&F goes to Red Dwarf’s S1 episode “Waiting for God”. Lister discovers that, during his three million years in stasis that the cat people who evolved in the ship’s hold from his pet cat took to worshipping him as a God. This makes him very uncomfortable, because although he might be technically responsible for the creation of their race, he knows he is a slobby scouser and not deity material. Although at the end he does meet a dying, blind cat priest and affirms the elderly man’s faith as he dies, in the end Lister is disgusted at what he has done, knowing it was a betrayal of reality in the name of comfort.
Small Gods indeed.
There is certainly no shortage of novels where a distorted or exaggerated view of religion is what motivates the antagonist or establishes the dystopia — so many in fact that I refuse to read anything where religious conservatives are the bad guys on the grounds that the writer is (a) lazy and (b) pandering to (who they this is) their audience and not caring about alienating a significant share of it.
So this list is a welcome change.
Cordwainer Smith’s science-fiction contains numerous references to religious themes, in particular what he calls ‘the Old Strong Religion’ (i.e. Christianity). It’s heavily nuanced though: the virtuous characters in his stories (which deal heavily with moral conduct) include both Christian and non-Christian characters, and in the story “Down to a Sunless Sea”, the birdman E’Duard explicitly argues for the existence of a moral code that predates and subsumes Christian morality:
Smith also seems to prefer a personal relationship with God to organized religion: “We don’t need a church for this, though I suppose there are still churches on some planets. What we need is a place to find ourselves, and be ourselves …” says another character in his novel “Quest of the Three Worlds”.
I was never really taken with the “No Body = No Sin” thinking of The Fire Balloons. Problems being
a) What Counts As A Body Anyway? To have a mind at all is to have some sort of brain, whether carbon-based colloid or silicon circuit or organized plasma or whattheheck, and any sort of brain is part of some sort of body…
b) Loss of “bodily wants” seems as likely to bring apathy and indifference as compassion. Hard to empathize with pain and hunger when you’ve forgotten what they are.
c) Francis. Seriously, I think the trope of “exalted energy beings” comes from taking the symbolism of light too literally. Plasmoids can be bigots too.
Good Omens – Gaiman and Pratchett
An angel and a devil really dig their lives and try to stop the apocalypse. One of three books that I laughed out loud while reading. Brilliant!
Another book with a strong, respectful view of faith in action is Abaddon’s Gate. One of the characters is a minister who has been sent as part of a U.N. expedition to study the gate built by the protomolecule. Originally, she’s there to take part in a dialogue about what the protomolecule and the gate mean for humanity’s religion. But at the request of crew mates, she begins offering services and sacraments to those who want it.
I kind of liked the scientific/mathematical monastery vibe in Neal Stephenson’s Anathem. The trappings and traditions we usually associated with religion tied instead to science, but a science so far out that it actually opens the door for events beyond the bounds of what we consider possible.
@9 – I was going to mention Eifelheim :D
Also: “I don’t mention my faith on the internet because it is hard to explain to people that your are a Christian and also not a dick.” – pretty much this. I mean, I guess that’s a lie, I do mention it sometimes (I am guessing people who are regulars here are aware that I am Catholic, especially if they commit the theological faux pas of mis-identifying whose conception is actually Immaculate…(hint: not Jesus)) but I try not to make it a huge deal (even if it is for me). It’s hard to talk about such things on the internet. Not here, specifically; in general people here are pretty civil. But even though there are times I am kind of dying to dig into a meaty theme and theology/ethics/etc…I hold back sometimes (sometimes I fail, ha). In truth there are probably other venues more appropriate since it can be kind of a narrow interest and I’d probably be the only one who was interested in having that discussion.
But hey, since this post is specifically about religion, fair game I suppose :D
I read The Sparrow in a class I took about the history of Christianity (kind of an odd choice as the class was primarily academic in nature, but I think it was just meant to be about getting the perspective of a religious person). I read the sequel too – but I don’t remember what my impressions were on it, and I definitely don’t remember anything having to do with Vatican II one way or the other (I was younger and a lot less knowledgeable it then).
