Someone once said (I’m thinking C. S. Lewis, but if you know the quote, please note it in a comment) something to the effect that we don’t need more good Christian literature, we need more good literature by Christians. Does the trend mentioned in this news story portend more of the former or the latter?
Could the next Harry Potter be a devout Christian?
As the days tick down until Saturday, when a breathless world learns the fate of the teenage wizard, a new breed of fantasy fiction, with Potter-style stories, is emerging.
Like the Potter series, it has mystical creatures, macabre events, epic battles and heroic young protagonists.
But, unlike the Potter books, this genre has overt Christian tones: messiah-like kings who return from the dead, fallen satanic characters and young heroes who undergo profound conversions. What you won’t generally find: humans waving wands and performing spells.
Christian fantasy, which had been a slow seller, has caught fire recently, industry analysts say, ignited by the success of the Potter series, which has sent some Christian readers looking for alternatives.
What could come of this is a boatload of Narnia knockoffs, most with the same redemption allegory. Now, I’m not knocking the allegory itself, per se; there’s certainly nothing wrong with presenting the “old, old story” in a new way. But not everything written by Christians has to be a thin veneer overlaying the New Testament.
And there are a lot of good books written that happen to be written by Christians. In our house, Ted Dekker is a big name, not only for his incredible thriller and suspense novels, but because he went to the same missionary boarding school in Indonesia as my wife and was just a grade or two ahead.
The article notes that the Potter controversy continues (interestingly, Dobson has praises for the series), while the array of other options is on the increase. But with great popularity comes great mediocrity, and just because the author’s a Christian doesn’t mean it’s a masterpiece. But trust me, those masterpieces do exist, and we need more of them.
Doug Payton blogs at Considerettes.
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1 user commented in " Christian Fantasy Literature, Minus Hogwarts "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackCertainly a refreshing insight. I think sometimes Christians feel guilty when they write anything that isn’t actively evangelizing in some way. They refer to verses such as the one mentioning no idle talk (Ephesians 4:29), and things like that, however, on the other hand, the publishing of a work of art that is an honest expression of one’s vision and convictions is sure to not be idle. And if you think about it, what can be more idle than spitting out the same theme over and over again to an already saturated market?
I also think that there are other approaches to strengthening our faith through narrative besides simple allegory or direct symbolism, and I hope to see more authors dig a little deeper, and realize you don’t have to “talk down” to children as much as you think you might, and that there are also a lot of more mature readers out there looking for narratives that show more than just a spark of intelligence. There are so many issues out there that Christianity has an answer for that authors leave untouched (just search “apologetics” for just a few examples), and which can be approached through narrative, and there are many other ways one can relate to/be attracted to a character than just making him some cookie-cutter teenage hero swept into a magic world that needs saving or something.
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