Catholicism in Science Fiction

From The Catholic Guide

Sorted by author.

Contents 1 A 2 B 3 C 4 D 5 E 6 F 7 G 8 H 9 J 10 K 11 L 12 M 13 N 14 O 15 P 16 R 17 S 18 T 19 V 20 W 21 Y 22 Z 23 References

A

Adams, Robert

• The Seven Magical Jewels of Ireland: an alternate history in which the Nestorians 'won' the Council of Ephesus (451). Features Pope Abdul.

Alexander, David

• The Fifth Gospel: so anti-Catholic it's almost a caricature. I won't give away the end ... but as conspiracy theories go, the Da Vinci Code has got nothing on this.

Amis, Kingsley

• The Alteration: an alternate history in which the power-corrupted Church pursues genocidal policies to keep the population down, rather than admit the error of it's anti-birth control dogma.

Anderson, Poul

• The High Crusade: fun novel in which the alien abduction of a band of crusaders leads to the creation of a galactic Catholic empire.

• Kyrie: begins and ends in a convent on the moon.

• The People of the Wind: Admiral Juan Cajal of the Terran Empire is a devout Roman Catholic, and portrayed sympathetically in this "good versus good" novel.

• Brain Wave: one Catholic gets a mention as an relieving example of ordinariness compared to followers of a cult.

• Operation Chaos: the forces of good include a Catholic priest.

Anthony, Patricia

• God's Fires: the ignorant, superstitious Church subjects alien visitors to the tortures of the Inquisition.

B

Banks, Iain

• The State of the Art: a character from The Culture, a techno-utopian society, comes to Earth and converts to Catholicism.

Barnes, John

• Sin of Origin: an interstellar Catholic culture makes first contact with an alien race.

Baudino, Gael

• Strands of Starlight

Baxter, Stephen

• Inherit the Earth: in the long sunset of the Earth, after the human race has passed on, the tide-pool creatures who preserve the faith go on a pilgrimage to meet the robot pope. I wonder if they're Biblical littoralists?

Bear, Greg

• Petra: too surreal to be considered anti-Catholic. Following an event called mortdieu, the stability of reality is maintained only by strength of will for the society of survivors which shelters from chaos in a cathedral.

• Hegira: reconstructing our civilisation from documents, this future world contains a Christian Church led by a Holy Pontiff.

Benson, Robert Hugh

• Dawn of All: written in 1911, a prophecy of a future world in which the Church is triumphant. Hurrah!

• Lord of the World: a prophecy of a future world in which the forces of the antichrist persecute the Church terribly.

Berry, Charles

• The Secret of Vatican Hill:

Blaylock, James P.

• All the Bells on Earth: features a priest, as well as a merchandiser of Pope souvenirs.

Blish, James

• A Case of Conscience: perhaps the locus classicus of Catholicism in scifi. A priest wrestles with the implications of intelligent alien life.

Boucher, Anthony

• The Quest for Saint Aquin: after a nuclear holocaust Christians are persecuted. The Pope sends a priest on a search for the tomb of a saintly man called Aquin.

Bova, Ben

• In Trust: rich people entrust their cryogenically frozen bodies and their money to the secure hands of the Church, an institution with proven ability to survive for decades and centuries ...

Boyd, John

• The Last Starship from Earth:

Bradbury, Ray

• The Fire Balloons: two priests go to converts the Martians.

Brin, David

• Earth: the Catholic Church adapts to Gaian beliefs.

Brin, David & Benford, Gregory

• Heart of the Comet: mentions the papal legate to the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem. Also "Cardinal Theresa" if I recall correctly.

Brown, Dan

• Angels and Demons:

• The Da Vinci Code:

Brown, Eric

• The Fall of Tartarus: a schismatic offshoot of the Catholic Church called the Church of the Ultimate Sacrifice 'lop bits off themselves in order to appease the God of the nova.'

Brunner, John

• Times Without Number: Set in an alternate reality, where the Spanish Empire and the Catholic Church run most of the world.

• The Stone That Never Came Down: several mentions of the Pope and Catholicism.

Burns, Steven

• Leap

Butcher, Jim

• Harry Dresden series

C

Card, Orson Scott

• Ender's Shadow: features many references to Catholicism, including nun as a major character, Sister Carlotta.

• Shadow of the Hegemon

• Speaker for the Dead: "Portuguese colonists have brought their Catholicism to another planet and its gentle inhabitants. Some of the creatures show a mild interest in the Christian faith, but then the humans discover that there is an older belief system on the planet, which practices an alien ritual that looks, to the humans, like brutal murder."

• Xenocide

Chase, Robert C.