I’ve always appreciated Sanderson’s work on the topic – even if from a meta view we know what’s going on with the various religions, I appreciate that the various characters themselves are struggling with doubts, rigidity, compromise, at times anger/resentment, etc. I like it when religious characters are portrayed as actually being religious – in that their faith is actually something that is realistically driving their actions and thoughts (and not just set dressing)- but not fanatical, extreme, ignorant, hypocritical, faking the whole thing for power, or on the other side of the coin exceptionally pious (in other words, not some monk/priest/etc as the stock ‘religious character’) – just a normal person who is religious and trying to live that out.
The other author that comes to my mind, interestingly, is Juliet Marillier, who writes fairy tale/alternate history retellings that take place more or less in ancient Ireland, Wales, Iceland, etc when Christianity is still very new. In her books the various pagan faiths have real magic behind them and so there is often a lot of ‘culture clash’…and it would be easy to kind of fall into a trope of ‘good, englightened, egalatarian pagans’ and ‘evil, sexist, fascist Christians’ but she manages to present a pretty balanced (in my view) view of it – some of the pagan characters are assholes, and some of the Christian characters are honorable, and actually, one of her books has an ending twist that actually involved one of the characters converting (and that having a positive impact on his life) that nearly had me dropping the book in shock. I don’t know if I’d say the same thing now, but I remember feeling it was actually one of the better portrayals of the faith in a book I’d read in a long time.
Also: Tolkien :) Honestly, the way he really gets at the deep meanings of things – without really going into religion at all – is something that still moves me and that I still find new things in each time I re-read it.
After reading some of the comments (I opened the comment box and then got distracted for a few hours):
-If I had an issue with the Fire Balloons No Body/No Sin thing (in terms of it conflicting with my own faith) it would more be that the ideal apparently is a non-material state of being, where as in Catholicism the body is in fact an important parts of our being, just like the soul is, and we don’t believe that ‘enlightenment’/heaven/salvation results in shedding the body, but rather a perfect integration of body and soul. (In other words, saints are not equal to angels). New heaven and new earth and glorified bodies and all that ;) I might be misinterpreting the story here, since I’m going from the synopsis – I haven’t read it.
@18 – I also love All Saints Day, but I’m not sure what you mean about needing cleansing after the ‘darkness of Halloween’ since, depending on how you look at it, it’s either part of All Saints Day itself (since the eve of a feast is usually part of it) or a secular affair that celebrates fall and candy.
I’m not denying the pagan roots of the holiday, or rather the fact that othe cultures/religions have celebrated similar types of feasts at the same time of year, but since I’m not participating in that, I don’t think I need spiritual cleansing for taking my kids trick or treating dressed as Star Wars characters. And to me that just mostly speaks to some universal human yearning for/recognition of meaning in the turning of the seasons, etc. And we could probably all argue until we’re blue in the face over what that meaning is ;) And I think even if a person isn’t religious in any sense, we still have a desire to mark the turning of seasons/milestones or just have an excuse to do something fun as the days get shorter, celebrate being with family, etc. But I actually find the various mixed origins of the traditions surrounding holidays like Halloween, Christmas, Easter, etc very interesting.
The best discussions of faith I can think of offhand have come from Guy Gavriel Kay, particularly in The Lions of Al-Rassan and the Sarantine Mosaic. By abstracting Christianity/Judaism/Islam off into worship of the Sun/Moon/Stars, you can really get a feel for the various schisms and philosophies without the baggage that we ordinarily attach.
Jad as a man vs Jad as a concept was very well done too.
Picaresque. Such a great word.
Thank you Alan for Anathem. I was shocked it didn’t come up until comment 26. Bujold’s five gods – heck yes. Mistborn series and Sazed, with him trying to find the perfect religion for each person.
Julian May’s Galactic Milieu series is fascinating in its portrayal of the relationship between science, faith, and religion. Highly recommended. (Also, she apparently co-authored a Catholic catechism, but for the life of me I can’t find the name of it!
That’s as may be, but it’s much better known as part of Conrad Aiken’s great poem, “Morning Song of Senlin.” This is the first verse:
It is morning, Senlin says, and in the morning
When the light drips through the shutters like the dew,
I arise, I face the sunrise,
And do the things my fathers learned to do.
