I spent the past six days involved in a story-term mission ministry called “No Greater Love” in which men from a variety of places go to New Orleans during Mardi Gras to pass out Gospel tracts and other means of overt and not-as-overt methods of evangelization, including marching down Bourbon Street while carrying a cross in order to symbolize Christ to a generally very hostile party crowd. The trip provided me copious illustrations to talk about spiritual warfare, but for this article I’m going to keep it briefer than I otherwise would (I just got back last night) and will focus on just one aspect of things I observed for the moment. That is, in mingling with Christians from other churches, I met a lot of very sincere and nice believers who believe some rather odd things. Things I’m going to call here spiritual placebos.

Since these practices relate to things Christians do in the real world, they also relate to how Christians might be portrayed in stories. This topic also potentially relates to how spiritual warfare could be depicted in stories.

The placebo effect, for the few readers here who may not be completely familiar with it, refers to treatments with no real medical effectiveness that are generally presented to the patient as having an effect and the simple thought the placebo could help really does in fact help patients to a degree, though not as much as actual medicine (note there have been some studies where patients were told they were receiving placebos and the effect seemed to have happened anyway, for more info reference footnote eight of the linked Wikipedia article on “Placebo”). In fact, medicines are routinely tested against placebos such as sugar pills. If the medication is not more effective than a sugar pill, it doesn’t get official approval–though some medicines that win approval have effects only very slightly better than placebos (anti-depressants in general are only a bit better than placebos).

Placebos Are Not Harmful–But Not Real Medicine, Either

I’m making the somewhat controversial claim that for some Christians, certain spiritual practices act like placebos. I recognize I’m treading on dangerous ground a bit. Critics of Christianity will claim all results that stem from faith come from the placebo effect–it’s all in all in our heads, none of it is real. I certainly don’t want to give them ammunition against all faith. Nor do I mean to say the practices I’m going to talk about are actively evil or from the Devil or something. Though I do think harm can come if people expect more from these practices than they should.

If I don’t think these practices are actually bad, why bring them up? Why not let Christians continue in them if they aren’t harmful? I do have a specific reason for the approach I’m taking. I hope explaining these practices and what the Bible says about them will help Christians grow in maturity and understanding, and in the long run, make them better Christians.

A Scriptural Bias Towards Epistles

I’ve said this before for a different article, but to re-phrase here, I think a proper understanding of the Scriptures divides it into groups of texts. Books that relate history of the Bible show us events that did actually happen, so the miracles they at times reference clearly could happen again. God’s ability to perform miracles certainly has not been reduced over time–though not all periods of history had an equal amount of miracles or direct revelations from God. Some periods had very few (see I Samuel 3:1), others had more. It seems God worked as the situation required or perhaps as a situation allowed.

But as a Christian I know I can learn more about how a Christian should act based on the part of the Bible that is written to Christians, as opposed to parts written for ancient Israelite priests or kings. Which means the epistles more than anything else because apostles wrote them for the direct purpose of providing instructions to churches. The practices of Christian churches should therefore be derived from epistles, though of course informed by the Gospels and history of the Bible and everything else the Bible has to say. But again: the epistles contain the marching orders for the church–that’s their purpose.

So I call something a “placebo” if it’s a Christian practice people believe in that isn’t ever commanded in any epistle. If it’s something people do that the Bible never tells us to do. Which isn’t quite the same as me saying it has no effect at all.

Note I adopt this attitude not based on skepticism per se, but on on a belief in study and that our minds are given to us by God for a good purpose. That yes, while we should be guided by the Holy Spirit, we should also be guided by Scripture and that the Scripture is something we can understand with our minds and apply as we need to. And if the Bible doesn’t tell us to do something in clear terms, the practice of doing it at the very least is doubtful–though it may in fact be wrong or even harmful in some cases.

The Bible tells us to pray. So we ought to pray. It also mentions music and congregational worship and Communion and even miraculous gifts. Among many other things. But there are other things it never says we ought to do. Such as:

Anointing Oil

The use of oil in the Bible has symbolic meaning of blessing and special appointment. All priests had oil poured on them as part of their appointment to the ministry and at times kings were anointed, as was a prophet anointed at least once in the case of Elijah anointing Elisha. Oil was also used in the temple service as part of the offering system including in ceremonial cleansing (please pardon the lack of Scriptural references at the moment).

Oil was so important in Biblical culture that one who received the oil was seen as especially blessed to the degree that “Messiah” means “one anointed with oil” and “Christ” is based on the Greek word meaning the same thing. Jesus is the one especially anointed–that’s how important the act of pouring oil on someone is in the culture and history of the Bible.

However, is anointing with oil ever commanded in the epistles? Yes, once, in James 5:14, in which it’s associated with what the elders of a church should do for someone sick and needing healing. This one passage has been looked at in many different ways and I’m not going to wade into the details at the moment to say which view is right. But let’s note there are no other commands to use anointing oil in the epistles.

