In trying to get my bearings, I established a sort of metaphorical compass. Selection of titles for this list was by no means a clear-cut process, in that “a theological theme or orientation” is not a thing so easy to define as it might at first seem.
It is thus not at all surprising that many fine science-fiction and fantasy books have a theological theme or orientation, and listing some of those books is what this page is for. Authors-at least the better of them, those we are dealing with on this site-who have elected to till these fields have done so because (among other reasons) they offer special opportunities to deal with large ideas in unconventional ways, ways whose unconventionality may enable the author to better say and the reader to better hear (stretching metaphor a bit) those ideas away from the noisy arenas in which they normally appear. Science fiction and fantasy is, like all literature, about us, here, now. That is, I suppose, neither the most nor the least silly misperception of our fields in the larger world. There is a belief held widely by those unacquainted with speculative fiction, and even a few without that excuse, that works in the field are either thoroughly secular or oriented toward bizarre heresies (read: “not the things I hear in the house of worship I attend weekly”). ‘It helped you because you were thwarting the will of Satan. ‘If this thing is a saint’s heart, why would it help people like Juanita and me? I mean, we weren’t exactly on a mission from God when those guys in the Suburban were chasing us. “‘Wait a second.’ Mojo couldn’t let this pass.
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