Stars in the purple dusk above the rooftops
Pale in a saffron mist and seem to die,
And I myself on a swiftly tilting planet
Stand before a glass and tie my tie.
http://www.poetry-archive.com/a/morning_song_of_senlin.html
I did wonder why Dune wasn’t mentioned, but then I suspect the portrayals of religion in Dune had been discussed well into their nth ghola re-incarnation through the axolotl tanks …
Would it be beating my own drum – hand-drum, what’s more, and tabla if you’re really inquisitive – to point people to a little something I myself have written? It’s a reaction to CS Lewis, who was a reaction to HG Wells, who was a reaction to …
The Sacrament of the Sharing of Prey
h t t p://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/10063/20040601-0000/www.antisf.com/stories/story05.htm
@6: It’s hardly fair to say that Walter Miller “ignored” Vatican 2. The Second Vatican Council occurred two years after publication of A Canticle for Leibowitz, and iirc Miller actually wrote it quite a few years earlier.
I think the fantasy pantheon I most respect is from Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel series, where each god represents a different way to love, and the people worship whichever god reflects their personal preferences. A whole lot of shades of Aphrodite.
Robert J. Sawyer’s Calculating God is excellent.
Lord of Light looks at religion from several angles. There’s the purely secular view of Buddhism that sees it as an effort to reform Hinduism and counter the rigidity of the caste system. This is how Sam first describes it. Yet Sam respects a character who truly believes and who Sam says became the Buddha. It’s left open to question whether Sam does or doesn’t become what he’s pretending to be–a good case could be made either way.
It’s been a while, but I thought the planet’s human population were descendants of an original colony group. The native population were the “demons,” a race who had chosen disembodiment as a means to achieve enlightenment without being ready for it and had become immortal creatures who craved the physical experiences they could only have through possessing humans. Sam, on the other hand, when is changed this way, later has to force himself to adapt to a physical existence instead of going back to that state.
@29 – yes, I love Guy Gavriel Kay :) Those are among my favorite books.
Three comments: (1) The Christian faith of Father Roche in Connie Willis’s Doomsday Book is positively portrayed, and his belief that Kivrin is a saint/messenger from God may be seen as well grounded.
(2) There are a bunch of science fiction books, most written by Friends, which feature Quaker groups prominently and have a generally positive view of Quakerism: Molly Glass’s The Dazzle of Day, David Morse’s The Iron Bridge, Nancy Kress’s Crossfire, Judith Moffett’s Pennterra, and several by Joan Slonszewski: The Wall around Eden, Still Forms on Foxfield, and the Sharers’ pacifist religio-philosophy in A Door into Ocean is Quaker-influenced.
(3) Since you mention L’Engle’s children’s books, I will mention several SFF books for children/teens: Jane Langton’s The Astonishing Stereoscope, in which the titular magical object transports the kids through time to give them a sort of abridged history of religion; Annette Curtis Klause’s Alien Secrets, where the alien Shoowa with whom the girl protagonist teams up has been entrusted with the Soo, a sacred symbol for his people; and Sylvia Louise Engdahl’s This Star Shall Abide and Beyond the Tomorrow Mountains, which deal centrally with the human protagonist’s relationship to his native religion, which was invented by human settlers on his planet (after the destruction of their original planet). In terms of James Fowler’s “stages of faith,” This Star Shall Abide is a fine depiction of the transition from Stage 3 (conventional faith) to Stage 4 (individuative-reflective faith), and Beyond the Tomorrow Mountains a depiction of the transition from Stage 4 to Stage 5 (conjunctive faith). Yes, I know she much later wrote a third novel in this series, but I don’t recommend that one.
I think my library list just got more full. Nice list!
The entire Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson is concerned with the interactions between deities (Elder and younger) and other sentient races. The take on divinity is more like Greco-Roman (or at times Hindu) pantheons than the monotheistic religions and their spin-offs.
Michael Moorcock’s novella Behold the Man is a reframing of the Jesus story that’s either negative or ambiguous depending on your personal beliefs about Jesus, with a time-traveler who ends up being identified by John the Baptist as the Messiah.
I’m kind of shocked that no one has mentioned Philip K. Dick — VALIS, The Divine Invasion, and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer are heavily concerned with religion.
