Christian Speculative Fiction?
Filed Under (fantasy, publishing, scifi, writing) by J. Mark Miller on 30-06-2010
Tagged Under : ABA, Bible, CBA, christianity, fantasy, publishing, science fiction, spec-fic, speculative fiction, wizards
An interesting discussion has been going on across the blogging community the last few days concerning the place of Christian speculative fiction. It’s a topic of particular interest to me as both a writer and a Christian. Nearly everything I write, indeed have ever written, has a spec-fic bent, as well as the vast majority of what I read for pleasure. If you were to grab my Kindle and peruse the contents you would find a few books on theology, ministry, worship, and leadership, and a couple of Bibles. All the other books, I would venture to say over 98%, fall into the broad genre of speculative fiction.
io9.com ran a post wondering “Christian readers demand more science fiction books. Why won’t Christian publishers listen?” The consensus view seems to be that Christians in general really don’t want spec-fic, and so the publishers don’t see enough demand to make pursuing such themes worth their financial while. As referenced by io9, Mike Duran points out the fact that the largest segments of CBA and ABA publishing are romance style novels marketed to Christian women.
I agree with some of the sentiments of both the bloggers and commenters in this situation, pointing out that much of mainline Evangelical Christianity has a phobia about pushing boundaries. As with music, the contemporary book scene remains fairly innocuous, predictable, and safe. Just like churches who have “contemporary music” in their services pat themselves on the back thinking they’ve become edgy, so too are the mainstream Christian publishing houses satisfying themselves with publish fare that would have seemed risqué a decade or more ago, yet causes the average reader to yawn in boredom.
The real edge-walking producers of fiction like Ted Dekker are few and far between. Frank Peretti broke ground nearly 20 years ago, but even he got too weird for the literary palates of most folks. I think those two authors have been successful because their books lean more toward suspense and psychological thrillers and less toward speculative fiction. There’s no denying they have supernatural elements in their stories, but there’s always a chapter verse ability to quote a similar circumstance in the Bible, therefore making the story safe and acceptable.
Like Christian rock, most spec-fic Christian authors are on the fringes of the Christian consciousness, often relegated to an indie status. As Mike Duran pointed out, there’s Christian spec-fic out there, it’s just that most of it is coming from small, independent publishing houses like Marcher Lord Press, or from self-publishing endeavors. The tide seems to be turning a bit, as the Christy Awards have added a new category in the past few years which includes the genre of speculative fiction. I have my questions on why they chose to call the category “Visionary,” but that’s a discussion for another time.
Seeing Jill Williamson’s By Darkness Hid, published by the afore mentioned Marcher Lord Press, as this year’s winner is evidence of the growing acceptance of spec-fic among Christians, and of indie publishing in general. Another winner, in the Young Adult category, is a fantasy style adventure by Andrew Peterson called North! Or Be Eaten. My daughter thoroughly enjoyed the book, as well as the first in the series On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness.
Stephanie P has an interesting post over on revelife where she makes the case that science fiction and Christianity go hand in hand. Dystopian futures, where mankind seems hopeless make great settings for a story in which true believers can offer hope for the future. Think I’m wrong? Remember the frenzy over Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins’ Left Behind series. Whatever your eschatological bent, those books were pure speculative fiction, a view into a dystopian future progressing toward utopia via the supernatural power of the Biblical God. The only difference was the majority of people who bought and read those books really believe such a day is coming, though the particulars may look different than Left Behind’s portrayal.
Let’s not forget the wide acceptance of C.S. Lewis’s Narnia. Widely read and beloved, they stand at the pinnacle of Christian fantasy alongside The Lord of the Rings. Though Tolkien did not try to be allegorical in his epic—indeed he criticized his friend Lewis for doing so with Narnia—there’s no denial his Catholic worldview is shining through on every page. I’ve said it here before, but when people at my church find out I’m a writer and then subsequently find out I’m writing primarily fantasy, they give me strange looks. This is always funny from people I know for a fact have seen Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter movies, not to mention a fairly large sample of church members who’ve taken their young daughters to see Twilight.
There are those Christians who take a stand against any and all things that have even the slightest hint of magic in them, citing Scriptures against consorting with enchanters, wizards, familiar spirits, and necromancers (most notably Deut. 18:9-14). For those who want to take that road, thinking it better to be strict in their interpretation and application of the Bible, that’s fine. For me, I see a big distinction between consorting with such things in real life, and reading a work of fiction.
Here is where Christian fiction writers can make huge inroads into the core philosophy of spec-fic. In my own works, I very often have what might be classified as wizards, but I always consider the source of their power. Like Tolkien’s Gandalf, the power of those working good comes directly from Erú, the one and only God of the the Middle Earth universe, a clear analog of the God of the Bible. Those who work evil, their powers come from evil. How is this any different than what we read in the Bible? On the surface, the likes of Moses (parting the Red Sea), Elijah (calling fire from heaven), and even Peter (raising the dead) could be called wizards. The reason they’re called prophets and apostles is due to the source of the power, and their calling to be servants of God.
Christian writers can bring the same worldview into their own stories, weaving their plot and structure in such a way to make their worlds no less fantastic than Rowling’s, Edding’s, Jordan’s, or any other fantasy writer you want to name.
To the other spec-fic writers out there who happen to be Christians, write on, there’s a world waiting to read the adventures God has placed in your imagination.
