“You can’t legislate morality.” I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase. Maybe said it yourself. While in a personal manner, there is some truth to it, the statement as written is categorically false.

Why? Because the truth is that all laws are based upon someone’s morality. We have laws against murder because we believe that activity in most cases to be morally wrong. We have speed limit laws to limit traffic casualties because it is understood to be a right and moral goal.

If the phrase was stated, “You can’t legislate the adoption of a moral code,” it would be accurate. The truth is, however, that all laws are an attempt to impose a moral code on a population’s behavior. Even the most insignificant law exists to enforce someone’s concept of right and wrong.

“You can’t effectively preach morality in a novel.” I’m sure you’ve heard that or some version of it. “Don’t be preachy.” Often that translates into meaning if the story appears to have any kind of moral agenda…. Bad. Seemingly neutral? Good. If they do have a moral agenda, it had better be near invisible. Stealth seed planting only, please.

The statement is false.

Why? Because all stories convey someone’s moral code, no matter how overt or subtle they may be. Every story, no matter how benign, preaches a moral code. Even an amoral code is a type of morality.

The question isn’t whether a story preaches morality, but whether it does so effectively.

For the Christian reader, substitute “the Gospel” in place of morality or alongside it. Whether a Christian author has the gospel in a story isn’t the issue, but what gospel and how effectively he conveys it.

This is the scary part for authors. Authors are not the ones who decide what moral or gospel message resides in a tale. Authors don’t decide what message will be conveyed.

Oh, we try. Believe me, we do. Then we toss it out to the public. People read it. They report what they received from it. Sometimes it is what the author intended. Often it is not. Sometimes it agrees with the author’s morality and theology. Often it does not.

When all is said and done, readers decide what message exists in a story’s pages.

Classic case in point. Fahrenheit 451 is known for its message that censorship of literature is a means of controlling people in a dictatorial government. Yet Ray Bradbury, who wrote it, protested that the story isn’t about government censorship. He may not have intended that moral, but that is the moral message readers received.

What’s ineffective preaching?

I’m sure many of us have our own definitions. Mine is a story that tells instead of shows the moral or the Gospel. Or to put it another way, it is the mixing of non-fiction with fiction.

Several years ago, I reviewed a book for my first publisher, Double-Edged Publishing. The publisher wanted my opinion of the book, as he was considering publishing it. It was well written. Good, interesting story. One big problem. At several points, the author stopped the story to inform the reader for several paragraphs what meaning and message should be derived from the events just depicted. Cut those out and the story could have stood on its own.

Authors do this because they are scared to adopt Jesus’ method of preaching. How did He frequently do this? By telling a story, often micro-stories, and let the hearer figure out what message to distill from His words.

Many came away from one of Jesus’ “sermons” saying, “Interesting stories. But not sure what he meant by them.” Others might say, “What? Is he talking about me?” Then there were those with ears to hear that would have one of those “Ah ha!” moments as the message sank in.

If Jesus explained his stories, it was only to the disciples after the crowds dispersed. Jesus was content to let the crowds find the message. Many authors are not. They are intent that the reader get their message, so they tell alongside the showing.

As a reader, this limits what message God can reveal. Same reason I hate reading someone else’s highlighted book. I get what they saw as important, not what I might see as important. The message the author wants to convey may not be the message God has for that reader. By feeding it to them like a baby, an author can bind God’s hands.

Jesus knew if a person was not ready to hear the message, there was no point in trying to force feed it to them.

The most effective preaching is when people see the truth for themselves. When that happens, they are far more likely to adopt that message as their own.

All fiction has a message, a moral, and a gospel according to someone. The real question is, what message, moral, or gospel, and how effectively are they conveyed for those ready to hear?

What messages have you picked up from stories that were conveying it effectively?

From time to time I plead with readers to exercise discernment in choosing books and with viewers, in deciding what movies or TV shows to watch (see for example “Reading And Standards For It,” “How Much ‘What If’?” and “The Good and Bad of the Reading Experience”). But it strikes me that most of us don’t choose our stories based on what’s good for us. That smacks too much like taking our medicine or eating our vegetables.

Stories, it seems, are more like rich dessert or forbidden candy. They give us what we want, not what we need.

Which might be a scary thought. What does our book selection reveal about us?

Do we gravitate to epic fantasy because we want stories in which good, against all odds, triumphs over evil? Do we choose horror because we want to see some measure of hope in the fight against the monsters terrifying us? Do we read superhero stories because we desire a Knight who will set the world to rights?