• Game of Fox and Lion: about the nature of humanity and personhood. Forsaw genetic engineering and its theological impact. The church is integral to the story line.

Chesterton, G. K.

• If Don John of Austria had Married Mary Queen of Scots: a speculative essay on alternate history.

Clarke, Arthur C.

• 3001: the world's religions were shaken in 2513 by the discovery of the first alien monolith at Olduvai Gorge.

• The Hammer of God: the Church changes its mind on birth control.

• The Fountains of Paradise: the end of religion on Earth comes after an alien space probe takes "less than an hour" to "demolish Saint Thomas" Aquinas' Summa Theologica.

• The Star: "A Jesuit astrophysicist serves on a spaceship. His faith in a good and merciful God falters when the ship's crew discovers a millennia-old marker left by a vital alien people who perished with the destruction of their planet in a supernova."

Clarke, Arthur C. & Lee, Gentry

• Rama II: features some Catholic characters.

• Garden of Rama: still features some Catholic characters.

Cooper, Edmund

• All Fools' Day: some of the survivors of a worldwide plague of suicides are lay Catholics.

D

Del Rey, Lester

• The Eleventh Commandment: outlines the Church's position on contraception.

Dick, Philip K.

• The Divine Invasion:

Disch, Thomas

• The Priest: "In Disch's book, The Priest, an anti-abortion child molesting Roman Catholic priest is blackmailed into having a large image of the devil tatooed on his chest. As he lays back in the tatoo artist's chair, he changes personalities with a 10th century homicidal maniac Roman Catholic priest." The author is an ex-Catholic.

Douglass, Sarah

• The Nameless Day: a Dominican friar discovers that demons have infiltrated European society at the highest levels. Author: "I keep waiting for the Roman Catholic Church to take affront, but they're taking their own sweet time about it."

• The Wounded Hawk: abandoning his vows, the protagonist continues his struggle on God's side against the demons.

• The Crippled Angel: final volume - the protagonist must choose between "good" and "evil".

Duntemann, Jeff

• Our Lady of the Endless Sky:

E

Ekeh, Ono

• Table of the Lord:

Evans, Christopher

• Aztec Century: a world dominated by the Aztecs, who have adopted a form of Catholicism.

F

Farmer, Philip Jose

• Dayworld: the human race is divided into seven groups, each living one day of the week while the others are in suspended animation. There are seven popes, to lead the Church on different days.

Flynn, Tom

• Galactic Rapture: "... the Universal (Roman) Catholic Church, has left its birth planet to thrive on one of its own, fittingly called Vatican, where priestly sex abuse and imperial corruption take on astonishing new forms. A theology called "serial incarnation" teaches that God incarnates his son over and over, sending him to planet after planet. The Church has grown rich from this doctrine by charging huge fees to reveal to individual planets who their Messiah is and whether or not their historic religious leaders are genuine. All is well until celebrated mathematician and recent convert Fram Galbior is overheard telling the pope that his new formula can predict where God will send his son next ..."

• Nothing Sacred: sequel to the above.

France, Anatole

• The Revolt of the Angels:

Frankowski, Leo

• Cross Time Engineer: time travel series set in Poland during the 1200s, with a positive portrayal of the Church.

Friesner, Esther M.

• Such a Deal

G

Gaiman, Neil

• A Study in Emerald: a play shows a priest is beaten to death when he protests the return of the Old Ones in this alternate history.

Gardner, James Alan

• Three Hearings on the Existence of Snakes in the Human Bloodstream

Garrett, Randall

• Too Many Magicians

Gentle, Mary

• Ash: A Secret History: an alternate history featuring a different medieval Church based on a not irreverently portrayed alternate Christ.

Golden, Christopher

• Of Saints and Shadows

Gotschalk, Felix C.

• Vestibular Man

Greeley, Andrew M.

• The Final Planet: Seamus O'Neill, an unwilling diplomat and spy for the space-traveling Holy Order of St. Brigid and St. Brendan, must secure an invitation from a planet's inhabitants for his battered ship to land a task made more difficult by saber-toothed tigers, planetary strife and his own self-doubt.

H

Hamilton, Peter F.

• The Naked God
• The Neutronium Alchemist
• The Reality Dysfunction

Harlan, Thomas

• House of Reeds
• Wasteland of Flint

Heinlein, Robert

• Friday: mentions the pope in exile on another planet.

• Stranger in a Strange Land: mentions the miracle of transubstantiation.

Herbert, Frank

• Dune: the holy book of the future is a syncretist tome called the Orange Catholic Bible.

Hertel, Francois

• Lepic et l'histoire hypothetique: 1940s Canada as a prosperous, ultra-Catholic nation.

