Science And Religion In Fiction IV

Hard sf by Poul Anderson and James Blish incorporates Christian characters asking theological questions:

Could God have created the Ythrians? (Anderson)

Or the Lithians? (Blish)

Could God have been incarnated on another planet? (Anderson)

In these works, such issues exist only inside some characters' heads. However, a prima facie contradiction between a character's experiences and his beliefs is more than enough to generate a story about that character.

Supernatural beings literally exist in works of fantasy by Anderson and Blish but there is usually a clear demarcation between the genres. I have to write "usually" because imaginative authors create exceptions and borderline cases:

Heinlein's Martians and Aldiss's Helliconians have direct contact with their hereafters;

Heinlein's and Bradbury's Martian Old Ones are similar;

Lewis's eldila have empirically discernible bodies;

in Volume III of Blish's After Such Knowledge Trilogy, Fr. Ruiz-Sanchez believes that Satan is active on Lithia whereas, in Volume II, the magicians had seen demons and, in Volume I, Roger Bacon's inner voice, might have been demonic;

Anderson's inter-universal Old Phoenix Inn is a meeting place for characters from hard sf and fantasy universes but its existence does not compromise the genres of individual works.