Those are pretty noble motives. We could, however, just as easily ask, do we read epic fantasy to play out our revenge desires against the status quo, do we read horror because we have a fascination with inflicting emotional pain, do we read superhero stories because we covet the power to destroy whoever stands in our way?

Motives are at the heart of choosing what to read, I think.

From my online research, I came to believe what the studies about the brain and fiction revealed: “fiction is . . . a model for life which readers create in collaboration with writers.” The onus, then, seems to fall to writers to write truthfully. And yet the “collaboration” aspect doesn’t let readers off the hook. We have a responsibility to do something with the stories we read or view–rejecting or affirming according to the ways those line up with Biblical truth.

But what about the choosing of stories in the first place? How are we to determine what stories we’ll ingest?

Do we read books because they’re controversial, as I did The Shack? I thought about this in regard to Allegiant by Veronica Roth, which seems to be generating some controversy. Or how about Vox Day’s Throne of Bones and Kerry Nietz’s Amish Vampires in Space?

Perhaps we read books because they are popular. I first picked up Harry Potter because the movies had made them so popular I didn’t think I could avoid them (and the controversy over the books played a part in why I went to see the first movie). How many people started the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyers or the Hunger Games books by Suzanne Collins because of their popularity?

Some readers might choose books, and viewers, movies or TV shows, based on genre. After all, we talk about romance readers as a collective, or sci fi fans as a unit. Are some story fans locking themselves into a particular type of story? I think that might be the case. Whatever is in the chosen category is good, and whatever outside the category is a waste of time.

Readers might also choose books because of an author’s worldview. Recently Spec Faith guest L. B. Graham, in his article, “Some Reflections on Reading,” questioned that approach. Should we read books because a Christian wrote them, or steer clear of books written by avowed atheists?

There are lines that we must draw, and I have no wish to deny that. What I do deny is that this process is as simple as identifying the worldview of a literary work as “Christian” or “Not Christian” and then throwing out everything in the second group. I think the discernment which God calls us to, penetrates deeper than this.

Another group of readers choose books because of the author himself. If he has written a book these readers enjoyed, then they will look for other books by him and devour all they can find. Take Dan Brown, for instance. Until The Da Vinci Code became popular, none of his other novels had sold well, but after that novel hit big, suddenly his previous books such as Angels and Demons and Deception Point, upon re-release, were also best-sellers.

Still other readers only read what a trusted source recommends. If a good friend (or an online source that has proved reliable) has read the book and gives an endorsement, then the book has been vetted, so to speak, and the reader is willing to put time into it.

I suspect most readers use some combination of the above in choosing their books. Is there one preferred way?

Some of the harshest books I’ve read were not precisely choices–some teacher assigned them: Germinal by Émile Zola, The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, 1984 by George Orwell, Brave New World by Aldus Huxley, Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.

I’m not sorry I read a single one of those, though they were hard, even depressing in some instances. Nevertheless, they taught me a lot about life apart from God. I am more knowledgeable and even wiser because I read those books.

On the other hand, a movie showing gratuitous sexual behavior which I saw when I was a freshman in college left me convinced I needed to choose movies more wisely. I saw no “redeeming quality” in that movie.

Today, with movie trailers and previews and reviews, and similar pre-release information about books, a lot is known about stories before the reader or viewer ever has to decide about becoming a consumer. It seems we have less chance of reading or viewing something that surprises us. We pretty much know going in what kind of story we’re getting. Which moves the choice of stories forward, I think.

What do you think? How important is it for Christians to make wise choices regarding the stories we ingest? What ways do you use to find books? What part, if any, does discernment play in your reading?

Friends of speculative fiction, get ready for Realm Makers: 2014, the premier science fiction and fantasy symposium where people of faith convene to learn, connect, and answer the question, “Why not?”¹

We’re excited to get right to the news: Where? When? Who? So grab your calendars and get ready for an amazing event.

Where: Realm Makers 2014 will take place on the campus of Villanova University, in the beautiful Philadelphia suburbs. The campus is gorgeous, convenient, and offers us state of the art facilities for our sessions.

For an overview of the conference facilities, follow this link.

For a virtual tour of the campus, take a look here.

