315. How Do Incensepunk Stories Imagine the Church’s Future?
About this episode
The episode explores the incensepunk subgenre of sci-fi that envisions a future where faith plays a significant role in culture.
So much sci-fi likes to imagine that humans survive for centuries with some knowledge of classic literature, music, and cultural memory—everything except our religious beliefs. But today we explore a new sci-fi subgenre that dares to suggest the opposite. Faithful priests and other religious heroes of the future may not be wicked villains. In fact, they may be kind of awesome—and potentially fight in powerful mech armor. What is this subgenre some creators call incensepunk ?[1. Photo by Rod Long on Unsplash .] Episode sponsors All That Glows by Lauren Smyth Realm Makers 2026 Conference & Expo Author Update from Author Media Descendant Publishing Mission update New at Lorehaven: Stephen is on break for the annual Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference; welcome to any new listeners he met while teaching about fantastical stories there Now we’re getting ready for Realm Makers. More on that soon. Subscribe free to get updates and join the Lorehaven Guild Concession stand Stephen and Zack are Protestants, and yet often enjoy fellowship with Catholic friends. Many creators of fantastical fiction, such as J.R.R. Tolkien, come from these other traditions. So we wanted to…
People in this episode
Hosts: Stephen, Zack
Guest: Jon James
Topics covered
- incensepunk
- science fiction
- religion
- cultural memory
- future of the church
- fantastical fiction
Keywords
- incensepunk
- sci-fi
- future church
- religious heroes
- fantastical stories
- cultural memory
- mech armor
Sponsors
Realm Makers
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Author Media, Descendant Publishing, Lorehaven
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