The Christianity in Christian Fiction

What defines Christian fiction? There are different opinions on that, as well as misconceptions. Some people think that Christian fiction only tells us about the life of Bible characters, first Christians or early church. While novels like that certainly would fall into the Christian fiction category (provided that they are written from the Christian perspective, of course), it is just one of many sub-genres called historical fiction.

Another common mistake is to believe that a Christian novel certainly must have the gospel message packed into it, either directly or in the form of allegory. Again, while allegorical images retelling the message of the Bible are often present in Christian fiction, that is not always the case. A classic example would be The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R.Tolkien, the trilogy that does not even mention God, yet shows remarkably deep Christian spirituality. I know many would disagree, and exactly for the reason we are now discussing: they expect to see the whole gospel retold and search for direct parallels like, Gandalf = Savior, or Sauron = Satan. Failing to “match” all the characters with a biblical counterpart and not seeing a clear gospel message, many claim that the trilogy is “not Christian.” Friends, that’s a shallow approach. Let us try to look deeper than that.

Jesus himself used stories – parables – to get across a certain point. Usually, those parables did not include the whole gospel message either; he would deal with one topic at a time, telling a story to illustrate it. The parable of the lost sheep shows us how the Father cares for the lost; the parable of the man sowing seeds explains what happens after people hear and accept the Word. Well, many Christian authors are doing exactly the same thing: they take one major subject, one particular aspect of the Truth and ponder it in their story. It can be anything: faith, duty, love, redemption, integrity, selfishness, weakness – anything (and of course there can be more than one theme). But the point is, one does not have to rewrite the whole Bible to write a Christian novel. After all, there already is a Bible, and it is done quite well – so why try to repackage it??

I believe that a much more appealing and rewarding task is to explore people’s hearts and lives, show real life challenges, dangers, struggles, and blessings – all that in the light of the Truth. I think that is what makes Christian fiction Christian. Be that romance, mystery, suspense, adventure, fantasy, or science fiction, it comes down to one simple question: does this story uplift or oppose Christian values? Does it uplift or oppose the Truth? To me, the answer to that question defines whether the book can be called Christian or not.