When: Probably more important that the location, the date is set: If you’re thinking of coming to Realm Makers: 2014, clear May 30-31, 2014 on your calendar. Guests will be able to arrive the night before programming starts on Friday and stay through to Sunday morning. Specific program scheduling coming soon.

Who: Most exciting of all, we are thrilled to have New York Times bestselling author Tosca Lee as our keynote speaker for the 2014 conference. If you don’t yet know who Tosca is, you’ll want to find out … head to ToscaLee.com to discover why she is a natural choice to speak at Realm Makers.

So that about sums it up.

Realm Makers: 2014
May 30-31, 2014
Villanova University, Villanova, PA
Presided over by the incomparable Tosca Lee.

Registration details should be available on the Realm Makers site around Christmas. Stay tuned!

If you’ve been dabbling with demons, open to the occult, or practicing pseudo-Latin from Harry Potter because you (unlike Potter’s heroes) want to control your life and predict the future, you must stop that. God’s life-sovereignty is better. His final prophet, Jesus, is better.

And if you have also been prying into the “prosperity gospel,” probing into mystical prayer, or actually bought the story behind that paper “prayer rug” that came randomly in the mail, you also need to stop that. It doesn’t matter how “Christian” these things appear — they are just plain old divination gear with a “Made By Angel of Light Industries” sticker on the back.

Yes, we may critique obvious evil practices that march right up your front lawn in red tights and scary face masks, even while evil is creeping in through the back door. Evil even masks itself in methods meant to keep out evil (which is what real witchcraft is meant to do).

Especially at this time of year, what’s the Christian to do? It’s not enough for us to reference texts like Deut. 18 and say what they don’t forbid. What does Scripture forbid — and why?

Christian fans of fantasy must not endorse, say, magic while only reluctantly admitting that okay, fine, some things are bad and nasty. Instead Christian fantasy fans must get out front and lead the charge against evil concepts and causes that dishonor Christ, the true Prophet.

“The Andy Griffith Show” for laughs threw its full support behind divination in “Three Wishes for Opie.”

Out with the false prophets, in with the Final Prophet

Deuteronomy 18 is the prime Old Testament text that warns against pagan divination. Let’s hit this text with some hermeneutics and see what we find, for them then, and for us now.

“The Levitical priests, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. [verse 1]

A strange fact about Deut. 18: there’s more in there than about pagans. As in Deut. 17, this opening paragraph continues God’s cohesive instructions spoken through Moses’s sermon about spiritual leadership in Israel. Deut. 17 speaks of trials for individual sin, how priests and judges should discern truth, and what should happen when Israel finally gets a king.

This context continues into Deut. 18’s first instructions: God is specifying how His people should support the order of Levite priests. They are, for now, His “mediators” for Israel.

Surely this is why God then moves to a darker topic: fake mediators. Imposters. Liars.

From Deut. 18, verse 9 and onward:

“When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations.

For them: This was originally spoken to and written for all Israel listening at the time. You will soon enter the Promised Land, and it’s a bad neighborhood. Don’t copy your neighbors.

For us: God’s promise to Abraham that through his descendants “all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3) has come/is coming true. We are those families of the Earth. Israel has expanded to include the Church and Gentiles (John 10:16, Acts). Thus we can now also listen to these older promises and warnings. Christians will disagree over how OT portions now affect us, but thanks to the New Testament’s similar warnings about sorcery and abominable practices, we may safely conclude these warnings do affect us.

“There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering,

For them: Don’t practice literal human sacrifice! It’s an abominable practice.

For us: Treat the image of God with the utmost respect. Life is sacred. Though we may not burn children on altars, how might we even in small ways practice “human sacrifice”?

“anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord.

For them: All of these practices sound different, but they are alike — every one is a false and blasphemous way to seek God’s will in the future. Divination: attempting to foretell the future. Fortune-telling: the same. Interpreting omens: the same. Sorcery, charming, trying to call up the dead for secret information about what will happen: all abominable imposters standing in for the real way God will reveal the future. (More on this in a moment.)

For us: Spoiler — that Prophet was Christ (Hebrews 1). So how much more ought we avoid mysticism and superstition that seeks to get God’s “answer key” apart from His final Word.

“And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God, for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this.

For them: OT Israel will have a unique role, used of God to punish these chronic offenders. (We’re not told their stories, but we’re told enough about God to know He is perfectly just.)

For us: Only the Church, and no modern nation, inherits God’s promises to Israel. Slowly God is “driving … out” evil in the world, but now in a fulfilled and more-powerful way. Thus we expect pagans to practice paganism, but we also humbly confront it among ourselves.

