Christianity in SF

Christianity has been depicted in SF many, many times. Common uses include:

Background Christianity

Any work that takes place in a setting analogous to an Earth setting in which Christianity is common may include Christianity and religious faith as part of the general background.

Christian allegories or metaphysics

• C. S. Lewis' Narnia books)

Christianity as cultural mythology

Use of ideas popularly associated with Christianity, without particular religious perspectives;

• e.g., the use of the cross to ward off vampires);
• exorcisms;

Use of Christian supernatural hierarchy in some fantasy creation that semi-parallels Christianity but is really different

• e.g., Anne Bishop's Black Jewels series;
• Lyda Morehouse's Archangel Protocol)

This may include works which depict Christian eschatology as correct, but are simply more interested in depicting the struggle in a secular fashion

• e.g., The Stand by Stephen King

It may also include works which depict (and assume) Christian beliefs are correct, but are simply interested in exploring the story aspects

• Anne Rice's Jesus series

retellings of Judeo-Christian stories

• (e.g., retellings of the Garden of Eve from Lilith's perspective
• The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
• The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis); Anne Rice's Jesus stories)

secret history of Christianity

These stories may or may not include the supernatural as real. Numerous stories have imagined things like:

• Jesus' body being held and concealed by the Catholic Church (Elizabeth Peters' The Dead Sea Cipher);
• Jesus' offspring (The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown);
• the role of women in Christianity (The Memoirs of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Theodore Roschach).

Historical Christianity Alternate histories in particular, and fantasy works set in times that are similar to historical Earth times (e.g., faux-medieval settings) often depict one or more historical variants of Christianity (e.g., Roman Catholicism) or events within Christianity (e.g., the Inquisition)

• Inquisition: Gael Baudino works; God's Fires by Patricia Anthony
• Witch-burning: Inquisition, above; also James Morrow's The Last Witchfinder (not SF)

Juxtapositions of Christianity and other religions Critiques of Christianity

• e.g., in opposition to female-oriented paganism in Starhawk's The Fifth Sacred Thing
• in opposition to female-oriented paganism Marie Jakober's The Black Chalice)

or valorizations of Christianity

Christian dystopias Some Christian-like religion has created a dystopian society

• Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale is likeliest the most famous of these
• Esther M. Friesner's The Psalms of Herod
• Sheri S. Tepper's The Gate to Women's Country).

• Satires:

Works which satirize Christianity.

• James Morrow