Polish writer Jacek Dukaj, humanity makes contact with other space-faring civilizations, and Christianity—specifically, the Catholic Church—spreads far and wide until eventually humans become a minority among believers and an alien is elected as Pope. In Project Pope, by Clifford Simak, robots on the planet End of Nowhere have labored a thousand years to build a computerized, infallible pope to eke out the ultimate truth, have their work preempted when a human Listener discovers what might be the planet Heaven In Robert Silverberg's short story Good News from the Vatican a robot is elected to the position of Pope of the Catholic Church. In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the Kai is a singular person elected by monks (Vedeks) to become the leader of the Bajoran religion and is an allegorical Pope. Although the Kai does not rule the planet Bajor, the Kai does act as an Ambassador for the entire planet and can make large political decisions on top of being the religious leader of the planet. Penance A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller Jr. The Patterns of Chaos (1972) by Colin Kapp Redemption Ark, by Alastair Reynolds Reincarnation The Takeshi Kovacs trilogy (2002, 2003, 2005) by Richard K. Morgan - In the novel's somewhat dystopian world, human personalities can be stored digitally and downloaded into new bodies, called sleeves. Most people have cortical stacks in their spinal columns that store their memories. If their body dies, their stack can be stored indefinitely. Catholics have arranged that they will not be resleeved as they believe that the soul goes to Heaven when they die, and so would not pass on to the new sleeve. Born with the Dead, (1974) by Robert Silverberg Lumen, (1864) by Camille Flammarion The Helliconia Trilogy, by Brian W. Aldiss Immortality, Inc., (1959) by Robert Sheckley Life, the Universe, and Everything, by Douglas Adams, features an unfortunate creature named Agrajag who has reincarnated hundreds—maybe thousands—of times over, each time being accidentally killed by Arthur Dent Lord of Light (1967) by Roger Zelazny Neon Lotus (1988) by Marc Laidlaw Ubik (1969) by Philip K. Dick — In the novel, companies uses a form of cryonic suspension to preserve the deceased in a state of "half-life" which allows for limited consciousness and the ability to communicate. Ella Hyde Runciter, who has been in "half-life" for many years, tells protagonist Joe Chip that she's in the process