The term "exotheology" was coined in the 1960s or early 1970s for the examination of theological issues as they pertain to extraterrestrial intelligence. It is primarily concerned with either conjecture about possible theological beliefs that extraterrestrials might have, or how our own theologies would be influenced by evidence of and/or interaction with extraterrestrials.

One of the main themes of exotheology is applying the concept of extraterrestrials who are sentient, and more to the point, endowed with a soul, as a thought experiment to the examination of a given theology, mostly Christian theology, occasionally also Jewish theology.

Exotheologian Joel L. Parkyn, in his book Exotheology: Theological Explorations of Intelligent Extraterrestrial Life (2021), examined the conjunction of human religion and a putative intelligent extraterrestrial civilizational contact or disclosure scenario as advanced by proponents of ufology. A summary of some of his fundamental theses regarding contact/disclosure is as follows:

Consequences for human religions depend heavily on the mode, means, and proximity of extraterrestrial contact; whether via radio interferometer, alien artifacts discovered on nearby planets or their satellites in our solar system, extraterrestrial probes encountered on Earth or in space, direct contact in space or in Earth orbit, or contact on one site or several on Earth. Inherent variables such as message content, interpretation, extraterrestrial agendas, and whether an advanced civilization would assume a cooperative, hostile, ambivalent or other posture with Earth leadership will determine short and long term outcomes. An intelligence-containing extraterrestrial contact/communication of a religious nature could result in the reformulation of key theological principles among Earth religions, potentially redefining/illuminating certain of Earth-bound conceptions of God, creation, the meaning of human existence and the afterlife.

Humanity in a contact or disclosure scenario should not expect a monolithic theological, programmatic, or psychological response among religious institutions and individual believers due to the great variety of institutional, communal, and individual perspectives. Notably, there have been long-standing concerns with regard to certain Christian denominations, with negative reactions predicted among fundamentalist-oriented theologies, which typically advocate strictly anthropocentric and geocentric views. The Brookings Report titled "Proposed Studies on the Implications of Peaceful Space Activities for Human Affairs", funded by NASA in 1960, in a section titled, The Implications of a Discovery of Extraterrestrial Life, stated in particular with regard to these perspectives: "The positions of the major American religious denominations, the Christian sects, and the Eastern religions on the matter of extraterrestrial life needs elucidation...For them, the discovery of other life-rather than any other space product-would be electrifying..." For these faiths, evidence and/or official acknowledgement of extraterrestrial intelligence could prove especially damaging. Official governmental disclosure of an intelligent extraterrestrial reality, whether originating in the United States or other country, in conjunction with political leaders, industry and academic experts, religious authorities, as well as media interpretation, reaction, and public dissemination will have a large influence formulating interpretation and hence public responses.

Extraterrestrials could positively expand their religious consciousness in their contacts with other races, including humans; or conversely, their influence become a source of conflict, resulting in the subjugation, trivialization, relativization, or syncretization of indigenous religious beliefs and values in relation to their own. A more primitive extraterrestrial religion, or religion held among less advanced, remotely discovered societies would likely pose little challenged to Earth religions. However, one more complex or belonging to a more ancient, culturally and/or technologically advanced race could present theological and religious challenges for certain believers. Species with advanced religions may avoid direct contact with the lesser advanced so to not disturb their natural cultural evolution according to their particular religious, situational, technological, and historical era. Alternatively, an encounter with advanced extraterrestrials devoid of religious beliefs, or their explicit or implicit acceptance of agnosticism or atheism may discourage religiosity among certain sectors of human populations.

It is possible that benign extraterrestrial societies may not desire to impart too much information, particularly of a religious nature, aware of the potential social and psychological disruptive effect on a terrestrial-bound populace. It would be reasonable therefore that benevolent extraterrestrials planning a contact/disclosure event would prepare, either by long-term furtive intervention and/or in coordination with certain governments, so that human cultural evolution produces technological and scientific advances, as well as the prerequisite theological, philosophical, and psychological perspectives, or cultural alignment, to mitigate social disruption. In this case, a process of large-scale social and psychological conditioning to accommodate an extraterrestrial civilizational acknowledgement could be on the scale of many decades to one or two centuries given our current civilizational epoch.

In the creation stories in Genesis and outside the Bible there is no mention of extraterrestrial life. Passages like John 10:16 and 1 Peter 3:18-20 are more likely to speak about Gentiles or people who died before Jesus.