(urth) Silk for calde blog: Wolfe thesis

[brunians at brunians.org]

Orson Scott Card has written some very interesting Mormon based stuff.




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> On Tue, Sep 22, 2009 at 8:39 AM, Adam Thornton <adam at io.com> wrote:
>
>
>> Something I'd *really* like to see someone play with is: why is such a
>> large proportion of religion-oriented SF Catholic?
>
>
> One reason is that Catholicism is the Big Dog of Christianity. There is no
> Protestant sect that comes near Catholicism in terms of total membership;
> thus, if you want to present a generic Christian, a Catholic is the
> logical
> choice.
>
> In addition, there is a huge and interesting dynamic between Catholicism,
> specifically, and science. Catholicism is the most "rationalistic" of the
> Christian religions, with its theology heavily based on the
> Aristoteleanism
> of St Thomas Aquinas. Yet Catholicism is -- or was, until fundamentalism
> reared its head and began resenting biology and geology -- the sect which
> has the most significant history of conflict with science and rationalism
> (can you say Galileo? I knew you could).
>
> Plus, as Jerry observed below, there is all the nifty colorful baggage
> that
> comes with Catholicism - though if that's what you're looking for, Eastern
> Orthodoxy is even better.
>
>
> If it reflects the background of the authors, then why are Catholics
>> overrepresented in SF authorship (and, concomitantly, why are there
>> relatively few Jewish SF stories) ?  I mean, just off the top of my
>> head:
>>
>
> Relatively few Jewish SF stories? Heavens, man, what about Asimov's
> "Robot"
> stories? Those are all basically Talmudic disputation.
>
> There are two excellent anthologies of Jewish SF edited by Jack Dann in
> the
> '70s, "Wandering Stars" and "More Wandering Stars."
>
>
>
>> Where's, for example, the Lutheran SF?  (If I were being snarky I'd ask
>> and
>> answer where the Baptist SF was.)  Or even specifically *Protestant*
>> Christian SF?
>>
>
> I can't think of any Lutheran SF offhand, but there's an excellent Quaker
> SF
> novel called "Pennterra" by Judith Moffatt.
>
>
> --
> Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
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