Poor dialogue - too cute and very little differentiation between characters in spoken conversation. Elements of Dune's water rituals, Ayn Rand's philosophical diatribes, Charles Manson's communal society and a kernel of Scientology are all contained within this book - and evidences its wide readership. Very anti-Christian. 

Mike, The Man from Mars - the Stranger from the Strange Land - ends up as a miracle producing messiah of the new age who incidentally ends up being martyred. He remains with his followers and rules from heaven in the end. Sound Familiar? 

I guess that perhaps this is one of Heinlein's most serious works. I read almost all of them in teen years. I loved them then. they are too thin in meaning now. 

Stranger is seriously lacking in positive contribution. It is quite easy for Heinlein to recognize the negative elements of humanity - and synthesize a melodrama from those our flaws. But what I find most ironic is the fact that Heinlein's solution to the fact that he doesn't believe in God/Christ is to synthesize the near exact duplicate of the core of Christianity and present it in corrupted form. Even so, he can't accept the Biblical model that is his own prototype. 

Perhaps the true irony is how a person like Heinlein could have missed that point.