God punished pagans then, and He promises to punish them later. But in both Testaments He emphasizes: you will not practice this same paganism. It’s not about them. It’s about us.

So how will He communicate His will to His people then and now?

“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me [Moses] from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’—when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.”

For them: God will reveal His will and the future in His own way, using prophets and the coming Prophet. That is the exclusive way He will give any further revelation to OT Israel.

A true prophet’s simple criteria is this: a) he speaks in God’s name and not for other gods, which also implies that his revelation must match God’s previous confirmed words; b) the prophecy must, must come true — e.g., no backsies, no excuses, and no qualifications.

For us: God did send prophets, discerned by those simple criteria, and that final Prophet was Christ Himself, Whose every word aligned with God’s previous revelation and came to pass. Because He is the final Prophet, the implication is clear: no more prophets, and no more revelation like that. This doesn’t discount “echoes” of God’s Word in nature or art, His miraculous intervention, or His surprising guidance of our lives that we often recognize in retrospect. But it does discount the methods many well-meaning Christians promise will help us practice “divination” and determine His exact individual will before our decisions.

The enslavement of sorcery

Lest we fail to take false-forecasting divination/sorcery/paganism seriously, the apostles repeat such warnings for God’s people in the New Testament.

In Galatians, the apostle Paul blasts legalism and upholds true freedom.

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. […] You were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

(Galatians 5:1, 13)

“Freedom” with no chief end isn’t freeing. It’s slavery. Such works of the flesh enslave us:

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

(Galatians 5: 19-21; emphasis added, as below)

Sorcery enslaves. You may be an OT pagan sacrificing your child — your own child, and the very promise of your dynasty! — to appease false gods. Or you may be a pagan reading a horoscope based not even on updated superstition. Or you may be a well-meaning Christian seeking to “divine” the Lord’s will for your life apart from His final Prophet, Christ, and the written revelation of Christ. In all of those situations, you’re not free for Him. You’re a slave.

Praise be to God that Christ died to set slaves free — free from fear and mysticism, spiritual slavery, paranoia about false prophecies, and the powers of darkness. But what about those who reject God’s promised Prophet and persist in their vain attempts to divine the future?

Revelation, amongst all the controversial symbols, speaks of Babylon’s fall simultaneous with Christ’s promised return. By now I’m sure “Babylon” refers to the whole sinful world:

[…] The light of a lamp
will shine in you no more,
and the voice of bridegroom and bride
will be heard in you no more,
for your merchants were the great ones of the earth,
and all nations were deceived by your sorcery.

(Revelation 18:23)

Sorcerous empires will be purged from the planet. All that evil impurity, blasted into ash.

Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city [New Jerusalem, God’s dwelling place on New Earth] by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

(Revelation 22:14-15)

Sorcerous people will not enter the resurrected Earth. They will go on in slavery forever.

Goofus tries to read at least two fiction books and at least five nonfiction books all at once. Gallant takes his time with written works, maintaining a balance of fiction and nonfiction.

Guess which I am. But today it makes for a more interesting summary of my current reads.

Nonfiction
Spiritual Warfare In A Believer’s Life — C. H. Spurgeon (ed. Robert Hall)

This one isn’t a Spurgeon devotional. The introduction says it’s a collection of Spurgeon works edited together. But I’ve been treating it like a devotional by poking my way through it so long. As I mentioned before, Spurgeon surprises me with his lucid and often topical preaching, solidly Scriptural yet also sparkling with subtle wit, poetry, and imagination. Many pastors who rightly believe in Biblical exposition and shun frivolous anecdotes may want to follow Spurgeon: he explores texts speculatively, far beyond “wooden” preaching.

Fiction
Anne of Ingleside — L. M. Montgomery

My wife, Lacy, has finally indoctrinated me in what I now call the Anneverse. Now I’d like to induct L.M. Montgomery’s then-contemporary creation as an honorary member of the “speculative” genre hall of fame. What makes it speculative? Rather simply, her characters, especially Anne Shirley herself, demonstrate what it’s like to live real lives that have been informed by healthful fantastic imaginations. Anne’s is a realistic world of hard work, tragedy, good friends, comical encounters, outward religiosity mixed with heart, and a world of imaginary fairies, nymphs, epic myths, local legends, and spiritual wonder.