So when I met a man, quite a nice person, who said he’d asked his pastor to anoint him with oil before coming to the mission trip with No Greater Love because, “Anointing is powerful,” I didn’t say anything. He was entitled to ask for that if he wanted. It would have been especially appropriate if he saw it as a sign of the pastor appointing him to a special ministry because that would echo a lot of Old Testament history. But it seemed the man felt the oil itself was somehow special. And I’d say it wasn’t or we’d be clearly told to use it in a Biblical epistle in all such cases.

Another very nice man, along the same lines, said all of us who came for the trip need to be anointed with oil so we could get the power of God for what we were doing. The leaders of the camp didn’t take time out for all of us to do that, but it was interesting the idea that the man expressed there. He wanted anointing, not because any of us were sick, but as a means of empowerment. But anointing oil for power is not only not mentioned in the epistles, it’s not mentioned in Acts, either. A book with plenty of examples of God working in powerful ways.

I think it’s safe to say thinking of anointing or anointing oil as especially powerful is a spiritual placebo. Not harmful except if you rely on it too much, but not helpful in and of itself either.

Plead the Blood of Jesus

Yes, the blood of Jesus is powerful according to Scripture (re: verses like Romans 5:9). But does anyone in the Bible actually say “I plead the blood of Jesus” in a prayer? Nope. Not once. And no epistle commands believers to pray that way.

Yet there are Christians who pray that phrase as if doing so makes the prayer extra-powerful. Does it? Well, if a person believes the phrase is important I can imagine God honoring its use–God is merciful like that. But God never commanded it or ordered it. Any effect the phrase has therefore must be something rather similar to a placebo. Maybe it makes some people feel better, but the actual effect as in moving God more than praying without the phrase is nil.

Where the Sole of Your Foot Treads

There are people who take the example of Joshua, in which God tells him wherever he walks he would conquer as a prescription for how Christians should pray (Joshua 1:3). Specifically for the ministry I was involved in, there were men who walked down Bourbon Street in the morning and prayed over the ground they walked on. Which is fine. There’s no harm in praying over what will happen on every single bit of a piece of terrain. But some people phrased their action a bit differently: that they were claiming the territory for Jesus and marking the place they walked as holy ground.

If that were something that’s important, Paul or another apostle would have laid it out in an epistle. Something like, “Walk the streets of places you proclaim the Good News to claim them for the Lord and pray without ceasing as you do so.” But that’s not there. Nor is there an example even of Paul or any other apostle walking all the streets of, say, Ephesus, to claim them for the Lord. Hey, not even Joshua walked all the streets of the cities he conquered according to what the Bible plainly states. He simply went from one city to another and his men went through all the streets.

So if you want to walk down a street with the thought that you want God to do great things there, by all means, think and pray that. But your feet hitting the ground is not some special act. You are not Joshua and if God had meant for it to be super-important for us to walk around places to claim them, God would have told us in plain terms to do so. Because God is pretty straightforward with telling us the things we really need to know!

Addressing the Devil in Prayer

Some Christians I rubbed shoulders with informed the Devil as they were praying that he was bound, that he was under the blood of Jesus that he had no more power anymore.

OK, well, we know Jesus talked to Satan when He was tempted and addressed demons when commanding them out of people. But are we ever told to address the Devil in prayer? Nope. Philippians 4;6 and lots of other places tell us to pray to God, but never gives us instructions on how to talk to the Devil.

Passages on facing attacks from Satan, of which there are a number of clear examples (e.g. I Peter 5:7-8) never mention talking to the Devil or the need to directly “bind him” with our words. Look folks, God is good and will give us what we need to know. If we needed to talk to Satan, he’d tell us. But he didn’t.

Is it harmful to address Satan directly? If your faith is in God and you submit to the Lord, God’s power will make Satan flee. So you can mention Satan in prayer but at the moment be thinking of what God will do to him. So God can honor that.

But if you’re thinking you have the power to drive away Satan based on your own merit–well, I’d call that “no bueno.” But I think people who pray that way would agree that you have to know the power comes from God.

So why pray that way at all? It isn’t especially powerful or God would have told us to do it.

Binding Sickness

As mentioned in the previous section, prayers that mention the Devil that I heard also tended to say that he was “bound” or claimed the power to “bind” Satan. That’s based on Matthew 12:29 in which Jesus stated a strong man has to be bound (tied up) before you can steal his goods as a way of explaining his power over Satan to cast out demons. By the way, I have no problem with calling on God to bind Satan as in reduce his power. That makes sense–even if directly addressing the Devil to inform him he’s bound isn’t something the Bible tells us to do.

