When Canticle first appeared, seven years ago, it was compared to Brave New World, 1984 and On the Beach. But in one way Canticle is more satisfying: it puts its theme in theological perspective. The critics praised it, faulted it for being "too Catholic," and have generally ignored it since. Yet the paperback—with a seared monk on its cover, transfigured against the blazing wreckage of civilization—has passed from friend to friend. Now it can be read not just as a piece of brilliant science-fiction warning about the coming nuclear deluge, but as an underground sub-Scripture classic, an ethical tract….

Despite all its futurism, Canticle seems curiously anachronistic today. This is not so much an indictment as an indication of how far our popular theology has come, even though we aren't gaining much better control of our environment. Miller's eschatology of doom is muted by our Teilhardian theology...