In Julian May's Galactic Milieu:
"'I even assisted the priest in giving communion to all the guests, exotics included. Weird, isn't it, that bread is the one foodstuff that all entities in the Galactic Milieu can extract nourishment from?
"All entities with bodies, that is."
-Julian May, Magnificat (London, 1996), Chapter Nine, p. 151.
Very weird, unless God or the author (Julian May) has arranged it that way? But that is definitely not the case in Poul Anderson's Technic civilization. There might be an argument that only entities capable of consuming bread and wine can be converted to Christianity and that others have a different way to salvation. Or maybe hydrogen-breathers etc would adapt some part of their staple diet as an analogue of communion? One thing is certain - there would be adherents of every possible answer to the question.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Now that was an interesting question, and one I never thought of before: how could a non-human who wished to become a Christian receive Communion if his biochemistry was so different from ours that he could not metabolize bread, wine, and water? And I think Poul Anderson's speculations about how and what non-humans ate to be more realistic than those of Julian May. I simply don't think all intelligent races will be oxygen breathers, for example.
Yes, if the question of how to respond to non humans who wished to become Christians ever comes up, I think the Catholic Church would need to convoke an Ecumenical Council to thrash out the issues involved and come to an authoritative decision. I'm sure works like C.S. Lewis' "Religion and Rocketry" and Brother Guy Consolmagno's booklet INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE? would be consulted. Even my obscure article "God and Alien in Anderson's Technic Civilization" might be exhumed!
Sean
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