/ New resources
/ SpecFaith / Topics: Art

Looking For A Few Good Words

I’m choosy about books. I’m not so particular about genre, but I’m a terrible snob where the quality of writing is concerned. I want some depth to a story. A satisfaction of the spirit. I’m less concerned with a story’s […] · Yvonne Anderson

What Is Intellectual Rigor?

Some writers sacrifice theme for the sake of art. However, the most artfully told story that says something untrue is nothing more than an artful lie. · Rebecca LuElla Miller

Christian Speculative Fiction And Intellectual Rigor

There is power in stories. Stories help us to see truth through someone else’s eyes rather than through our own biased view. Through stories we can get to Truth by seeing past our own version of truth. · Rebecca LuElla Miller

Art And The Clive Staples Award, Continued

The Clive Staples Award is not a popularity contest. Consequently, no voter should choose a book he has not read! Our aim instead is to honor fiction well written. · Rebecca LuElla Miller

How To Be A Silly Christian Fiction Critic

Don’t read actual Christian fiction. Compare apples and oranges. And especially, never challenge your own silent acceptance of evangelical tropes. · E. Stephen Burnett

Art And The Clive Staples Award

There are good books on the list, and I don’t think it’s going to be easy to pick the one I want to vote for as best of the lot. But I’d like to think through the process of making that choice. · Rebecca LuElla Miller

O Pioneers!

1908 was a year for pioneering. The first long-distance radio message was sent that January. Robert Baden-Powell founded the worldwide Boy Scout movement. The aeronautics world saw its first passenger flight–a crude biplane carrying one passenger.  (Related note: Later that […] · Yvonne Anderson

Bring In The Gospel, But Leave Your “Isms” At Home

The simple gospel is a gem of unfathomable proportions. So Christian writers, make sure it’s the gem the reader finds, not the box it’s in or the filigree that surrounds it. · Yvonne Anderson

The Echoes Of Christmas

God is the Author of the Christmas story. I wonder how far its echoes can, and should, reach in all stories. What would a story look like, written in a spirit that, like Scrooge, honors Christmas and keeps it all the year? · Shannon McDermott

How Storytelling Conveys Truth Better Than Non-fiction

I would suggest that what plagues much Christian fiction isn’t so much the desire to convey theological truths, but the mixing of non-fiction with fiction. Both forms are valid and have their place, but when they are mixed into a story, the result tends to be a story that isn’t engaging and/or sloppy/incomplete teaching. · R. L. Copple

Why Fiction Is The Wrong Vehicle For Theology—A Rebuttal

Rather than shying away from the depiction of “theology”–by which I mean knowledge about God–in speculative fiction, I think Christian writers should embrace the challenge. In saying this, however, I do not believe all stories must show all the truth contained in the Bible, nor do I believe that our stories must affirm all Biblical moral values (as if Christians even agree on what those are). · Rebecca LuElla Miller

Shallow Reasons To Support ‘Narnia’ 1

Flawed, over-“spiritual” defenses of the “Narnia” series are not only annoying, but ignore the stories’s central beauties and childlike wonder. Even worse, such approaches ultimately make readers worship God less. · E. Stephen Burnett

The Point And Purpose Of Reading Fiction

We frequently discuss whether or not we should expose ourselves to “gritty” stories about the garbage dump of life. Must we wallow in the mud, or can we choose instead to read stories that evoke truth and beauty? A tangential issue that might help with that question is this: are truthful stories beautiful (artistic) simply because of their truth? · Rebecca LuElla Miller

Film Failures, Countering Cultures, and Story’s Power

Reflections on The Gospel Coalition’s recent series about Christian movies. Do we draw arbitrary, legalistic boundaries against story “preachiness”? Do we fear the evil “Christian” label just as others have feared the evil culture? · E. Stephen Burnett

Rearranging Icons 6: Images Of Man

Just as Christ wants us, His “icons,” to exalt the Father and be one with Him as He and the Father are One, so we may want to “exalt” iconic characters who reflect us. Which iconic characters are your favorites, and why? · E. Stephen Burnett

Rearranging Icons 5: In The Eye Of The Beholder

I’m more interested in the idea that readers can have a richer reading experience and writers can tell richer, deeper stories if they understand how this works. · Fred Warren

Rearranging Icons 4: Characters Becoming Icons

For every Christian, icons are inevitable. But they must show a process of redemption. Christ the “Icon” of the Father underwent suffering. So should we, as we image Him, and so should art and story characters, which image us. · E. Stephen Burnett

Beauty and Truth 1: Four Sets Of Stories

Of the Christian novels you’ve read, which seem neither beautiful nor truthful, or only one or the other, or both? · E. Stephen Burnett

Sentimentality And Christian Fiction

I believe that stories that suggest God never brings things to right here in this life are just as untrue as those that imply He always does so. Perhaps J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis were such masters because they knew how to show both the truth of this world and the truth of Christian hope. · Rebecca LuElla Miller

Christian Speculative Fiction In A Postmodern World

On one hand, Christian speculative fiction authors believe, in contradiction to our culture, that there are absolutes, that belief is essential, that beauty is recognizable, and that now pales in comparison to one day. · Rebecca LuElla Miller
  1. Pages:
  3. 1
  4. 2
  5. 3