Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ix
"Do You Know the Ordinances of the Heavens?" An Introduction to the Conversation 1
I A History of the ETI Conversation
1 "Worlds without Number" A Lively Debate since Ancient Times 17
2 "One of the Most Wondrous and Noble Questions" The Medieval and Early Renaissance Debates 33
3 "A Thousand Labyrinthes" The Later Renaissance Debates 51
4 "Awake Up the Eyes of Your Understanding" Enlightenment Thinkers Take up the Conversation 73
5 Against the "World-Mongers" ETI Skeptics Strike Back 101
6 "A Blasphemy to Doubt It" ETI Debates of the Nineteenth Century 127
7 "Globes of Gold or Diamond" Voices of Catholic Poets and Priests 153
8 "They Are Children of God as We Are" Voices of the Twentieth Century 181
9 "Intelligent Creatures in a Billion Galaxies" A Twenty-First-Century Renewal of the ETI Conversation 211
II A Contribution to the ETI Conversation
10 "Nothing Is Impossible with God" Is ETI Compatible with Catholic faith? 239
11 "God Shield Them from Us!" Possibilities for the Spiritual and Moral Status of ETI 267
12 "The Great Physician May Have Applied Different Remedies" Paths to Redemption for ETI? 289
13 "A Million Alien Gospels" Multiple Incarnations for ETI? 315
14 "A New Heaven and a New Earth" Paths to a Final Destiny for ETI? 337
"The Outskirts of His Ways" An Epilogue to the Conversation 355
What about UFOS? Thoughts about Unidentified Flying Objects 361
Bibliography 391
Index of Scriptural References 411
Index 415