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Into the Darkness
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The Chosen Succeeds Where ‘Woke’ Stories Fail
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Silver Bounty, Victoria McCombs
A Sword for the Immerland King, F. W. Faller
Calor, J. J. Fisher
Once Upon A Ren Faire, A. C. Castillo
The Genesis 6 Project, Michael Ferguson
Exile, Loren G. Warnemuende
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The Truth Beyond the Lies, Kathleen Bird
Frost, Winter's Lonely Guardian, E. E. Rawls
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Quest of Fire: Desperation, Brett Armstrong
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147. Why Can Christians Celebrate Stories about Merlin and King Arthur? | with Robert Treskillard
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146. How Did Animators Adapt The Wingfeather Saga For Streaming TV? | with Keith Lango
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145. How Did Edmund Spenser’s ‘The Faerie Queene’ Shape Christian Fantasy? | with Rebecca K. Reynolds
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Into the Darkness
“Charles Hack’s Into the Darkness summons a close-range science fiction story, focusing on the personal challenges of space warfare among alien cultures with a steady pace and serious tone.”
—Lorehaven on Feb 3, 2023

A Crown of Chains
“A Crown of Chains creatively retells a biblical tale to explore themes of providence, racism, faith, and fidelity.”
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Lander’s Legacy
“Lander’s Legacy stacks modern thrills and complex characters on a foundation of biblical what-ifs.”
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Prince Caspian
“Pacing starts slow but creature lore grows in C. S. Lewis’s sequel, introducing practical tyrants and talking-beast politics into a Narnian resistance.”
—Lorehaven on Jan 13, 2023

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Lorehaven helps Christian fans explore fantastical stories for Christ’s glory: fantasy, science fiction, and beyond. Articles, the library, reviews, podcasts, gifts, and the Lorehaven Guild community help fans discern and enjoy the best Christian-made fantastical stories, applying their meanings to the real world Jesus Christ calls us to serve. Subscribe free to get any updates you choose and to access the Lorehaven Guild.
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Moana: The Gods Must Be Crazy

This is all fun and games from our enlightened, high-tech perch where we can say, “Aw, that’s cute. The native is praying to his ‘fire god.’ Adorable.” Yet it’s important to remember that these “adorable natives” prayed with as much devotion, if not more so, to their gods, elders, and ancestors as we do to the God of the Bible.
Mark Carver on Jun 28, 2017
2 comments

Copyright Disney

After a recent birthday party, my four-year-old daughter is now officially obsessed with the latest Disney movie, Moana. As a dad, I am very relieved because a). it’s not Frozen, and b). it’s not Frozen. Plus, I find this new film to be more enjoyable than a story about a misunderstood ice queen who just wants to let it go. Moana has action and comedy a-plenty, and as a guy, I was happy that the demigod Maui was almost a co-star, rather than just a periodic comic relief like Olaf in Frozen.

Being a mish-mash of ancient Pacific Island cultures, Moana has quite a bit of mythological backstory and context with gods and goddesses and world-ending consequences. The film’s villain is a fiery volcanic demon who looks like the younger sibling of Chronos in another bucket-o-gods movie, Wrath of the Titans. In that Greek-inspired fantasy, Chronos bursts out of a volcano and all hell literally breaks loose. Quite a different cinematic experience than Moana, but both movies share one common thread: the gods must be crazy.

Polytheism has been around almost as long as humanity. The Bible doesn’t pinpoint an exact moment in history when people started worshiping other gods, but it is clear from the Tower of Babel kerfuffle (Genesis 11) that mankind was already turning away from the true God and looking to other sources of greatness. The Ten Commandments instructs God’s people to have “no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3). The ancient Egyptians, the Vikings, Native Americans, Aborigines, the African tribes, the Greeks, the Romans – all prayed to many gods who presided over specific parts of life on Earth.

In our modern, Western, Judaeo-Christian culture, there is a tendency to romanticize these cultures and their pagan traditions (look up “Noble Savage”). Heavily diluted and warped reinterpretations like Moana and Wrath of the Titans make the gods more-or-less like us — impulsive, emotional, plagued with doubt, valiantly striving against insurmountable odds. Demigods (humans with god-given power) like Maui or Perseus are really just templates for our modern comic book superheroes.

Copyright Disney

This is all fun and games from our enlightened, high-tech perch where we can say, “Aw, that’s cute. The native is praying to his ‘fire god.’ Adorable.” Yet it’s important to remember that these “adorable natives” prayed with as much devotion, if not more so, to their gods, elders, and ancestors as we do to the God of the Bible. These myths were absolutely real to them. Of course, it was ignorance that imprisoned them (atheists say the same thing about religion today) but the fear and awe that these fictitious deities held over these cultures was enough to rule the people completely. They weren’t just stories; the gods were as real as their own flesh and blood.

All of this makes me very grateful that I know who the One True God is, as well as the fact that there is only One True God. It sounds a bit silly, but it is a lot simpler to worship one omniscient, omnipotent God than to worry about appeasing dozens or hundreds of lesser gods. My crops died, so I must have made the sun god mad … or is it the rain god? Perhaps the dirt god? Perhaps I am simply being messed with by a trickster god? Ain’t nobody got time for dat. As Captain America famously declared to the delight of Christian geeks everywhere: “There is only one God, ma’am, and I’m pretty sure He doesn’t dress like that.”

Mark Carver
Mark Carver writes dark, edgy books that tackle tough spiritual issues. He is currently working on his ninth novel. Besides writing, Mark is passionate about art, tattoos, bluegrass music, and medieval architecture. After spending more than eight years in China, he now lives with his wife and three children in Atlanta, GA. You can find Mark online at MarkCarverBooks.com and at Markcarverbooks on Facebook.
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  1. HG Ferguson says:
    June 28, 2017 at 3:05 pm

    Thanks for telling the truth about these things, with precision, fairness and no small amount of humor. And that last Captain America quote: priceless!

    Reply
  2. notleia says:
    June 28, 2017 at 4:14 pm

    Eh, the gods-as-superpowered-people interpretation isn’t necessarily wrong. Poly-gods aren’t necessarily (and aren’t usually) omnipotent, omnipresent, and definitely not omnibenevolent. It’s just that Moana makes them actually likeable. (I only saw the original cheese-pile of Wrath of the Titans, I probably couldn’t stand an inaccurate pile of blorf like the remake.)

    Reply

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Lorehaven helps Christian fans explore fantastical stories for Christ’s glory: fantasy, science fiction, and beyond. Articles, the library, reviews, podcasts, gifts, and the Lorehaven Guild community help fans discern and enjoy the best Christian-made fantastical stories, applying their meanings to the real world Jesus Christ calls us to serve. Subscribe free to get any updates you choose and to access the Lorehaven Guild.
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