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 metaphysical stories (e.g., 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; 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)

• Christian dystopias - Some Christian-like religion has created a dystopian society (e.g., Esther M. Friesner's [[; Sheri S. Tepper's The Gate to Women's Country).

• 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)

• 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)

• Juxtapositions of Christianity and other religions - Critiques of Christianity (e.g., in opposition to paganism in Starhawk's The Fifth Sacred Thing and in Marie Jakober's The Black Chalice) or valorizations of Christianity

• secret history of Christianity: 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). These stories may or may not include supernatural reality.