Would You Baptize an Extraterrestrial? ─ And Other Questions from the Astronomers' In-Box at the Vatican Observatory

In May 2014, Pope Francis revealed that, if Martians wanted to be baptized, he would welcome aliens to the Church. Vatican astronomer Guy Consolmagno and science historian Father Paul Mueller agree! Would You Baptize an Extraterrestrial? sheds provocative light on some of the strange places where religion and science meet.

So, could you really baptize an extraterrestrial? And exactly how do you reconcile the scientific version of The Big Bang with the Genesis account of creation? Is there really life after death, and will the universe eventually die? What then? Does the Vatican know something regular people don't about an imminent end of the world? Why isn't Pluto a planet, and what did the Vatican have to do with that decision? Was the Star of Bethlehem just a pious religious story or an actual description of astronomical events? What really happened with the Church and Galileo? These questions and more will be explored in a book that will certainly shock and delight readers who love science and spirituality alike.

BROTHER GUY CONSOLMAGNO, SJ was born in Detroit, Michigan, earned undergraduate and masters' degrees in Earth and Planetary Sciences from MIT (in 1974 and 1975), and a Ph. D. in Planetary Science from the University of Arizona in 1978. He worked as a post-doctoral fellow and lecturer at Harvard University's Department of Astronomy, and MIT's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences; served in the US Peace Corps, teaching physics at the University of Nairobi; and was a physics professor at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, before entering the Jesuits as a brother in 1989. At the Vatican Observatory since 1993, his research explores connections between meteorites, asteroids, and the evolution of small solar system bodies.

FATHER PAUL R. MUELLER, SJ is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio. He attended a Jesuit high school and earned a degree in physics at Boston University before entering the Society of Jesus in 1982. As part of his Jesuit training, he earned masters degrees in both philosophy and theology, along the way developing an interest in religion-science issues. After being ordained a priest in 1993, he attended the University of Chicago, where he completed a third masters degree (in physics) and a doctorate in the history and philosophy of science through the interdisciplinary program in Conceptual Historical Studies of Science.