If I, like most people, were to read all the books that other people recommended to me then I would probably lack the time to eat or sleep. His Dark Materials is still waiting patiently on my book shelf to be read and I know that one day I'll get round to reading it. I'll also finish off all the Dune novels, when my yearning for the spice Melange becomes too great (I made an in-joke there, please forgive me. I'm not this sad really). However my current book was suggested to me by a friend of a friend and was described to me simply as 'Jesuits in space.'

It was an intriguing idea and Mary Doria Russell's book The Sparrow is certainly, if anything, intriguing. Set in the year 2019, it tells the story of how radio transmissions from an alien race are picked up by radio telescopes and how, in the resulting international confusion, the Society of Jesus mount an expedition to make contact. Now you'd be forgiven for wondering just how much of the plot is entirely realistic. Even the most ardent conspiracy theorist must wonder whether the religious order really has the finances to fund such an expedition. Get past that and the way in which most of the expedition members were friends back home almost gives the impression that the book is Five go into Deep Space or Tintin Makes Alien Contact.

Now it's time for a confession. I'm a Trekkie. And before you write in and say it's called Trekker these days, I'd remind you that people who've met me can testify that while I do a lot of stuff, I don't trek. Star Trek, like most science fiction, is largely humanist in the sense that religion doesn't appear, or at least not human religion. Certainly the series explored faith by creating alien religions, like the Prophets of the Bajorans, but understandably didn't want to bring the baggage or the complaining letters of human religion. I say it's understandable, it's a secular programme after all, but the exclusion of religion from science fiction makes works like The Sparrow all the more rare and enjoyable. Religion, in the eye of the majority of science fiction, is largely viewed as backward or redundant. Surely no one would believe in such nonsense in three hundred years time? Mass aboard a star ship, Holy Communion on an alien world? Stuff and nonsense.

But religion is a major part of the world and is likely to remain so. Technological advancement does not lead to an abandoning of faith. Just as Jesuit missionaries took Catholicism to Japan and China and British merchants took Anglicanism to Africa and the Far East, so it is more than likely that as we leave our home planet so we'll take our religions with us. This makes The Sparrow such an interesting concept for it attempts to view an alien culture not from a scientific or cultural viewpoint but from a religious one.

In the Christmas edition of Christis (issue 87), Chris Charlton wrote a story about an alien visiting York during Christmas. The alien experiences many of the 'false' aspects of Christmas, overindulgence etc, before encountering the true meaning of Christmas. However I couldn't help wondering what an alien would make of Christianity or what Christianity would make of the alien. We've learnt we're not the centres of the Universe, what would we do if we realised that there were other children of God? It is, granted, an extraordinary question and one that may seem irrelevant. Scientists reading may argue that there simply aren't aliens. Some may argue that theologically there cannot be aliens and others may wonder why it's a question being asked. Christianity is a very practical religion in some respects and with a world full of suffering and pain, what's the point of speculating on stuff that probably won't happen? All valid points but it's still a question I find interesting since, as Anne asks Emilio the Jesuit priest in The Sparrow when the alien transmission is heard, "Whom do you suppose God loves best, Father? Ooh, there's a nasty little idea. Sentient rivalries! Think of the theology, Emilio!"

Indeed, think of the theology! Could you even have missionary work? Would you even want to? Never mind Holy Communion on alien worlds, what about giving Holy Communion to the aliens? It's all rather curious and it makes you think. So the next time someone suggests a book, don't dismiss it. It may make you think. You may even get a Christis article out of it.