I would like to recommend a book that I think is very important to any discussion of contemporary science fiction and religion, and that is Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow (1996). This exceptional novel won the Arthur C. Clarke Award, James Tiptree, Jr. Award, and British Science Fiction Award in 1997, and also was nominated for a Hugo. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
SETI Program picks up radio broadcasts of beautiful music originating from a planet in the vicinity of Alpha Centauri. Before the United Nations can respond, the Jesuit order sends the first human expedition to the planet from which the music originated, an international group of men and women representing not only the Jesuit faith but also agnosticism and Judaism. The first contact between the humans and aliens leads to a tremendous tragedy for all concerned, despite the best of intentions, thanks in large part to unexamined assumptions on both sides and unforeseen cultural miscommunications. All but one of the humans are killed, and the planet Rakhat is plunged into bloody civil war, while the survivor (Puerto Rican priest Emilio Sandoz) and his superiors on Earth are left to make sense of what happened in the context not only of science, but also of faith. Was the disaster at Rakhat a tragedy, a comedy, or a farce? Did God allow it to happen, even intend it, or did the very fallible human participants see what they wanted to see, and simply justify their own desires and actions with the rhetoric of their religious traditions? In some ways, The Sparrow is James Blish's A Case of Conscience taken to the next level. In others, it is a study of history repeating itself.
The book is particularly important because Russell, who holds a Ph.D. in anthropology, wrote it while converting from Catholicism to Judaism. She also was struggling with understanding two specific historic events. One was the Columbian Encounter of 1492; she had just witnessed the quincentenary of Columbus's first contact with the Americas, and the sharp protests that the celebration drew from Native Americans and human rights activists. She was wrestling with the legacy of the Holocaust, as well, a subject made more personal since she had chosen to become part of a tradition that included the haunting memory of that ethnic cleansing. In other words, this novel represents part of Russell's process of making sense of apparently senseless death, drawing on her impressive knowledge of both Catholic and Jewish thought.
The Sparrow is a profoundly spiritual work dealing with guilt, culpability, and faith. It's also riveting science fiction that makes the reader face all of the big questions of what it means to be human. Russell uses her expertise in anthropology to great effect, and neither her aliens on Rakhat nor humanity's first contact with them are easy to forget. Her sequel, 1998's Children of God, is also a terrific and thought-provoking read with tremendous relevance to the subject of religion in science fiction. Learn more about Mary Doria Russell and her works at her official website.
AHS