I love A Wrinkle in Time and the rest of the Quintet. And part of the reason I liked them was because they blended science and spirituality seemingly seamlessly, and in such a way as to be respectful of both, and of all the dimensions of both.
I also really enjoyed Gail Dayton’s trilogy that begins with The Compass Rose. The main character’s faith in the One pretty much drives and informs everything that happens to her, including the incredible power she’s given. And the main faith of her country is set up to be respectful to all deities and faiths–the One has many faces and names, and the deities of other cultures (with one plotful exception) are merely aspects of the One. (Trufax this trilogy also shows a positive, loving expression of polyamory and how it could work in a culture that embraced it.)
@20 *rolls eyes* Okay. Yes, yes, you think all the rest of us who take part in some sort of religious or spiritual practice are superstitious, uneducated, slack-jawed idiots without any capacity for thinking rationally or independently. That’s fine. Now go be vaguely disrespectful of others’ beliefs and elitist somewhere else, thanks.
Good gods, I can’t even get away from the anti-theists on Tor’s blog.
Hi everyone, let’s please be respectful of others, even/especially when disagreeing, and keep the discussion going in the spirit of the original post. Thanks!
9 Billion Names of God was definitely a story that stuck with me.
One series that I thought interestingly weaved together religion and fantasy was the Deryni Series by Katherine Kurtz. I haven’t read it as an adult, but back when I was a teen, I thought the series had a plausible, historical feel to it — sometimes so much that I felt like I was reading a history book!
Just spent way too long reading these comments. Gotta throw in A.A. Attanasio’s Dragon and the Unicorn. Fascinating story pulling together Christianity, Norse myth, Arthurian legend, Celtic myths, and the Big Bang into one coherent whole.
Also, thanks for the post. Sometimes, because of the circles I travel in, I forget that other well-read, intelligent people are also religious, or at least can address religion in a thoughtful, respectful manner.
I found this post and its comments really interesting. Definitely bulking out my reading list. As someone who’s faith is central to their life, I find a lot of portrayals of people with faith unhelpful across genres. They simply don’t feel real from the inside. In some cases, they are someone’s weird version of perfect for people who want to show a particular faith is ‘true’. In others, their story tends to come down to crises of faith annoys me. There are plenty of internal conflicts that don’t need to just be keep believing/stop believing. It feels like very little comes down in the middle of messy everyday life as someone whose faith is day to day – as the post touched on you can die for plenty of things but deep faith is about life.
Some examples in SFF that I love are Beon Bova’s Jupiter and Celia Friedman’s trilogy starting with Black Sun Rising. In Friedman, a spaceship landed on a planet where beliefs become real, and there is a strong remnant of a Catholic-like faith. I thought the main character felt very real from the inside. He was like a knight in the Middle Ages who had been given a dispensation for violence except that his dispensation was to do magic.
For short fiction, a recent collection that I enjoyed was Mysterion. It covered a really wide range of perspectives on Christianity specifically. It didn’t over-simplify, was happy to devote space to uncomfortable aspects and had some beautiful stories.
I also enjoyed Addison’s take in ‘The Goblin Emperor’. It was a fictional faith but it felt very real from the inside. His need to get back to the meditative space where he finds his strength felt very authentic. Also how intensely personal it was.
I do find that it can be weird bringing up faith online. Also, it has an uneasy relationship with the SFF community. For me, what I find challenging is I do tend to identify with a more extreme wing of Christianity as an evangelical but that has taken on a very strange and political identity in the US – I live in South Africa. I grew up in a church where one of the elders was a climatology professor, many of our priests were women, and our bishop was openly gay. Due to our history where there were prominent Christian groups on both sides of the Apartheid change, I am very aware that faith is a complicated space and that space of personal/political belief is fraught. I also think technology is really changing how faith works. Because of its inherent flexibility, SFF is such an interesting space to explore it in, so glad to have all these recommendations!!
Dune The whole saga has the intersection of religion and politics at its core.