But how about binding illness? Doesn’t that imply illness is like a demon, that it has will and can act on its own? That maybe illness actually is a demon? That by binding it you claim some kind of special power over sickness?

The Bible references multiple reasons for illness that I won’t spell out here but never states that every illness comes directly from Satan. In fact, John 11:4 and some other passages state that a particular illness happened for “the Glory of God”–not because Satan wanted it to.

And back to the epistles–do we see examples of illness being bound or a command given to bind illnesses? Nope. None.

Can God understand that you really mean healing when you talk about binding sickness? Sure. But why not simply pray it the way that makes sense–“God, please heal” instead of “in the name of Jesus I bind this sickness”? The latter is supposed to be more powerful, but it isn’t. At most, it can make people feel better. Like a placebo.

Conclusion

Again, I don’t mean to say these practices are of the Devil or that they necessarily are harmful. But why wander into doing things that God never commanded Christians to do? Isn’t what we’ve clearly been told to do good enough?

Readers, I recognize the tone of this article could be seen as especially critical of my fellow believers in Christ. I don’t mean to be–but I do mean to suggest people ought to trust the Bible and what it says more and the practices they’ve observed among other Christians less, especially those things not spelled out in Scripture.

I also don’t mean to make people feel picked on here. There is freedom in Christ to do specific things God has never commanded anyone to do if you feel so led as long as those things aren’t specifically sinful. The problem is if you feel that people who don’t practice the same way as you must be in the wrong. As in, “this guy never pleads the blood of Jesus, so his prayers must be worthless.”

I hope this makes sense and is helpful. May God bless you as you read.

Thanks be to God, Lorehaven’s Fantastical Truth podcast is going places that a blog or even a magazine has not gone before.

Over one thousand downloads and hundreds of listeners later, let’s hear what listeners are saying:¹

I’m about 3/4 of the way through the first episode, and I think I’m the bullseye of your target audience. . . . I liked the love of magic and imagination paired with dedication to belief in inerrant scripture, which is rarely found. I’m definitely would love to hear you all’s theology of imagination [episode].

—Jordan H.

I’m really happy to hear about Fantastical Truth in the Podcast kingdom. Subscribed as soon as I found it.

—J. S. R.

Talk radio style format is perfect and the topic is uplifting. Very encouraged to stir up my love for good literature and the Bible. This is a resource I am putting on my recurring podcast.
—zflwtcher review on Apple Podcasts (disclaimer: I think this is a friend of mine, even best man at my wedding)

The team really hit their stride in this podcast. Engaging and excellent content. #fantasybooks #podcast #Dance https://t.co/KJvHUXRDYP

—Meg MacDonald (@kyrrimar) February 5, 2020

What is the human cost? That is such an important question and there might be more of a cost than you would think. This is a great discussion. https://t.co/rp3hzKse2o

—Andrea Ward (@citrus_sunshine) February 20, 2020

In the Fantastical Truth podcast from Lorehaven, hosts E. Stephen Burnett and Zackary Russell find truth in fantastic stories, and apply the wonders of these imaginary worlds to the real world our Creator has called us to serve. Join the best Christian fantastical authors and other creative friends on this joyful journey, to find the happiness and holiness of Jesus through his gift of truthful imagination.

Subscribe on Apple Music, Google Play, and many other podcasting services.

Next episode: How did you first discover fantastical fiction?

I’ve left out all the feedback in response to our pending question for readers, namely: how did you first discover fantastical fiction?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

As we restate in today’s bonus mini-cast:

We’d love to hear your origin story, which could include elements like:

• How old were you?
• How did you find the story?
• What did you love about it?
• What ideas really spoke to you?
• Which characters draw you in?
• What did you love about the world?
• How do you feel about that story now?

We’d love to hear your story! And of course we may share your story in the next Fantastical Truth episode, to be heard by hundreds of other fantastical story fans.

You can use this page’s comment section. Or use the form here to send your note straight to the Fantastical Truth mailbag.

Or send us a note @Lorehaven on Twitter, or at LorehavenMag on the Facebooks.

Next week, we’ll release that episode. After that, Fantastical Truth might just get even more interesting. Especially as we head into conference season, Realm Makers season, and Stephen-finally-sees-his-first-book-released season.

Godspeed!

Stephen

On the latest Lorehaven podcast, the intro brushes by the foundational blog from which Lorehaven grew—this blog that you are reading, Speculative Faith. On occasion it’s good to review who we are and why we came into being. Below is an article published in 2006 by one of our founding writers, Mirtika Schultz. As I recall, there were six of us who banded together in 2004 to create this blog: Stuart Stockton, Mirtika Schultz, Shannon McNear, Beth Goddard, Carol Collett, and myself.