Nonfiction
Standing Strong: How to Resist the Enemy of Your Soul — John MacArthur

MacArthur’s lately been in the evangelical news for a little shindig called the Strange Fire Conference. This older work of his made it to the free e-book scene not long ago. Now I’m two-thirds through this basic overview of Biblical spiritual warfare. MacArthur contrasts Scripture’s emphasis with that of older, and still common, spiritual-warfare notions.

“This insidious practice of making God small and people great characterizes much of today’s spiritual-warfare movement,” he writes.¹ “How? By drawing undue attention to demons instead of Christ. People who ought to fear God fear Satan instead and focus on the powers of darkness. The modern spiritual-warfare movement has diluted biblical teaching about God’s sovereignty, our sufficiency in Christ, salvation, and sanctification. God’s simple battle plan for spiritual warfare is this: Turn from sin and turn to Christ.” A great reminder especially at Halloween.

Fiction
A Cast of Stones — Patrick Carr

The problem with mentioning this Bethany House-published fantasy is that by listing it as one of my “pending” books, I could give the impression the story was dull, so I became distracted. Trust me: I forget if we have leftover doughnuts in the house. Similarly, I can become distracted even from a great story. Carr’s fantasy began well, and I look forward to resuming it soon. Cast’s characters, speech patterns, and places have left impressions in my memory, fading only because of time. Soon I’ll return to this very promising ebook.

Nonfiction
Wisdom and Wonder: Common Grace in Science & Art — Abraham Kuyper

For years I’ve meant to read Kuyper, and now I finally am. For this volume, the Reformed Dutch theologian’s specific essays about science and art have been newly translated (and sometimes you can tell, with a functional yet odd-sounding turn of phrase). It’s great stuff, seemingly simple yet with profound applications for the Christian who seeks to hold both God’s common grace in the world with the truth that unregenerate man corrupts things.

Fiction
Amish Vampires in Space — Kerry Nietz

Yes, I’m almost two-thirds through this novel. And it’s a hoot, a hoot not because it’s so silly, but because it isn’t. Nietz spends chapters introducing characters and concept — just as it should be — before the story begins to do exactly what it says on the tin. And I now realize, first, that even these presumably lower-key vampires are freaky scary, and second, smashing iconic groups such as vampires and Amish together, in spaaace, makes for great drama. Unlike Nietz’s previous works, this one features an ensemble cast and third-person past perspective, which makes for a more sweeping work that feels truly, surprisingly epic.

I’ll conclude with all the puns I just successfully avoided: un-dead genres, feeds on popular myth, biting satire, count it success, makes my blood rush, sink my teeth into the story.

What have you been reading?

The more popular a book series becomes, it seems, the more the expectations of the fans rise. Remember the lines and lines of fans waiting for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows? Before half of us had thought about getting the book, the other half had read it and dissected it.

And oh, how unhappy some were.

It seems their dissatisfaction is nothing compared to what some fans of Veronica Roth’s Divergent series experienced. According to news reports the reaction to Allegiant is “an online fandom horror story.”

Apparently there was a less-reported reaction (in comparison to Harry Potter and even to Twilight) to the release of the book, with thousands of fans waiting in long lines until midnight when the book became available in bookstores.

But soon after, the angry reviews began pouring in. Here’s an example from Amazon, quoted in a Flavorwire article:

I think Veronica Roth either didn’t like being a popular author or was trying to shock the heck out of readers so her version of a dystopian future would be remembered. Unfortunately, if the latter is the case, I think she just ended her YA writing career–and a movie franchise with it. How did her editor and publisher allow this?

But it gets worse. Apparently some fans threatened violence:

According to the website BiblioFiend, as referenced in Roth’s tweet, some angry fans have threatening the author with violence. (” ‘Allegiant’ ending inspires some angry fan reaction,” Christian Science Monitor).

In an article that may have been influenced by all this negative reaction, Eric Christensen explores the subject of fans waiting for a next book in a popular series (“Is Waiting The Hardest Part or The Most Harmful?” Fantasy Faction). Chill, he concludes, and spend the waiting time reading something else.

Good advice. But the love of the storyworld and of the characters is like a first crush. It doesn’t really matter what else you do or where you go, on your mind is that one special someone. Will he be there too? Will he text or leave a comment on Facebook? What does he think of your new hair cut? Will he like your new top or shoes? And most importantly, when will you see him again?

