This volume explores the human dimension of a potential encounter with extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI). Assuming that contact with extraterrestrial life is possible, it examines how such an event could affect culture, education, ethics, politics, and systems of belief, including religion. The book also considers what policies and strategies for communication with extraterrestrial life might look like, while addressing the broader intellectual, social, and existential challenges such an encounter could raise. Bringing together interdisciplinary contributions, it offers both theoretical reflection and empirical research on people’s beliefs about ETIs, as well as their expectations, hopes, and fears. The volume will be of interest to scholars working on religion, culture, and the wider human implications of possible contact with extraterrestrial life.

Lluis Oviedo is full professor for Theological Anthropology at the Pontifical University Antonianum of Rome, and Fundamental Theology at the Theological Institute of Murcia (Spain). His research activities focus on the dialogue between theology and sciences, and on new scientific study of religion. He is also the Editor of the book series “New approaches to the scientific study of religion” (Springer).

Konrad Szocik is a philosopher, bioethicist, and professor at the University of Information Technology and Management in Rzeszow, Poland. From 2021 to 2022, he was a visiting fellow at the Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics. His research interests include philosophy, the ethics and bioethics of space exploration, human enhancement, feminism, selected issues at the intersection of futures studies and technology, as well as climate change, population ethics, procreative ethics, and the philosophy of antinatalism. His most recent books include Feminist Bioethics in Space (2024) and The Bioethics of Space Exploration (2023), published by Oxford University Press, as well as numerous articles published in journals such as Bioethics, American Journal of Bioethics, npj microgravity, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, and others. He is the co-editor of the Springer book series “New approaches to the scientific study of religion”.