Some of us have continued to pursue writing and / or speculative fiction. Some have not. I’m the lone die-hard who has stuck with the blog. Over the years, various writers joined us for a time and others left. At one low point, when a number of writers had moved on, E. Stephen Burnett infused life into the blog. He joined the staff and took over the webmaster responsibilities. We added more writers, and the rest is history.

Over the years, regardless of which writers are on staff, our core purpose has remained constant. I think Mirtika’s article captures the essence of who we are, why we exist.

x x x x x x

What Is Speculative Faith?

By Mirtika Schultz

We are writers who share two passions—a genre and a Savior.

The genre is speculative literature. That ‘s the umbrella term that covers fantasy, science fiction, and allegory in all forms: short story, novella, novel, screenplay, and poetry.

The Savior is Christ. That is the faith part.

Genre + Christ: Speculative Faith

This team blog, Speculative Faith, will offer you our individual perspectives—and we don’t always agree—on any matter that resides in that spacious spot where our faith and our preferred genre blend.

And we’re an idealistic, motivated group:

~~ We believe that there is a diverse and sizable audience hungry for Christian speculative literature.

~~We want to find you.

~~We want you to find us.

~~We want to mobilize a reading and writing community that will impact the future editorial acquisitional decisions of CBA publishing houses. Right now, they are not favorably inclined toward speculative fiction.

~~We want better and more varied and just plain MORE novels from CBA [Christian Bookstore Association] publishing houses in our genre.

~~We intend to promote the good speculative literature out there, works that showcase talent as well as spiritual truth.

Does all that excite you? Had you given up hope of ever finding such novels—and enough of them—to suit your reading needs?

Do you believe this, as we do? Truth and wild imaginings are not incompatible. Space operas, allegories, Tolkienesque fantasies, hard science fiction tales, science fantasies, hip urban fantasies, magical realism stories, slipstream novels, surreal poetry . . . God can be glorified in these types of creative expressions.

We’re out to blaze trails. Come with us.

Saddle up your dragons. It’s time to fly into the wide and burning sky of Speculative Faith!

Recently I announced some of the news from Enclave Publishing, including the release of Dust by Kara Swanson, scheduled for July, 2020. Because this book, the first in the Heirs of Neverland duology, is only available for pre-order, the preview is not available yet.

I think it’s important when considering books we might like to buy, to know if the writer can actually write, to know it the story is one I’m interested in. I certainly can tell you about the story of Dust (or you can read it at Amazon), but can Kara Swanson write? And who is Kara Swanson? Important questions.

I’ll take those questions in reverse order. First, who is Kara Swanson. Here’s what she says about herself:

As the daughter of missionaries, KARA SWANSON spent her childhood running barefoot through the lush jungles of Papua New Guinea. Able to relate with characters dropped into a unique new world, she quickly fell in love with the fantasy genre.

Swanson is the award-winning author of The Girl Who Could See and Peter Pan retelling/sequel Dust (Enclave Publishing, July 2020). She helps young writers explore their passions as a faculty member of the Young Writer’s Workshop and also offers her own author coaching services.

Kara is passionate about crafting stories of light shattering darkness, connecting with readers, and becoming best friends with a mermaid–though not necessarily in that order.

You can connect with Kara online where she chats about coffee, fairy tales and bookish things on Instagram (@karaswansonauthor), Facebook (Kara Swanson, Author), and Twitter (@kswansonauthor)

I’ve actually met Kara, even worked on the SoCal Christian Writing Conference with her for a couple years. Further, I did a little editing for her a year or so ago. I can say, she is a remarkable young writer, a hard worker, willing to help others, and excited about speculative fiction. She’s a member of a number of Facebook speculative writing communities, including Realm Makers Consortium.

Kara is articulate, friendly, outgoing, responsible, committed to her family, willing and eager to meet others’ needs if she is able.

Clearly, this young writer is someone who makes a good friend. But can she write? Best way to answer that question is to give you a sample. Again, the preview for her new release is not available yet. But here’s an excerpt from a novella she released three years ago. The story is called The Girl Who Could See. Here’s the summary from the back cover copy:

All her life Fern has been told she is blind to reality—but, what if she is the only one who can truly see?

Fern Johnson is crazy. At least, that’s what the doctors have claimed since her childhood. Now nineteen, and one step away from a psych ward, Fern struggles to survive in bustling Los Angeles. Desperate to appear normal, she represses the young man flickering at the edge of her awareness—a blond warrior only she can see.

Tristan was Fern’s childhood imaginary hero, saving her from monsters under her bed and outside her walls. As she grew up and his secret world continued to bleed into hers, however, it only caused catastrophe. But, when the city is rocked by the unexplainable, Fern is forced to consider the possibility that this young man is not a hallucination after all—and that the creature who decimated his world may be coming for hers.

And now, the excerpt.

Chapter 1

Present Time

On television crime shows, they never tell you how cold it is.

