Reflection: Eifelheim

So I was rummaging through Cracked.com the other day and I came across something that I thought had a peculiar relevance to our course:

http://www.ufoevidence.org/cases/case485.htm

Basically, it's a 16th-century woodcut from Basel, Switzerland which seems to depict some kind of space battle. There also "Madonna with San Giovannino":

http://conspiracypage.wordpress.com/2007/10/23/renaissance-ufo/

Which seems to have a UFO flying in the background. The interesting thing that Cracked points out, however, is that some people consider this a typical Renaissance depiction of the "Holy Spirit." And I thought that, if this is how Medieval and Renaissance people (the word Renaissance in this case being somewhat relative, given that it started much earlier in Italy than, say, England) perceived religion, then Eifelheim is odd in that Dietrich doesn't seem to consider the Krenken as anything other than outlanders. He doesn't really seem to translate them into that kind of religious context, instead thinking of them the same way Christians (and particularly Catholics) have historically had a tendency to think of other peoples: as potential converts.

I think part of my confusion at this perspective is that it switches that situation we see in Conquest of America. The humans aren't the invaders, here, and yet they're behaving like missionaries, unable to understand or help the Krenken but willing to convert them nonetheless. The Krenken, on the other hand, keep hoping that Jesus will come out of the sky--literally--and save them. Their conversion is practical, not spiritual, and by the time they more or less realize that it's spiritual it's too late. The presence of religion in this book seems to be countered by an absence of faith, in the sense of belief in that which cannot be seen, but felt. This may, in some way, have to do with the fact that Dietrich is highly educated, but the fact that the Krenken are not perceived as something holy except in the sense that all men are potentially holy confuses me in the light of how UFOs seemed to be depicted.