Some of my favorites include The Chaplain’s War by Brad Turgenson, Snare by Katherine Kerr, and The Veiled Web by Catherine Asaro. I like The Chaplain’s War because it is the technologically superior alien’s curiosity about human religion that stops them from massacring the humans.Over the course of the novel, the chaplain struggles to accept his own faith while trying to help the aliens understand all human faiths. In the end, the aliens stop the war when they find that their own advanced technology has been keeping them from spiritual understanding and this is something they can learn from the humans. Snare looks at the descendants of a colony ship that crashed on the planet Snare. One of the nomadic warriors must undertake a spiritual quest which calls into question the nature of her gods, while a member of one of the cities that follows Islam encounters the intelligent aliens native to Snare and tries to explain Islam to them. In The Veiled Web, a Catholic dancer and a Muslim inventor who has created an artificial intelligence start out in a marriage of convenience. In order to turn it into a real marriage, they must reconcile the differences between their faiths and agree to “meet at the crossroads” and come up with workable compromises all while helping the AI to grow and develop its own awareness.
I agree with Doomsday Book and The Chaplain’s War. What I like about The Chaplain’s War is that it turns military science fiction on its head. The humans are losing the war to the technologically superior aliens and what stops the aliens from wiping them out and ultimately stops the war is the aliens’ fascination with all human religions and their discovery that their own technology has cut them off from a more spiritual perception of the world. Snare by Katherine Kerr looks at the descendants of a ship that crash landed on the planet Snare. There are indigenous aliens and the humans have splintered into various groups. The shaman of the less advanced horse nomads ends up going on a spiritual quest which leads to some interesting revelations about her “gods” while a different quest by a Muslim city dweller introduces the indigenous alien population to Islam with positive results. The Veiled Web by Catherine Asaro centers on the relationship between a devout Catholic dancer and an equally devout Muslim inventor who has created an artificial intelligence. Forced into a marriage of convenience, the two learn to develop a deeper relationship while reconciling their religious differences through compromises achieved by “meeting at the crossroads” and helping the AI to increase its own self-awareness.
33. starrise That poem is new to me. Gorgeous, thank you.
Lester Del Rey’s short story “Hereafter Inc.” would get my vote. Heaven gives you what makes you happy, even if what makes you happy is being unhappy.
Not sure if this is limited to books but for me, one of the best observations on religion in SF was a scene in the TV series Babylon 5. Go to YouTube, search for: G’kar what is truth and what is god. And watch. You won’t regret it.
Wonderful topic and great list. I’d like to add Roger Zelazny’s A Rose for Ecclesiastes.
That’s a rather free summary of Lord of Light (which I read when it came out and recently re-read for discussion in a book group decades younger than myself — a fascinating experience). @38 and @5 are both correct; there’s no native pantheon and the work has the common SF theme of religion being abused as a tool for power. Note that Zelazny did many variations on the people-becoming-gods plot — e.g. Isle of the Dead, or Creatures of Light and Darkness with its atheist’s prayer; IMO they’re still worth rereading, but none are respectful.
I’m not surprised that L’Engle quotes “St. Patrick’s Breastplate”, but I don’t find “planet” in any version online (which probably reflects on my search-fu). Do you have a link? (Thanks to @33 for another possible source.) I’d like to see some rendering other than the standard.
“The Star” happens during an interstellar expedition, not simply one “to the far reaches of the solar system”.
Possible typo: “[the balloons] are beyond god and evil”; “God”? “good”?
Schuyler@14 notes Boucher (IIRC also a devout Catholic), but the title is the base plot, not a spoiler.
Many thanks to Ms. Schnelbach for this fascinating article on one of my favourite themes in SF and fantasy. (I’m afraid I haven’t had time to wade through all the comments, which makes me wonder if anyone will read this comment if it’s posted.) Of the works discussed, I’ve only read (and enjoyed) A Wrinkle in Time and the stories by Clarke and Bradbury. One good story not mentioned here (I don’t think) is George R.R. Martin’s The Way of Cross and Dragon, first published in Omni.