They might show the dimly lit room with the hard, uninviting chairs. Or the narrow table separating you from the elderly agent with stone-gray eyes. But a TV camera cannot fully portray the chilling experience of an FBI interrogation.

I rub my bare shoulders, fingertips even icier than the skin exposed by my red tank top. Brilliant move, Fern. Wearing a scarf but forgetting your jacket. Stifling a shudder, I meet the sharp gaze of Agent Barstow, who stand at attention across from me.

“I don’t know where you’re from, Miss Johnson, but in LA, state-of-the-art buildings don’t just crumble.” His voice is gravelly, matching the jagged lines of his dark skin and weathered face. “Especially federal buildings.”

I tug on my beige scarf. You have no idea.

His arms slowly unwind from his chest as he takes two steps toward me. “We’ve called in everyone to analyze this disaster, CIA, local police, firemen. Heck . . . we even called in NASA. No one can come up with a plausible reason why a skyscraper in excellent condition would be standing one minute and collapse the next.”

I fight the urge to bolt for the door as he leans down, palms flat on the table—so close I can make out the creases on his black suit.

“You warned us of an attack in that area over a week ago. How did you know?”

X X X X X

So, one last thing: what in the world is the new book, Dust, about? I mean, you can like an author, you can like the way she writes, but will you like this story? Here’s the snippet posted at Enclave:

The truth about Neverland is far more dangerous than a fairy tale.

Claire Kenton believes the world is too dark for magic to be real—since her twin brother was stolen away as a child. Now Claire’s desperate search points to London… and a boy who shouldn’t exist.

Peter Pan is having a beastly time getting back to Neverland. Grounded in London and hunted by his own Lost Boys, Peter searches for the last hope of restoring his crumbling island: a lass with magic in her veins.

The girl who fears her own destiny is on a collision course with the boy who never wanted to grow up. The truth behind this fairy tale is about to unravel everything Claire thought she knew about Peter Pan—and herself.

Don’t forget: Dust is available for pre-order now.

II Samuel 11:1 in the NIV says, “In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.” The fact David stayed in Jerusalem set up the circumstances of his adultery with Bathsheba and his elimination of her husband, Uriah. Which was one of the darkest moments in the life of a king the Bible portrays as a “man after God’s heart”–but I’m not actually talking about David here.  I’m here to talk  about the assumption captured in the Biblical text, that springtime is wartime. Why would that be? And what does understanding seasons of warfare mean for writers of speculative fiction?

When I was younger I naively assumed the reason was because the farmers who did most of the fighting would first plant their spring crops, then have down time in the late spring and summer where they could be compelled by a king to fight in battle. As long as they were back by fall in time for the harvest, the agricultural cycle wouldn’t be disrupted at all.

But  I was mostly wrong. Check out the chart I’ve included:

Ancient Israel had a different climate than what I’m accustomed to. Harvest of some type of agricultural product took place as early as April and continued all the way through November. The only months without any kind of harvest were December, January, February, and March.

So if downtime from the agricultural cycle for farmers were the only reason kings picked a certain time to go to war, they’d go to war in the winter. Starting in December.

Now, those of you who grew up in cold weather places (like Montana, where I lived as a child) before you even say it, no, Ancient Israel was not so cold and frozen over that it would be impossible to conduct military operations in winter. Yes, war in the winter would be miserable because winter in Israel is relatively cold and it rains more then than any other time of the year. Couple that with the fact ancient clothing wasn’t very waterproof and you can see some solid reasons why people would prefer not to go out in the winter, even in the relatively-warm Near East.

I think there’s another factor that’s even more important when you consider that ancient armies of the Near East (a.k.a. Middle East) would normally load their food and other supplies on carts…also bear in mind that chariots were an important instrument of war in those days…and that there were no paved roads. Meaning that in the winter, due to rain, some parts of that region were impassible in wintertime to anything with wheels. Mud would make travel with wheeled transport miserable in some places and impossible in others. In Israel’s south (the Negev), the part-time riverbeds (wadis or arroyos) that are like the dried rivers that some modern Afghans use part of the year as highways, are prone to dangerous flash-flooding in the winter.

So you can’t effectively move an army in the Middle East (a.k.a Near East) in ancient times due to rain-made mud and flash flooding. Yeah, and it also gets miserably cold for people who grew up in that region.

So around March is the first time the ground is dry enough and it’s warm enough to move troops. And, that’s also a month of agricultural down time! If you hurry and finish the battle in less than a month, the peasant farmers can be back in time for the barley harvest in April.

But if you don’t get them back in time, you can threaten the wheat and barley harvest of your enemy, forcing him to be inside a walled city for protection, while you reap his crops to feed your troops. Making your siege more effective. Makes total sense.

