1. Autumn Grayson says:

    I agree that it feels a little weird to think of art/writing as intrinsically religious, though I guess it depends on what definition someone is using. The fact that she says all that makes it seem like art/writing is so important to her that she’s willing to think of it almost like her religion, so I guess it gives us an idea of how she is and feels. Or at least how her characters are and feel.

    I guess one main thing to point out with her perspective is that, even if someone wanted to say that poor writing meant religious disobedience to the work, what exactly dictates what poor writing is? Everyone has different opinions and standards, as well as different experience levels.

  2. Tim Brown says:

    Well said, and amen! Personally, I have found inspiration in Sayers’ “Mind of the Maker” as a Christian meditation on the creative process and how it reflects a Trinitarian nature (I admit it helps that I generally enjoy her works more than I do Engels’).

    • L’Engle. By the way I prefer her fiction to her nonfiction works of theology. Her poetry is cool too.

      Don’t waste your time with the movie A Wrinkle in Time. Oprah gutted it. Supposed to be about “self empowerment”, but in the book Meg saves her brother by becoming weak. Wrong again Hollywood!

  3. Bad theology can result in bad art in three ways.
    1. A simplistic view of the universe and denial of pain or suffering. Like many (not all) Christian romance novels.
    2. A simplistic view of humanity. This can result in a fictional universe of Christian Mary Sues debating evil Dr. Strawmen. Tolstoy and the other Russian Greats wrote excellent fiction because they acknowledged how complex we all are. To a lesser extent C.S. Lewis.
    3. Laziness. This is responsible for a lot of bad art.

What do you think?