Hood, Gwenyth

• The Coming of the Demons:

J

Jeapes, Ben

• His Majesty's Starship: a fleet of Earth starships travelling to bid for rights to settle an alien world includes the Loyola, owned by the Vatican.

• The New World Order: a technologically advanced race of humans from a parallel Earth invade England during the 1600s. Some mention of Catholicism, and the invaders are inclined to persecute Christians, who refuse to believe in their Pantheon.

Jensen, Jane

• Judgement Day: Are the prophecies of the Book of Revelations being fulfilled? Cataclysms multiply as American reporter Simon Hill and French priest Michele Deauchez attempt to answer the question, only to meet with deadly opposition from the Vatican, a mysterious global corporation, and the U.S. government.

K

Kelly, James Patrick

• Saint Theresa of the Aliens

King, Tappan

• The Mark of the Angel: In 1961, Pope John Paul XXIII is reminded of his days in the French Resistance as an amnesiac during WWII.

L

Lackey, Mercedes, Flint, Eric & Dave Freer

• The Shadow of the Lion

Lackey, Mercedes & Gellis, Roberta

• The Scepter'd Isle

Lafferty, R. A.

• The Fall of the Roman Empire
• The Flame is Green
• Fourth Mansions
• Half a Sky
• Past Master

LaHaye, Tim & Jenkins, Jerry

• Left Behind: highly popular end-times novel featuring some mention of the Church, though not sympathetic.

Lem, Stanislaw

• Fiasco:

Lewis, Anthony R.

• ...But the Sword!: Francis of Assisi leads a new militant order in a crusade that recaptures Jerusalem in 1221.

M

McAuley, Paul

• Pasquale's Angel

McDevitt, Jack

• Infinity Beach

• Engines of God

• Moonfall

MacDonald, James D.

• The Apocalypse Door: Father Peter Crossman is a secret agent working for the Knights Templar. His sidekick is Sister Mary Magdalene of the Special Action Executive of the Poor Clares. They fight the evil Knights of the Teutonic Order, though there are more ultimate Dark Forces behind them. Apparently not a satire.

Malzberg, Barry N.

• Ship Full of Jews

Marley, Louise

• The Child Goddess: the protagonist is Isabel Burke, a female priest of the Priestly Order of Mary Magdalene.

Marshall, Mary

• Angel Fire: the hero must fulfill an ancient destiny ordained by God, with the help of a Catholic priest.

Martin, George R. R.

• The Way of Cross and Dragon: Father Damien, an inquisitor, is charged to visit a Catholic planet where there has been a growing heretical sect appearing, one where Judas Iscariot is considered a Saint.

May, Julian

• The Many-Colored Land

Miller, Walter M.

• A Canticle for Leibowitz: following a nuclear war, monasteries form havens of knowledge during a new dark age.

• Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman: sequel to the previous, less friendly to the Church.

• Crucifixus Etiam

• Dark Benediction

Morgan, Richard K.

• Altered Carbon

Moore, Brian

• Catholics:

More, Thomas

• Utopia

Morehouse, Linda

• The Archangel Protocol: Angels have appeared on the 'net. After lapsed Catholic Deidre McMannus' partner assassinated the Pope, she was excommunicated, her LINK to the net was severed and she was booted off the police force. There were hundreds of witnesses, so his guilt was never in question, but what if he wasn't guilty?

• Fallen Host: As Catholic priest and Vatican Inquisitor Emmaline McNaughten receives the dubious assignment of determining whether an A.I. possesses a soul, Morningstar, a fallen angel, searches the world for evidence of the antichrist.

• Apocalypse Array: final in this trilogy. "It begins with the wedding of Satan and Anti-Christ, and ends with the Apocalypse."

Morrow, James

• Towing Jehovah: a giant body is found in the Arctic, believed to belong to God.

• Blameless in Abaddon: sequel to the above.

Murphy, Walter F.

• What If Peter Had Been Pope During World War II?

N

Newman, Kim

• Judgement of Tears: an alternate history where vampires share the world with the living. Set in Rome, and features a Catholic Church which does not like vampires.

Niven, Larry & Pournelle, Jerry

• The Gripping Hand
• The Mote in God's Eye
• Inferno

O

O'Brien, Michael

• Father Elijah: An Apocalypse:

P

Pohl, Frederick

• Man Plus: features a Jesuit priest, Dom Kayman, who is an areologist.

Powers, Tim

• Declare
• Drawing of the Dark

Pournelle, Jerry

• King David's Spaceship: features a bishop.

R

Reed, Kit

• Little Sisters of the Apocalypse: features an order of motorcycle-riding, computer-hacking nuns: the Little Sisters of the Apocalypse.