Note that late in Israel’s history they’d find themselves in battle against an empire that defied the agricultural cycle, which wasn’t limited to going to war in the spring. By constructing roads and building bridges and equipping their troops with needed clothing and storing supplies systematically in key locations, the ancient Assyrians were able to conduct warfare all year round. Which was revolutionary and shocking for that era. (The Romans also mastered how to keep an army supplied year-round. Though they generally preferred not to fight in the dead of winter.)

So what’s this got to do with speculative fiction stories? Potentially a lot.

If you include nations going to war in fantasy settings, you should think about the agricultural and weather cycle that affects how and when war is fought. And you should realize that warfare normally happens at a certain season.

You should also consider nations that are able to overcome that ordinary cycle. Whether they do so through technology, magic, or logistics (the way the Assyrians did), a nation that can fight all year round when their neighbors cannot, has a massive advantage over them.

So readers, are you familiar with fantasy stories in which the agricultural cycle or season of the year plays a major role in the timing of warfare? Have you written any scenes yourself in which you set a certain season or period of the year aside for warfare (not necessarily spring)? IF so, especially if your reasons are different from what I’ve mentioned above, please mention what season you picked as ideal for war and why you picked it. Or any other pertinent thoughts on this topic.

 

Every week, I go to jail. For the past two years, I’ve been teaching classes at the county detention center as a volunteer, first as an ESL teacher and now in creative writing. It has been an incredible experience that has taught me a lot and also introduced me to some fantastic writers. The deck is stacked against these guys but through their writings, I can see that many of them truly desire to set their life straight.

As with any real life/entertainment contrast, the real world of incarceration doesn’t quite match up with what we see on screen when it comes to prisons and jails. Prison life is unfortunately a prominent fixture in American society and we see this reflected in the large body of movies and TV shows set behind bars. While I’ve only seen the inside of a small county jail, a far cry from the supermax fortresses that fictional anti-heroes regularly escape from, I can tell you that there is nothing cool or glamorous or exciting about doing time.

Of course, that doesn’t stop Hollywood. Aside from gritty modern-day prison fare (Orange is the New Black, Shot Caller, Oz), there is an entire subgenre of futuristic incarceration, most of which is violent and nihilistic (Death Race, The Running Man, Cube, Lockout, etc.) One of my favorite science fiction movies of any genre is The Chronicles of Riddick (its predecessor Pitch Black and sequel Riddick were all right, but The Chronicles of Riddick has an epic scope that the other movies don’t explore). Vin Diesel’s titular character is quite an interesting creation, toeing the line between hero and villain. I can’t say that I want him to get away scot-free, but since he dispatches folks worse than he is, my conscience is less conflicted.

Despite the sensational nature of these stories, the reality is that being behind bars is no picnic. As the so-called “prison industrial complex” expands, so do the challenges of any growing industry. Could the moon one day become the dumping ground for society’s undesirables, like in Men in Black 3? Will convicts be stored in giant warehouses with their minds in stasis as we saw in Minority Report? While the nature of incarceration may be intriguing, even more interesting (and terrifying) is why someone could be locked up in the future. Minority Report delved into the notion of “pre-crime,” while numerous Orwellian dystopias depict an all-powerful god-like State that imprisons anyone who dares question their masters (my particular favorite is Equilibrium).

There is no doubt that the world is becoming increasingly hostile towards the proclamation of the Gospel, even in our Judeo-Christian cultures. I’ve never been one to scream “The sky is falling!” when it comes to our religious liberties, but one look at the news shows us the direction in which we are heading. One day, the world is going to decide that Christians are a problem that needs to be dealt with. It’s not inconceivable that Christians could be rounded up into camps or having entire cities blockaded. Seeing all of the futuristic possibilities for crime and punishment, it’s easy to become fearful, especially for our children. Yet God promises repeatedly in His word to never leave us nor forsake us, and we are given many examples of brave Christians who held onto their faith through harsh prison sentences (and never tried to escape). Humanity continuously invents new ways to make life miserable for itself, and while life behind bars may one day become a reality for us, we must trust in God’s grace and sovereignty.

This time on our Fantastical Truth podcast, we’re taking up another big theme: the challenges of “mature” fantasy action drama stories like The Witcher.

This fantasy drama arrived on Netflix just before Christmas 2019.

It’s the latest of several fantasy TV series which seem to be following in the footsteps of Game of Thrones.

Neither cohost (E. Stephen Burnett and Zackary Russell) has seen the show. So Stephen speaks with someone who has: Jason Morehead.

• Jason Morehead wrote the article “Giving Up On the Witcher.”
• Subtitle: The series’ gratuitous sex and nudity reveals a certain lack of faith and imagination.
• He’s reviewed movies, music, anime and beyond for decades, now at OpusZine.us.
• We shared the article at Lorehaven’s FB page in January and it started quite a discussion.

