Prolific catechist Paul Thigpen, who mused on extraterrestrial life, dies at 71

Catholic theologian and prolific writer Thomas “Paul” Thigpen died Feb. 24 at the age of 71. A resident of Kennesaw, Ga., he wrote more than 60 books and hundreds of articles on religion and faith.

A native of Savannah, Ga., he was born May 18, 1954, and grew up on a sea island along the Georgia coast. In 1977, he earned a bachelors of arts in religious studies from Yale University in New Haven, Conn., graduating summa cume laude. He later earned a master’s degree in 1993 and doctorate in 1995 in historical theology as a Woodruff Fellow at Emory University in Atlanta.

Thigpen served on the theology faculty of Missouri State University in Springfield; The College of St. Thomas More in Fort Worth, Texas; and St. Leo University in Savannah, Ga. In 2004, he was appointed editor of The Catholic Answer, a bimonthly publication of Our Sunday Visitor Publishing in Huntington, Ind.. In announcing Thigpen’s new position, Greg Erlandson, then publisher and president of Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, described him as “someone who truly understands the hunger that Catholics have to hear the Catholic answer presented with clarity and reliability.”

In 2008, he was appointed to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ National Advisory Council. He also worked as the editor of TAN Books, a Catholic publisher in North Carolina.

An award-winning journalist, as well as an apologist and catechist, Thigpen wrote for dozens of religious and secular publications, both scholarly and popular. His writing topics ranged widely, with book subjects spanning “A Dictionary of Quotes from the Saints” and “The Biblical Names of Jesus” to “Extraterrestrial Intelligence and the Catholic Faith” and “Saints Who Battled Satan.” Among his works were several children’s books, including “God’s Wildest Wonderment of All” about creation, animals and the human person.

In recent years, Thigpen spoke and wrote about and was widely interviewed for his perspective on the potential of human encounters with extraterrestrial intelligence, in which he stressed that the church’s tradition provides a framework for understanding how the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence is possible from a Catholic perspective. He told Catholic News Service in 2023 that he wrote his book as a “preemptive move” to reassure Catholics who might be perturbed by claims of intelligent alien life, whether on distant planets or already visiting Earth.

In a 2022 interview with the National Catholic Register, Thigpen said that if extraterrestrial intelligence was discovered, “The Church could accommodate such new scientific knowledge, just as she did the 16th-century scientific revolution demonstrating that the Earth is not the center of the solar system.”

“If we were to encounter directly an alien species, with the possibility of communication, the Church would, of course, have many questions to ask about their spiritual and moral status,” he said. “The answers to those questions would then shape the Church’s response to such creatures. As we examine the issues involved, we’re pressed to delve much deeper into the meaning of traditional Catholic teaching about the omnipotence and creativity of God, the image of God in humanity, the fall of the human race, the nature of the Incarnation, the means and scope of redemption and the reality of the ‘last things.'”

After being raised in the Presbyterian church, Thigpen became Catholic as an adult. In an essay about his conversion for the Coming Home Network, he said he became an atheist at age 12 and also experimented in the occult. He wrote, “I came to believe in the Devil before I believed in God.” He returned to Christianity at age 18 through a large Evangelical Christian rally, decided to study religion in college and went to Europe as a “missionary evangelist.” He served as an associate pastor of a charismatic congregation and wrote for Christian publications.

He described “a long, thirsty wandering from one Protestant tradition to another: Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Episcopalian, classical Pentecostal, independent charismatic. Each had something solid to offer, each taught me critical lessons in walking with God. But sooner or later I had to admit that none of them was home.” He ultimately joined the Catholic Church with his wife, daughter and son in 1993.

In addition to scholarship and writing, Thigpen loved music and singing. He was a tenor soloist with the Yale Glee Club and the lead singer in a Christian rock band that played in Europe in the early 1970s. He dabbled in improv comedy, and as a child had a small speaking part in the 1979 CBS made-for-television movie “Orphan Train.” His character was named “Thigpen.”

In a tribute to Thigpen posted Feb. 25 to X, TAN Books CEO Conor Gallagher called him “not only one of the most respected Catholic authors in our industry, but a man who never left a conversation without making you a better person. He was one of those rare souls whom people did not merely admire — they loved.”

“I have no doubt that Paul’s work has not ended, but only begun,” he wrote. “From heaven, he will do even more for those he loved than he could while on earth. There is so much more to say about the man that I only wish I could capture here.”

A funeral Mass will take place March 2 at St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church in Kennesaw.

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