1. Interesting thoughts, Rebecca. Speaking for myself, I can’t write anything but Christian fantasy. I am a Christian, and that’s what comes out in allegorical form. I don’t plan this. It just happens. Sometimes, even, I’m surprised to discover an allegorical meaning in my own fiction that had previously eluded me. My purpose for writing is not to teach, although that probably happens. I write to provide a way of escape from the daily grind into worlds of beauty. Mine is a simple lantern, but when I raise it, the flame within illuminates the pathway for others.

  2. Yes. A thousand times, yes. The best pulpit is introspection, not a lecture.

  3. HG Ferguson says:

    For me, the difference is always summed up in a single word: worldview. That is what should separate Christian SF and fantasy from the secular. Every author has a worldview. This emerges in Donaldson’s anti-hero Covenant, who creates as much havoc as he brings help — or more. It emerges in Martin’s Game of Thrones, where you have a God-less Darwinian dystopia where kindness and goodness are freak accidents. It emerges most strongly in Tolkien’s Akallabeth, where the people of Numenor reject the word of Eru Iluvatar and welcome Sauron, to their everlasting destruction. Worldview determines an author’s story, make no mistake. I agree with you 100% that too many Christian stories focus on conversions, what must I do to be saved. That stems from a worldview that values only conversion, for example. Too many Christian tales are openly didactic thereby, you are absolutely correct. But we must always keep the worldview of the scriptures as our starting point. We must always begin with what God thinks. What WE think is subordinate to that and can come in later. Thank you for bringing this to our attention!

  4. I so appreciate your perspective, Rebecca. Years ago, a friend and I were chatting about our writing journeys. She told me that she had just thrown away any story of hers that did not explicitly mention Christ or tell the story from a Christian worldview. While I fully respected her position, I tried to understand why I balked at the idea of doing the same with my own stories. At last, I came to the conclusion that story should not be sermon. As soon as it becomes a sermon, it loses its power to be a story.

    The distinction between speculative fiction books that are or are not specifically Christian is, to me, something we spend too much time trying to define. I find it interesting that you included images of the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. There is something of truth, of sin, and of redemption in those books, even though I’m not sure Donaldson himself was a believer (though his parents were missionaries).

    Or take the Lord of the Rings. Tolkien insisted vehemently that LOTR was not meant to be an allegory of any kind. And yet, it clearly is, and Christians often like to label it “Christian” over the author’s protests.

    For me, the big question is not “Is it Christian?” but “Is it true?” Does it have a sense of the reality of life, of the way people really think, of the motivations that drive us, of the sin that besets us, of the caprices of misfortune upon our best efforts, of the desperate need for redemption to originate from outside ourselves? While I think you can go too far trying to discover Christ in Star Wars, some of my father’s first encounters with the truth of God were not through “Christian” stories. We can sense when a story rings true, true to the reality of life here and life in eternity.

  5. Lisa says:

    Good post, Rebecca! I totally agree with you, too often we write about what we think others need to know, and thus the stories become didactic. And boring, quite frankly. I share your love for Thomas Covenant, and found his quote on fantasy interesting. I’m not sure I agree with him entirely, though, although if that was what he was doing in the Unbeliever Chronicles it worked for me!

What do you think?