Jason says: “I simply don’t like trashing stuff. I always try to find a few good things about whatever I review…I’d much rather write about stuff I love, than trash stuff I hate.”

Still, there’s plenty to challenge about Netflix’s latest grim fantasy world. . . .

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Get the full episode notes here.

Coming next

After a break next week, we’ll explore the question: How did you first discover fantastical stories?

We’ve already read great stories from SpecFaith readers and podcast listeners alike.

Yet if we haven’t heard yours yet, please share your story here!

• How old were you?
• How did you find the story?
• What did you love about it?
• What ideas really spoke to you?
• Which characters draw you in?
• What did you love about the world?
• How do you feel about that story now?

You can use this page’s comment section. Or use the form here to send your note straight to the Fantastical Truth mailbag.

Off to resume planning this year’s events, and maybe even write some fiction(!),

Stephen

Today is designated as Presidents’ Day in the US. When I was in school, we celebrated Lincoln’s Birthday on February 12, followed by Washington’s Birthday on February 22. Only one of those was a national holiday that gave us a day off from school, as I recall.

Since then we have added a celebration of Martin Luther King on January 15, and I guess the powers that be thought a) the number of single day celebrations was getting out of hand and b) other Presidents, not just the first and the fifteenth, deserved to be commemorated. So we consolidated and now have the current Presidents’ Day.

I’m actually OK with that. Certainly Lincoln, who was the President of the US during the Civil War, and Washington, who was President during the Revolutionary War, were instrumental in the founding and preserving of our country. But other Presidents played memorable roles in our history as well, some in time of war, and some in time of peace.

The honoring of men of note and remembering our history as a nation, say a great deal about us.

And once again, I have to stop and think—what Great Men are remembered in the speculative stories I’ve read? What holidays and celebrations are there to preserve the history of a culture?

Too often it seems to me, fantasies and science fiction stories take place in imagined worlds that feel imagined because they lack a basis in the history of their world. People don’t have Leader’s Day or a Birth of the Nation day.

There may be cultural phenomena such as the Hunger Games and the events surrounding the choosing of contestants, or the assigning of young people to one of the factions in Divergent. But I don’t recall a feast day or a day off work when the whole nation celebrated their history.

Maybe the fault is mine and I simply am not remembering those existing aspects of the worldbuilding in recent speculative stories.

It seems to me that adding such days of commemoration or celebration add depth to the worldbuilding of any story. Certainly religion and politics and language and customs help to create the world in which a speculative story takes place.

But what about history?

Shouldn’t there be statues to great men? Or museums? Or, at least, oral traditions telling of the history of the world?

Shouldn’t there be national holidays commemorating the end of war or the beginning of the rule of a renowned leader?

It’s been a while since I read it, but I think George Orwell’s Animal Farm included some of these cultural traits that create a sense of world. For instance, after the animals revolt, they revere Old Major who was instrumental in starting the rebellion.

Of course in Orwell’s allegory, the history that once was celebrated slowly changes and becomes a tool for propaganda and an instrument to wield against dissent.

Celebrations and commemorations can certainly be used for wrong motives. But the point here is this: honoring historical figures and holding political or religious ceremonies are part of what a culture does.

When these things are missing from a speculative world, they may not detract from it, but they also don’t add the depth that including them would do.

I’ve written about holidays and celebrations before, largely highlighting ones that mirror or are borrowed from the real world. My thoughts this Presidents’ Day are more along the line of holidays and festivals unique to the speculative world. I mean, wouldn’t a space opera have experienced wars with other planetary systems, complete with heroes that were commemorated in song or story o statue?

Tolkien was good with the history of Middle Earth, often referring to stories and songs, and even at one point having one of his characters muse about the songs that might be written about him and his deeds.

For some, Tolkien’s Middle Earth story is passé. We’ve had knock-offs and look-alikes to the point that journey/quest fantasy has fallen out of favor. Regardless, we can hardly ignore the incredible depth of the world he created. The place feels real. A part of that comes from the celebration of the past and the passing down through story and song the events of note that turned people into heroes.

As I think about it, I conclude that one way to give a speculative world texture is to create a history the characters can celebrate. As Christian speculative writers strive to perfect the writing craft, I encourage a look at the worldbuilding, not as the most essential element in a story, but certainly one that can add a sense of reality and depth.

What do you think? Are contemporary Christian speculative novels well-grounded in a story world filled with appropriate cultural elements, including celebrations and commemorations?

God is omnipresent, always present in all places at all times.

That doctrinal statement might seem a strange place to start an essay on finding God in fantasy. But think about it: If God were not omnipresent, why would we bother looking for Him midst the strange and surreal landscapes of other worlds that don’t exist?

However, if God is truly omnipresent (and I believe He is), we can approach fantasy with not only the hope that He might be there, but with the confident expectation that He is there. At least, I have yet to find a Bible verse that restricts God’s presence to the realistic. All usually means all, which would mean He is also present in every story and every storyworld.

