Paperback book, in English bought in USA in the 1970s.
Spaceman in suspended animation wakes up in underground city/bunker.
How he got there...
I THINK he was a crewman on a spaceship, and was doing exterior repairs (maybe in a work-pod.) Something happens and the ship warps out and leaves him (or it was destroyed.)
He then either lands on the planet and enters suspended animation (locals are either primitive, or he is not allowed to interact) or enters suspended animation and the pod lands on a nearby planet. (He is waiting for the ship to return for him.)
When he wakes up,
He discovers that his pod was found by a society living underground. The surface had been destroyed by either nuclear war or solar flares. All the remain survivors live in these underground bunkers/cities. They started as bunkers, but the survivors have been tunneling and expanding to grow and survive.
I think he figures out he has been hibernating for thousands of years, maybe 5,000. When his body was discovered, the inhabitants realized he was hibernating and so have been worshiping his body like a god waiting for him to wake up and save them.
The main thing I remember from the story, was that his body had been found so long ago, that it had been put in an out of the way area with someone keeping watch, kneeling and praying, 24/7. It had devolved to sort of a punishment assignment for young woman (i.e. nuns) to teach them to behave and follow the rules, and they did it in the nude. The young woman who has the current shift (8 hours? - 12 hours?) has been doing it for many weeks and is extremely frustrated and tired of being on this assignment kneeling and praying for hours on end for the god to wake up and save them, that she shows her displeasure to the God's body.
When the spaceman wakes up and opens his eyes the first thing he sees is a beautiful naked young lady kneeling in front of him. (Flipping him off, blowing a raspberry at him, sticking her tongue out at him, or some other sign of clear disrespect. I can't remember exactly what it was.)
In the middle of her act of disrespect, the God opens his eyes, and she freaks. He is amused, not angry, but sort of uses it as blackmail to keep her from running out immediately and telling everyone he is awake, while he questions her to find out where he is and how he got there.
When he finally is revealed to the other inhabitants, there is a bit of a problem with the city leaders (priests?) Basically he won't follow the script they want him too. (They can decide what a sleeping God wants, an awake one can say "No I didn't want that.")
EDIT: I recently found a cover that looks familiar, but can't find much info on plot description. other than the cover blurb. The Alien Earth (1971) by Michael Elder. Does anyone have additional plot info on this book?
Is it the book I described?