Rice, Anne

• The Vampire Chronicles

Roberts, John Maddox

• Cestus Dei

Roberts, Keith

• Pavane: an alternate history in which the Church keeps a tight reign on technological development.

Robinson, Kim Stanley

• Years of Rice and Salt: the advancing Mongol Horde discovers cathedrals packed with the dead - Europe has been wiped out in this alternate history.

Russell, Mary Doria

• Children of God: sequel to The Sparrow. The survivor of an ill-fated expedition has lose faith in a compassionate God. He is forced to return to the alien world.

• The Sparrow: the Jesuits send a mission to the first extraterrestrial society. Only one mutilated survivor returns.

S

Sanders, Winston P. (Poul Anderson)

• The Word to Space: radio transmissions from an alien race propagandize their religion. A Jesuit linguist does some missionary work of his own.

Sawyer, Robert J.

• The Abdication of Pope Mary III
• The Terminal Experiment

Silverberg, Robert

• Good News from the Vatican: short story about the election of the first robot pope.

Simak, Clifford

• Project Pope

Simmons, Dan

• Endymion

• The Fall of Hyperion: The priest-archaeologist mentioned previously is elected Pope Tielhard I. Catholics, it seems, make up a mere one million out of 150 billion humans in the galaxy.

• Hyperion: Catholicism plays a significant part in this series. One of the main characters is a priest-archaeologist modelled after Tielhard de Chardin. The Church is a dwindling minority.

• The Rise of Endymion : the Catholic Church now rules most of known space, thanks to its possession of the secret of immortality.

Soloviev, Vladimir

• A Short Tale of the Antichrist

Spinrad, Norman

• Deus X: Pope Mary I is considering a reveral of the Church's policy against machine uploading human consciousness, and decides to upload an elderly priest to investigate that state.

Stasheff, Christopher

• The Warlock in Spite of Himself

• Wizard in Rhyme series

Stephenson, Neal

• The Diamond Age: a few asides reveal that the Vatican runs charities for those who suffer from respiratory illness caused by nanites in the air.

Sterling, Bruce

• Holy Fire: much of Europe is undergoing a Catholic revival in the background of this novel.

Stirling, S. M.

• The Protector's War

Swithin, Anthony

• Princes of Sandastre: the Church in Sandastre doesn't recognise the authority of the Pope. Also, priests are married and tend to have other careers. No monasteries, nunneries, or consecrated churches.

T

Tepper, Sheri

• Grass: in the future, the human race is dominated by a descendant of Mormonism, and the Church is a shunned minority.

Thomsen, Brian M.

• Infallibility, Obedience, and Acts of Contrition

Twain, Mark

• A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

V

Vance, Jack

• Lyonesse

Vidal, Gore

• Messiah: on the way to world domination, a religion of death is opposed by the Catholic Church.

W

Weber, David

• Echoes of Honor

Weis, Margaret & Hickman, Tracey

• Forging the Darksword

West, Morris

• The Clowns of God: a pope experiences a revelation of the end of the world ...

Whitbourn, John

• To Build Jerusalem:

• A Dangerous Energy

• Popes and Phantoms

White, James

• Sanctuary: Irish nuns protect an alien explorer from the attentions of a 60 Minutes style television program.

• The Silent Stars Go By: alternate history in which the Hibernian Empire sends an expedition to the literal "New World" in 1492 - a starship largely crewed by priests.

Wills, Connie

• The Doomsday Book: time travel novel in which a village priest plays a major role.

Wilson, F. Paul

• Sims: in the future, genetically modified chimpanzees with human genes are kept as slaves ... some of them believe in God and pray to him. They tend towards Catholicism ("they like the statues"). Characters in the book wonder if they have souls, and think it a tragedy if they don't - imagine praying to a God who doesn't listen.

Wilson, Robert Charles

• Darwinia:

Wright, John C

• The Golden Age: the Roman Catholic Church is mentioned in a simulated universe.

Y

Yarbro, Chelsea Quinn

• Magnificat: a non-Catholic Chinese woman is elected pope. Author: "I began by thinking about the implications of these two pieces of Catholic dogma: 1) that the election of the Pope is a manifestation of the will of the Holy Spirit, and 2) that all humans on earth are children of God. I was also familiar with the theological concept of baptism by intent or martyrdom ... it follows that a person who is not Catholic can be elected Pope ..."

Z

Zebrowski, George

• Cave of Stars: three centuries after the death of Earth, the oppressive Catholic Church under Pope Peter III keeps the planet of New Vatican (Tau Ceti IV) at an early 20th century level of technology.

References

• Speculative Catholic