The next volume of the collected works of Philip José Farmer includes works that to one degree or another touch on issues of religion - the novel “Night of Light” (1966) and stories from the collection “The Starry Father”, as well as the story “The World Inside Out” (1964) . The cycle of works about Father Carmody, which includes “Night of Light” and the stories, was created over several years and was not conceived by the author as a single whole. Therefore, the travels of Father John Carmody, a former thief and murderer, and now a repentant and humble monk of the Order of St. Jairus, did not form a multi-volume series like “The World of the River.” However, in their time - and these stories belong to the first tests of the skill of the then young writer - they created a sensation. None of the science fiction writers had previously dared to write about religion in such a disrespectful, almost clownish tone, while simultaneously revealing its deepest contradictions. Each story is a paradox, whether we take “Relationships”, where religion is hidden under the guise of gambling, “Prometheus”, where the problem of the attitude of a civilized person to intelligent “ostriches” - Horowitzes, deprived of even the rudiments of culture - is refracted through the prism of Christian love, or “Father ", where the temptation of immortality turns out to be almost irresistible for the heroes, despite the price they have to pay.