There have been several anthologies devoted to this theme. One recent one is Wrestling with Gods (Tesseracts Eighteen), ed. Liana Kerzner and Jerome Stuart (Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, 2015)
Switching gears a little bit from discussion of Christian-themed books on the list (not because I’m offended but just because the thread is now old enough I have nothing to add) I think that the treatment of Islam in Alif the Unseen is somewhat more nuanced than as represented in the original post. The storyline with the djinn doesn’t just exist alongside the religious aspects. It’s central to the novel that belief in the reality of djinn is actually doctrinal in Islam (they are mentioned in the Qu’ran), and the conflict between Alif’s love of Western fantastic elements as long as they are in novels and his refusal to accept his own culture’s fantastic elements even though–arguably because–their existence is an article of faith is extremely well done. Likewise for Wilson’s relevant plot point that, according to mainstream doctrine, djinn as well as humans can be Muslims. On that grounds, I would say that Wilson is effectively exploring an aspect of Islamic doctrine that appears fantasy-oriented to outsiders and intentionally working with its similarity to fantasy tropes, without losing sight of the fact that a tripartite rather than bipartite division of sentient beings on Earth (humans, djinn, and angels) is a place where Islamic cosmology differs from Christian and Jewish views of sentient life.
All of Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere stories, individually and collectively, for the reasons Lisamarie described @27. An array of religions (connected, but most characters don’t know that) are developed, questioned, and used for good and evil; it’s a major running theme. He’s a devout Momon and knows that this shapes his views and writings, but doesn’t try to push a “religious agenda” in his novels. His website FAQ describes this at length.
Not one of his best books, but “Job” by Robert Heinlein discussed the conflict between Jehovah and the Devil.
I always enjoy the “Inferno” books (“Inferno” and it’s sequel) by Larry Niven which are a re-imagining of the Hell envisioned by Dante. There is a lot of discussion of how arbitrary God’s Will could be seen.
An interesting duology is John Ringo’s Princess of Wands and Queen of Wands, where the protagonist is a Christian soccer mom with deep faith and serious martial arts and military skills. She gets to work with various people who are warriors for their various deities as she is for “The White God” against evil. A very positive portrayal of a christian for once.
Another interesting religious idea is in Eric Flint’s Mother of Demons. Where human colonists crash land on a habitable planet, and find themselves interacting with a native species at the species equivalent time of the Apostles of a very different religion. Very enjoyable book.
St Ailbe’s Hall, by Naomi Kritzer. A priest has to deal with the question of whether it’s morally right for him to christen a bioengineered dog who wants to become a Catholic. A lovely story, that always makes me sniffly.
A lot of the story in King’s Peace/King’s Name comes from the collision of religions, in particular the grown of the white-stone god, which is clearly modeled on Christianity. I thought she did a good job of showing people using their religion for both good and evil on both sides.
Lord of Light and The Hyperion Cantos are some of my favorite books ever. Another addition to the list might be The Cosmere by Brandon Sanderson, which has a ton of discussion about religion and god(s).
One entry that I haven’t seen is Timothy Zahn’s Deadman Switch novel. The protagonist is a sincere follower of a variant form of Christianity (very variant) and he is shown as being guided by its precepts throughout the book. There is another faith involved (the Seekers) and they also are quite important to the outcome.
So, super late, but there’s one series no has mentioned that is fairly mainstream and also very religion-based: His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman (Golden Compass etc). If you haven’t read it you should. Not to spoil too much, but at one point they end up staging a head-on assault on God and have to fight their way out of Hell. I’m Catholic(ish) but I really appreciated his obvious deep thought on the matter, even if he ended up with a cynical conclusion.
Other parts of the books are very insightful and interesting takes on religion too. For example, in one alternative universe a character comes from, each person has a daemon, a physical manifestation (usually an animal) of a second half of one’s soul, and as it is portrayed we (from the normal universe) also have a daemon, we are just unaware of it. It’s all more nuanced than I’m making it sound, so sorry. Anyways, if anyone sees this, go read the series!
I was hoping to find more books with worldcrafted religions that depict religion in a fair way. Series like ASoIaF create religions with a lot of depth, but fall flat when it comes to depicting true believers (and the beauty of faith for those that do believe) as well as Machiavellian religious leaders.
How about Till We Have Face by C.S. Lewis. It’s a retelling of the story of Psyche and Cupid, though they aren’t called these names.