So series fans wait. They want to “see” their character friends again and to re-enter the world the author has created for them to imagine.

But like crushes, reality sets in and what had once appeared as perfect suddenly becomes the end that was different from what the fans imagined or hoped for. And that’s disappointing.

From one Goodreads review:

I may never be happy ever again.

The fun and laughter is over. I have finally read Allegiant, and I feel empty inside. Empty but accepting, and understanding.

This book makes Mockingjay feel like Dr Seuss.

Then there’s this from a one star review:

I feel disappointed. And betrayed.

Mockingjay. The Death Cure. Requiem. I can’t say I didn’t see it coming. But I was really hoping Roth would prove me wrong. I was really hoping…

I had my hopes set so high, and it just…I just feel really crushed right now. This makes me question ever reading another dystopian trilogy.

Most of the series I’ve read, I’ve come to when all the books were available. But there was one . . . and I have to say, anticipating the next book was half the fun. When one trilogy turned into a second, I was so happy. But the quality lagged. And the end was, yes, a disappointment.

So is it inevitable? If we love a series, will we always be let down because of our expectations? Or is it possible to hope and wait and wonder and anticipate and find the story ending is completely satisfying?

What series have you waited for with growing anticipation? How did you react to the end?

Have you read Allegiant? What was your reaction to the end?

The Walking Dead is back for a fourth season and zombies have never been more popular. Ratings for AMC’s acclaimed series has multiplied every season thus far, and shows little sign of abating any time soon. The summer’s Brad Pitt-fueled, sanitized zombie-thriller World War Z was nothing but throwing gasoline on a flame; due to its PG-13 rating and minimal violence it opened the zombie craze to even more people who would have been put off by the grueling violence common to the genre. There are plans for two more follow-ups to World War Z. The hipster rom-zom-com Warm Bodies, along with popular satires like Zombieland and Shaun of the Dead, have breathed new life to the genre over the last decade, proving that there is yet life in the stories of the undead.

All of this then begs the question: What are Christians to do with zombies? The most common responses I have seen have been either opposition or public silence coupled with private tolerance and enjoyment. Christians who oppose the genre do so for the same reasons evangelicals seem to object to everything: too much violence, too much nasty stuff. Christians who stay publicly silent leave those with questions or concerns to their own devices. If we really believe everything has theological implications and that the Bible addresses all areas of life, we should not shy away from exploring various Christian approaches to zombie-lit, so long as we do so with gentleness, care, intelligence, and wisdom.

A common approach I’ve seen and witnessed in personal conversation (an approach which sparked this article) is to oppose zombie fiction and films because it presents a sort of anti-Resurrection theology which proponents claim “sully” Christ’s own Resurrection and trivializes death, which is supposed to be our enemy. Such a position creates an unnecessary opposition between Christianity and this popular genre, and is more likely to lose the only opportunity which such a Christian will have to speak into the life of those many young people who are crazy for zombies.

Such opposition is unnecessary because it insists on perfect theological accuracy from pop culture. Granted that we want to be clear in our doctrines in the real world, and granted too that just about every genre and style of story produced by man reflects God’s truth on some level, but this is often confused for requiring cultural artifacts to communicate rigorous doctrinal constructions perfectly and without error. Our best theologians and systematic theologies can’t even do that, much less an unbeliever. Neither C. S. Lewis or J. R. R. Tolkien thought this way either. In the preface to his The Great Divorce, Lewis was quite clear that his medieval dream-vision was not to be confused with reality: “I beg readers to remember that this is a fantasy. It has of course—or I intended it to have—a moral. But the transmortal conditions are solely an imaginative supposal: the are not even a guess or a speculation at what may actually await us.” All speculative fiction is the same, an “imaginative supposal,” a “what if,” and we do ourselves nor those we intend to help any favors by treating them as depictions of reality and then comparing them to how Scripture delineates that reality.

A proper approach to zombies must begin with the origins of the metaphor, or symbol. There were not, after all, zombie stories in the tenth century. As with the rest of the “horror” genre, zombies developed in the early decades of the twentieth century. There had certainly been folklore about the voodoo religion and mindless walkers, but there is some debate about whether such people were actually dead or simply unconscious. In either case, the cause of their “zombie-ism” was magical, not scientific. The origin of the modern zombie came about in the first decade of the twentieth century as an expression of modern unease toward modernism and globalism, the industrial revolution, and the mass movements of the developing nationalism that would later burgeon into the massive conflicts of world war.

