Religion Dispatches has just posted my take on the news story about the Vatican astronomer who says the belief in aliens is compatible with Catholic doctrine. I argue that José Gabriel Funes' ideas aren't really new, having been expressed before in SF (in, most notably, C. S. Lewis's Out of the Silent Planet and James Blish's A Case of Conscience), not to mention centuries earlier by the likes of Nicholas of Cusa.
The article gives me the opportunity to cart out one of the prizes of my recently-acquired SF magazine collection: the September 1953 issue of If, where the short story version of A Case of Conscience was first published. Blish's story of a Jesuit's spiritual dilemma on an alien world was the cover story—and a wraparound cover, no less!
The painting is by Ken Fagg, who did a slew of covers for If in the mid-'50s, and illustrates the last scene of the story (or, if you're only familiar with the expanded novel, the last scene of part one). Those who've read it know what's in that jar they're looking at. Interestingly, the image seems designed to cover up the fact that the story's central character is a Jesuit; perhaps If's editors were worried about their image if they put a priest on the cover. You'll find no collars or rosaries on the inside illustrations, either, but they're by Ed Emshwiller so it's hard to complain.
Read "Are God and Aliens Compatible?" at Religion Dispatches.
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