Forgotten Friday Books: A Case of Conscience – James Blish

These days, James Blish, if he’s known at all by younger readers, it’s as a Star Trek writer(and no, there’s nothing wrong with that: there are some fine writers doing work in this area). While he did a yeoman job of turning the scripts of TOS into short stories(with an able assist of his wife, J. A. Lawrence after his death), as well as one novel, Spock Must Die!, he was so much more than that. Writer, critic, editor.

A Case of Conscience is one of his better known works(along with Cities In Flight), the first book of the After Such Knowledge trilogy, one of the earliest science fiction tales with religious themes. It won a Hugo Award in 1959 and the original novella was given a retrospective Hugo in 2004.

The story concerns a Jesuit priest investigating an alien race with no religion, no concept of God, sin, or an afterlife. There was a novella published in 1953 and later expanded into a novel with the novella as part one.

Father Ramon Ruiz-Sanchez is part of a team sent to a planet to see if can be opened to human contact. Sanchez is also a biologist, a biochemist, and the ship doctor.

The dominant species, the Lithians, is intelligent, bipedal, and reptilian and as mentioned have no concept of any God. At an invitation, Ruiz-Sanchez moves in with one and begins a study of them. They are a society without crime, ignorance, or want. It seems ideal.

When the expedition meets to compare notes of their study, most everybody agrees that the Lithians are ready for contact. And exploitation of course. Lithium, a rare element on Earth is in abundance on the planet.

Ruiz-Sanchez surprises everyone by saying the planet should be quarantined. His study shows a number of points where the Lithians’ society violates the tenets of Catholicism and he’s come to believe, though he likes these beings, that the planet is a construction of Satan. His logic: peace, love, and understanding without religion is just the Devil’s way to attack religion.

Part one ends with nothing resolved, the expedition returning to Earth. Ruiz-Sanchez knows his warning will be ignored in favor of commerce. Just before they leave, he is given a sealed bottle containing an egg, the host’s son, to be raised on Earth and learn the ways of humans.

Part two involves, the Lithian growing and becoming an irritant on Earth. Ruiz-Sanchez is a heretic for believing Satan has the power to create a planet. Other members of the original crew begin setting up reactors of Lithia to begin cultivating the planet’s resources.

Without giving anymore away, I’ll just say this novel brings into question a lot of thoughts on religion. At least for me. I originally read it when I was very young and could only wonder, then, what drove religious people to some of the fervors I see all the time.

~ by randy Johnson on Thursday, July 9. 09.