Zombies, thus, are a symbolic expression of the hidden dark side of the modern world and many of the maladies that Christians are also concerned about. They are a parody of human relationship and human life, where proximity toward others is a danger instead of a good, where mass movements and “trends” have the effect of spreading by way of touch and “word of mouth,” a process which subsumes the flourishing of human life with its variation, diversity, and hierarchies of loves and passions and personalities into a monolithic mass of undifferentiated and unconnected hyper-individuals. This has been the standard definition of a “mass movement” in contrast to a true community. A mass movement unifies by means of an abstract ideology to which each individual adheres, the abolition of the individual personality which reduces human relationships to the unconnected individual and the governmental or economic structure. A mass movement, then, has the effect of destroying true community, which includes a loyalty to actual persons rather than to ideas and ideologies, and where genuine discussion and disagreement can occur without expulsion or a crisis of identity.

Zombie-lit, as an expression of this destruction of true community, can then be seen as a dark side of our consumer culture. We are all commonly referred to as “consumers” and participate in a globalized system of “consumption” of the goods produced by our world-wide manufacture of goods. The potential for such a system to enslave and overshadow all other relationships in human life is well documented, and zombies, which symbolize this danger, express this fear. We are “consumers,” but we are also the consumed, we are devoured and ingested by such a system and then pass on our infection to others, spreading the enslavement and destruction of human life. Anyone who has done any research on the effect of unfettered globalism on people in the third world cannot deny the ravenous nature of such a system (I suggest starting with Bales, Disposable People). The cost in human flourishing, human good, and human health has been well-documented.

Engaging young people on the implications of the symbolism of zombies can promote a better understanding of our world, and can even point to the Body of Christ as a refuge against the ravages of a relentless, devouring culture of consumption in which all things are consumed, including, in the end, ourselves.

We can go further than a critique of our cultural moment, of course. Theologically, zombies symbolize man dead in his sins, desperate to infect others. As Proverbs says, sinners love company and seek to corrupt the innocent. The zombie, as an expression of man with nothing left but the base instinct to feed and multiply can represent the “old man” of the flesh with his base desires. This could be a helpful springboard for Church study discussions on sin and the brokenness of man.

I have found one of the most interesting implications of zombie-lit, and The Walking Dead in particular, is what it tells us about our identity as Christians and the application of Christian ethics to various situations. When I started watching The Walking Dead, I watched with a group of other Christian millennials, and the most common discussion point between episodes was how we would have responded to such a hostile world and the situations in which Rick and the others frequently found themselves. The majority of these Christian young people concluded that normal human and Christian ethics were off the table in such a world. In such a post-apocalyptic and Darwinian world of survival of the fittest, they argued, survival is the preeminent necessity, and was therefore the highest virtue. This prompted me to ask whether Jesus’s moral claims were only of limited application, or whether they applied in every situation we found ourselves, no matter how extraordinary. Was there a situation in which Christian ethics did not apply, a crisis that was excepted from the comprehensive claims of Christian identity over our whole lives?

They said Jesus didn’t have a zombie apocalypse in mind when He laid out the Sermon on the Mount. Well, of course not, but He wasn’t thinking about transcontinental air flight either, but that doesn’t mean His claims don’t extend to airlines. And besides, I pointed out, Jesus had shown us how believers are to behave in an actual apocalypse, the type of apocalypse to which a zombie uprising would pale in comparison. Regardless of your views on the book of Revelation, we can agree that it was vision Jesus gave to John for the Church as a guide for how to behave when the world seems to be coming apart. And Jesus valued martyrdom and faithfulness over survival any day of the week. “And they have conquered him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death,” (Rev. 12:11).

Above all, this seems to be the most practical and effective use of zombie-lit for us as believers. The opportunity to engage young people on ethical behavior and the radical call to obedience to God in all circumstances cannot be tossed away, especially with all of the competing loyalties and conflicting accounts of what is good and just in this world. Let us not turn away from this opportunity neither with pietistic dismissal and opposition nor with silent toleration.

Superheroes in a Psalm?
I’m no heretic; please stay calm
If you know just where to look
You can find them in the Book
Books out! For superheroes in the Psalms.

Is this wrong? Listen, crew
I’m not saying the authors knew
Hermeneutics aren’t done this way
But we know that, so let’s play
Oh where — are the superheroes in the Psalms?

