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More About Characters

The subject of characters in Christian fiction has been coming up on this blog a lot recently. I’ve appreciated E. Stephen Burnett’s excellent series “Fiction Christians From Another Planet” — Patrick Carr’s guest post about writers using real people as […] · Yvonne Anderson

Fiction Christians From Another Planet! IV: Terror Of The Megachurchians

If we only ever meet in Christian novels pagan characters overcome by platitudes like “Really? There’s a God who loves — me?”, the author has gone beyond corny. Worse, our Hero and the Gospel look ridiculous. · E. Stephen Burnett

Offended

One day, while I was still attending Seminary, one of my professors came in and admitted to doing something heretical. I remember it well, even fifteen years later. · John Otte

Realism And Twenty-first Century Stories

If all characters are victims of disaster, I suggest readers or viewers stop caring and start looking for the “out.” Will the character die and come back? Have a narrow escape? Have a death that only looks like death? In truth, all the arguing and betrayal and refusal becomes–predictable and boring and unrealistic. Soon the characters seem more like caricatures because none acts with nobility or courage or hope. All display their flawed selves with so little inner struggle. And this, we’ve come to believe, is realistic. · Rebecca LuElla Miller

The Christian Writer and Fiction

Fiction is not very good fiction, if fiction at all, without ‘flawed characters and narrative.’ As such, the gospel-story (narrative) is the story of sinful men and women (flawed characters) coming to repentance and faith in Christ, the Redeemer, whose sacrifice atones for their sins. The narrative does not stop at the point of conversion but continues with how such persons struggle with the remaining sin within them (flawed characters, again) and the sin in the world around them. · Thomas Clayton Booher

Fiction Christians From Another Planet! III: Voices From Beyond

You want a Christian-fiction notion that makes pagan readers cackle and other Christians cringe? Then exalt voices-from-beyond as the only way God daily guides His people. · E. Stephen Burnett

Screwtape on Redefining ‘Realism’

“Your patient, properly handled, will have no difficulty in regarding his emotion at the sight of human entrails as a revelation of Reality and his emotion at the sight of happy children or fair weather as mere sentiment.” · E. Stephen Burnett

The Christian And Stories

Should we seek to win the hard drinking and hard swearing jock by writing stories filled with drinking and swearing? Since real people do drink and swear and assault people and have affairs, since real people are prostitutes or frauds or terrorists, shouldn’t our stories show them in all their ugliness and need? · Rebecca LuElla Miller

On The ‘Throne Of Bones’: A Q and A With Vox Day

“A Throne of Bones” epic-fantasy author Vox Day discusses how he’s moved from columns to fiction, controversial novel content, and his criticism (not imitation) of “A Game of Thrones.” · Vox Day

Less Screaming, More Swashbuckling

Christian ministries and parents: let’s have less “they’re coming after our children!” screaming and more faith-based Godly swashbuckling. · E. Stephen Burnett

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

Incarnation, Part 2: Hero In The Flesh

Some stories rebel against God’s order of salvation; yet others do echo or even celebrate the Hero’s incarnation. Why does incarnation truth captivate us, and how does it inspire real and imaginative worlds? · E. Stephen Burnett

In Which I Take The “Wrong Vehicle” Out For Another Spin

A week and a half ago, Mike Duran contended that fiction is the wrong vehicle for theology. That generated a wonderful discussion, but I didn’t enter into either conversation because I needed time to craft a careful response. Which I’ll attempt today. · Yvonne Anderson

‘The Hobbit’ Story Group 5: Riddles In The Dark

“The Hobbit” chapter 5, “Riddles in the Dark,” marks a turning point in the careers of not only Bilbo Baggins, but J.R.R. Tolkien. · E. Stephen Burnett
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