A Case of Conscience

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## POV Information

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## About the Book

* Awards: 1959 Hugo Winner
* Genres: Pulp Fiction
## Description

A space-traveling Jesuit priest confronts a moral but godless alien race in this Hugo Award–winning novel by the author of the Cities in Flight saga. Winner of the Hugo Award for best novel, 1959.

Father Ramon Ruiz-Sanchez S.J., is a part of a four man scientific commission to the planet Lithia, there to study a harmonious society of aliens living on a planets which is a biologist's paradise. He soon finds himself troubled: how can these perfect beings, living in an apparent Eden, have no conception of sin or God? If such a sinless Eden has been created apart from God, then who is responsible?

*A Case of Conscience* is a science fiction novel by American writer James Blish, first published in 1958. It is the story of a Jesuit who investigates an alien race that has no religion yet has a perfect, innate sense of morality, a situation which conflicts with Catholic teaching. The story was originally published as a novella in 1953, and later extended to novel-length, of which the first part is the original novella. The novel is the first part of Blish's thematic After Such Knowledge trilogy and was followed by Doctor Mirabilis and both Black Easter and The Day After Judgment (two novellas that Blish viewed as together forming the third volume of the trilogy).

Few science fiction stories of the time attempted religious themes, and still fewer did this with Catholicism; another exception is Walter M. Miller Jr.'s Hugo Award-winning post-apocalyptic science fiction novel *A Canticle for Leibowitz*.

## Additional Info

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### Reception

While faulting the novel for "extreme unevenness", Galaxy reviewer Floyd C. Gale concluded that A Case of Conscience was "a provocative, serious, commendable work" and characterized it as "trailblaz[ing]". Anthony Boucher found Blish's protagonist "a credible and moving figure" and praised the opening segment; however he faulted the later material for "los[ing] focus and impact" and "wander[ing]" to an ending that seems "merely chaotic." In his "Books" column for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Damon Knight selected Blish's novel as one of the ten best science fiction books of the 1950s. He reviewed the novel as "resonat[ing] with a note of its own. . . . it is complete and perfect."

On the other hand, Br. Guy Consolmagno, S.J., the director of the Vatican Observatory, suggested that this novel was written without much knowledge of Jesuits, saying that "[its] theology isn't only bad theology, it's not Jesuit theology." In a foreword, Blish mentions that he had heard objections to the theology, but countered that the theology was that of a future Church rather than the present one, and that in any case he set out to write about "not a body of faith, but a man". He also received, and quoted, the official Church policy on contact with extraterrestrial intelligent life forms. The policy described such life forms as being possibly without immortal souls, or having immortal souls and being "fallen", or having souls and existing in a state of Grace, listing the approach to be taken in each case.

In 2012 the novel was included in the Library of America two-volume boxed set American Science Fiction: Nine Classic Novels of the 1950s, edited by Gary K. Wolfe.

The Science Fiction Encyclopedia lauds *A Case of Conscience* as “one of the first serious attempts to deal with religion [in science fiction], and [it] remains one of the most sophisticated. It is generally regarded as an SF classic.” Readers of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy, Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow, or Walter M. Miller Jr.’s A Canticle for Leibowitz will find this award-winning novel a gripping, compelling exploration of some of the most intractable and important questions faced by the human species. Includes an introduction by Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author Greg Bear.

### Publication History

* Published 1958 by Ballantine Books (NY), #256, Paperback, 188 pages

## References:

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 wikipedia:A Case of Conscience
2. ↑ Amazon's description