Now His presence in story, like in the real world, may not be overt. And just like the real world, God may be maligned, misrepresented, ignored, or even outright denied. This is common in secular stories, which is why as Christians we must handle such stories with extra care and discernment. We do not want to accidentally absorb these wrong ideas into our way of thinking. Indeed, due to the metaphorical nature of the genre, we must walk very carefully to compare all we see to the biblical standard, no matter the source of the story, though Christian fantasy tends to be more intentional in its inclusion of God and therefore more accurate in its portrayal. Nonetheless, God will be present somewhere within the story, even if only in the representation of His attributes, such as His sovereignty, love, justice, and mercy.

So how do we go about finding God in these fantastical worlds? Just as He has many ways of showing up in the real world, so He can show up in fantasy in a multitude of ways. But here are five of the most common ways I’ve seen God manifest Himself:

Exact representation

Sometimes God shows up simply as Himself. He is called by the names used in the Bible. He has performed the same acts as those recorded in Scripture. His interactions with the world are the same ones we see in our everyday lives. There is nothing metaphorical or allegorical here. The God presented in the story is the God of the Bible.

This manifestation of God is most common in fantasies with a real-world or pseudo-real world setting, whether contemporary or historical. So you might see God as Himself in urban fantasy, magical realism, high seas adventures, vampire stories, the real world part of portal fantasy, and superhero stories. This is also the most common way for God to show up in fantasy’s speculative counterpart, science fiction. Both John Otte’s Failstate series and my novel, The Vault Between Spaces, includes God in this way.

Direct parallel

God can also show up in a mirror reflection of Himself. That is, the author creates a “clone” of God, as much as is humanly possible. All of God’s revealed character, standards, and will are left intact, but often He will appear under another name, and His interactions with the fantasy world may look a bit different than in the real world (though not in a way that violates the essence of who He is).

This is probably the most common method employed by Christian fantasy writers today, especially in subgenres set in completely alternate worlds (e.g. traditional high fantasy or the alternate universes of portal fantasy). Aslan from the Chronicles of Narnia is probably the best-beloved example of this manifestation, though both Sharon Hinck’s Sword of Lyric series and Jill Williamson’s Blood of Kings have wonderful examples of this as well.

Metaphorical type

This third example is closely related to direct parallel and often is mistaken for it. But whereas a direct parallel claims the character to be God, just by another name, a metaphorical type creates a character with a strong resemblance to God. Many of the attributes of God are embodied in this character and thus points to God, but it is done without intending to perfectly represent God. Indeed, to turn a metaphorical type into a direct parallel will often result in wrong theology and a misrepresentation of God.

This version of God’s presence is a bit rarer than the first two manifestations, but it can be commonly found in parables, allegories, and stories with extended metaphors. My own novel, Beast, applies this manifestation to the character of Majesty.

Invisible orchestrator

As I mentioned before, sometimes God will hardly be recognized at all in a story. Rather, He is the person behind the scenes, weaving together the events, directing the characters in the way they should go, all to bring about a desired end, whether that be fulfilled prophesy or the defeat of a great evil. Often God is never recognized by name in these stories, and His sovereignty over the events may be barely acknowledged by the characters. Or, as is common in secular fiction, His behind-the-scenes work may be wrongly attributed to fate, another god, or even the writer himself. But the sense will often linger of something bigger at work. Indeed, the events often unfold in ways that would seem too coincidental, even laughable, if it were not for this sense of something more.

This style of representing God is also common in Christian fantasy, especially in those stories where the Christian worldview is underlying rather than those where a Christian theme drives the plot. Lord of the Rings is a prime example of this, as are the more modern works of R.J. Anderson.

Signposts of truth

This final form of God’s presence is probably the least common and is largely restricted to secular fiction. This is because theologically grounded Christians understand that God exists, is sovereign, and is at work in the world. So to write a story where God is not at least present as an invisible orchestrator would be to create a story that denies the existence of God and create a plot rooted in chaos—which directly contradicts a Christian worldview.

Indeed, this is why this manifestation is rare, for even most secular writers instinctively create according to a sense of order, rules, and structure—which points to an orderer, rule-maker, and builder behind the scenes. That is, an invisible orchestrator. But a few stories push even that so far to the background or so distort the source of that orchestration that God’s presence is relegated to His attributes and the truths that point to Him. For there are some spiritual truths so written into the universe that to write in opposition to them will cause a story to ring untrue to readers. For example, the triumph of good over evil, the power of love, and the work of redemption can all point back to God, albeit in an often misshapen way.

Obviously, these are not the only five ways God manifests Himself in story. And deviations within these five, as well as combinations thereof, can also occur. But within each and every story God will be there. Let’s see if we can spot Him!