“The first part of the book is written from the perspective of Psyche’s older (and visibly ugly) sister Orual, as an accusation against the gods. The story is set in the fictive kingdom of Glome, a primitive city-state whose people have occasional contact with civilized Hellenistic Greece. In the second part of the book, the narrator undergoes a change of mindset…”
She undergoes a transformation from accusing the gods for all of the injustices in her life that she believes they caused, only to realize she is the cause of her own misery. The biggest one is she blames the gods for taking Psyche away from her, when it was actually her own selfish love that condemned her. Oraul describes Ungit (a variation of Aphrodite) as a faceless, black monolith that she associates with devouring (due to the live sacrifices offered to her), but Oraul now realizes it’s just as descriptive of herself (she is also “faceless” because she wears a veil to hide her ugliness).
“I saw well why the gods do not speak openly to us, nor let us answer. Till that word can be dug out of us, why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?”
I just thought it was a great fantasy story concerned with religion that doesn’t have any obvious connections (e.g., Aslan and Jesus) to modern World Religions. Thought I would share!
Here late, but with three suggestions that no others have posted:
Two outstanding depictions of religion in science fiction are of secular religions: The Disposeessed, by LeGuin, takes an Odonian idealistic anarchist through a crisis of faith in his society and world view. The Earthseed series, Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents, by Octavia Butler, have the Earthseed secular religion as a central character. Christianity takes a beating in Earthseed, but with good art, one often gets good with bad.
I would also like to mention an old video game — Morrowind. The religion plays a central role in the game, and is portrayed with great complexity. The Gods of the culture are extant, although their power is limited. The mission of the game is to act as an avatar of a long-dead member of the pantheon — and the religious issues are not one-sided at all.
There was a short story where God was trying to get his new “project” approved by the planning board. The project was our universe. He envisioned man and animals on earth and the earth would have earth quakes to bring up metals for mankind to use. The planning board rejected the plans because earthquakes were hazardous to the mankind. The story continued with one rejection after another. Like when the stars in the heavens used too much electricity. So God modified his plans. No stars, no mankind nothing but a solid ball of matter. That was approved. God created it. Then everyone was sad that God did not have his plan with Mankind in it. Just then, the solid ball exploded (the Big Bang). And God said, “oh, I will have all those things and Man too…. I just invented Physics!!”
i dont remember the book book or author. If anyone knows…. please tell me
@69: Is it “Making Light” by James P. Hogan?
Great list, but there is one other thing these books all have in common: Not one recommend religious belief in a sufficiently favorable way that you put the book down and say, “I should become Christian” or Catholic or whatever. Religious belief is used as a device to add depth to the story in most of these, without inspiring readers to share the devotion of the characters in any of these books. That is most regrettable. Only one book containing super power, religion, God, miracles and eternal destiny has out sold all of these. The Bible. And when you put that down, you are inspired about faith and religious belief. Food for thought…
I know this is a bit late of me, but I just read a wonderful novella by Tanith Lee called The Kingdoms of the Air that I felt fit the theme of this article. It’s a knight quest story, in a setting that depicts Biblical mythology in an artistic and interesting manner, that sincerely discusses grace.
She gives God the thesis of the piece in His dialogue- “Since you must be perfect in your own eyes, Knight, perfect as God, it is your own grace that you have fallen from…You say in your heart to God, Oh God, forgive me. But to yourself you say, I cannot forgive myself. I will not.”
Good list. I shall be checking out a few of these titles in the coming months.
One that springs to mind as having a positive effect on me was the priest in Carl Sagan’s novel Contact.
It’s been a while since I’ve read it, but remember him having a deep faith while also being open to the possibilities of life in the universe other than on Earth. There’s one scene where the scientist hero swings a pendulum and stands exactly where it started the swing, trusting physics that it will just miss her on its return.
Then the priest does the same, but takes a step forward after the swing begins. She grabs him out of the way, but both had proved their faith in different ways.
Must read the book again.
My personal favorite is Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea Trilogy. The wizards practice their magic in the larger pursuit of maintaining the Balance of the universe. Much of it is rooted in Le Guin’s Taoist beliefs.
I would also suggest Weeping May Tarry by Raymond F. Jones and Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis as excellent examples. As it happens, A Canticle for Lieobowitz is one of my favorite novels.