315. How Do Incensepunk Stories Imagine the Church’s Future?
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 speak with today’s Catholic creators of fantastical stories.
- We’ll be joined today by the staff of Incensepunk Magazine
- They promise “High tech, high church… science fiction that envisions a future where faith is a living part of culture.”
Backstories: Incensepunk staff
Jon James, editor-in-chief
Jon’s work has been published in the Listen: the Sound of Fear anthology, the Killer Queen comics anthology, Recompose Journal, Theme of Absence, and Rehumanize International. His hobbies are as multifarious as the genres he writes in.
Follow him: Twitter, bsky, Substack, Website
Yuval Kordov, developmental editor