He rode on a cherub and flew;
he came swiftly on the wings of the wind.

Psalm 18:10

“I am here to fight for truth, and justice, and the American way.”

He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him,
thick clouds dark with water.

Psalm 18:11

“I am vengeance! I am the night!”

Now Asahel was as swift of foot as a wild gazelle.

2 Samuel 2:18b¹

“I’m the fastest man alive!”

There he broke the flashing arrows,
the shield, the sword, and the weapons of war.

Psalm 76:3

“There’s only one God, ma’am, and I’m pretty sure He doesn’t dress like that.”

You divided the sea by your might;
you broke the heads of the sea monsters on the waters.

Psalm 74:13

“King of the seas, remember?”

You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.

Psalm 139:2

[“Have you read his mind yet?”] “Martians don’t do that to one another.”

Smoke went up from his nostrils,
and devouring fire from his mouth;
glowing coals flamed forth from him.

Psalm 18:8

“Flame on!”

Then the earth reeled and rocked;
the foundations also of the mountains trembled
and quaked, because he was angry.

Psalm 18:7

“That’s my secret, Captain. I’m always angry.”

For by you I can run against a troop,
and by my God I can leap over a wall.

[…] He made my feet like the feet of a deer
and set me secure on the heights.
He trains my hands for war,
so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

Psalm 18:29, 33-34

“Your friendly neighborhood …”

[…] He flashed forth lightnings and routed them.

Psalm 18:14b

“Fooorrrr Midgaaaaard!”

[…] His neck was put in a collar of iron

Psalm 105:18b

“It’s Christmas. Take ‘em to church.”

And he sent out his arrows and scattered them

Psalm 18:14a

“They can’t bank worth a …”

You have a mighty arm;
strong is your hand, high your right hand.

Psalm 89:13

“Let’s go kill some monsters.”

Take hold of shield […]

Psalm 35:2a

“You’re at 114 Solenski Plaza, third floor. We have an F-22 exactly eight miles out. Put the woman on the phone or I will blow up the block before you can make the lobby.”

Orson Scott Card has defined fantasy, as opposed to science fiction, as a story about things which couldn’t happen. In other words, there are wonders and magic.

Recently fantasy has had a bit of a growth spurt in traditional Christian publishing, and a few trends are becoming apparent.

First, a category that continues to have success is legend. Robert Treskillard is leading the way with The Merlin Spiral series, a new version of the Merlin and King Arthur story. Following Treskillard’s debut novel, Merlin’s Blade, the second in the series, Merlin’s Shadow released this month.

Sigmund Brouwer also makes use of the same legend in his young adult series Merlin’s Immortals. Book three, Martyr’s Fire, came out this month as well.

Refashioned fairy tales also continue without losing steam. Melanie Dickerson leads the way. In January 2013 she released The Fairest Beauty, a Sleeping Beauty story, and next month The Captive Maiden, a reworking of Cinderella, is due out.

Alternate medieval fantasies seem to be doing well. R. J. Larson and Patrick Carr are two authors with successful series set somewhere else, though the place has a decided medieval feel to it. Carr’s The Staff & The Sword trilogy consists of The Cast of Stones, A Hero’s Lot, and A Draw of Kings due out in January. Larson’s Books of the Infinite include Prophet, Judge, and King.

Dystopian fantasy is a fourth category that traditional Christian publishers are producing, with Jill Williamson leading the way. Her Safe Lands series, set in this world in some imagined future, begins with Captives. Outcasts is due to release in January.

Evan Angler also has a dystopian fantasy series, aimed at a middle grade audience. The Swipe Series consists of four books so far, with Spark launching in November.

Myth is another subdivision of fantasy, and Anne Elisabeth Stengl leads the way in Christian myth with her Tales of Goldstone Woods. An illustrated novella, Goddess Tithe, is due out next month, and Shadow Hand will be available in February.

Donita Paul’s Realm Walker series seems as if it falls within this category as well. The first of the series, One Realm Beyond, will be available in January.

I’ve only scratched the surface of the books that are out or that will be soon. There are fantasies available from independent publishers too, and many more from self-publishers.

I can’t help but think a list like this might be a good starting point for Christmas shopping. What fantasies can you add that people should put on their “buy this for a Christmas gift” list? Which ones would you like to receive? (After you leave that comment, be sure to direct the person most likely to buy you a Christmas present to read Spec Faith! 😉 )