pondering paper topics

[sigerson]

Do any of y'all know of speculative fiction/scifi/fantasy novels that involve multiple faiths? I seem to be able to name ones that have One Big Church but an imagined world with multiple faiths isn't quickly jumping to mind. I must be missing something.

ETA: Wow. I must have had my brain turned off not to remember Small Gods. Thank you guys so much for these! (Now I have new reading material that doesn't involve the word "discourse"!)

Comments

[stealthmuffin.livejournal.com]

Took me long enough to reply to this, but here's a few thoughts:

It seems that a lot of spec fic either does one of two things with regard to religion: 1) splits the civil/community aspect of it (ritual, etc.) off from the spiritual aspect. Forms are followed, but they're portrayed as empty. (Cf. works vs. faith? Not sure.) Or 2) sets one religion up against another to illustrate Good and Bad on a macro scale. A number of novels I like do this -- A Song for Arbonne, for example, is all about the Good Caring Female Religion versus the Bad Overbearing Male Religion, to the point where you feel like you've been beaten about the head with a sack of marbles. However, there are works like Judith Tarr's Avaryan Rising, which not only sets up this dichotomy, it then calls it into question and does not flinch from its conclusions.

A couple of science fiction works came to mind: "Sanctuary," by Michael Burstein, is an excellent novella (novelette?) about how religious practices intersect with human-alien interactions. The Android's Dream, by John Scalzi, involves a new religion called the Church Of the Evolved Lamb, simultaneously tongue-in-cheek and earnest, and it's hard to say where that one ends up. I've heard The Sparrow also involves religion, but I haven't read it and am too sleepy to remember the salient points.

One thing that struck me as well: in Hope Mirrlees' Lud-in-the-Mist, it's mentioned that when Duke Aubrey disappeared, so did all the priests. I'm not sure if I can explain how important Duke Aubrey is without explaining the novel, so either I'm going to have to loan it to you or sit down and describe it sometime.

I sleep now.