Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes - Posts Tagged "christian-speculative-fiction"

The topic of Christian Speculative Fiction is often an interesting one. On one hand, it is tough for some people to fathom that such a thing can legitimately exist. Many Christians even place speculative fiction on a list of "don'ts." Others insist that there is completely safe and that people who have problems with books such as Harry Potter or vampire stories really are just out of touch with reality.

There is perhaps a healthier way to look at it. Reading speculative fiction is like many things in life. It can be dangerous if done in the wrong context or viewed in the wrong way.

Does it mess you up? I was at a meeting of fellow writers in December and we discussed many things including Star Trek, Star Wars, and Dr. Who. Some of them were even into the novels for them which is pretty hardcore. Yet, they are all very committed believers who have not followed wholesale the various ideologies taught or practiced therein.

On the other hand, one famous pastor has to explain the relationship between God's power and the Devil's by first having to deal with popular misconceptions Christians picked up from Star Wars. The pastor says, "That's good Star Wars, but bad theology."

The greatest problem with any sort of speculative fiction for Christian readers is where their own knowledge and immersion in the Christian Faith is weak. Then when reading fiction, we begin to accept many of the premises laid down. I can read through a given work of a fiction and quietly reject the fiction author's premise as relates to real life. And that's the key.

As well, there are certain works that are best consumed. They come with a bad spirit or a bad feel about them. I've encountered those books and movies and when I've continued to view or read them, I've felt the regret later.

For the writer of Christian speculative, it's even more challenging because most of us had our imaginations fired by people like George Lucas, Gene Roddenberry, Robert Heinlein, and Isaac Asimov. None of these people were Christians. Many held beliefs that were antithetical to Christianity, a big example of course is Heinlein's Job: A Comedy of Justice. Many of these authors believe(d) in Atheism, Humanism, the New Age, etc.

Our challenge then as writers is to learn the great things about character development, story, and world building from these authors without also applying the troublesome aspects of their theology and ideology into the stories and the way we write.

And I think to a certain extent, it applies to other types of fiction as well. For example, there are themes in romance novels that are problematic and set unrealistic expectations for relationship even if you clean up the physical aspect of relationships. Certain genres of mysteries can get almost a flippant thought on the value of human life.

I think it's challenging, but I think that the call of Christians in whatever their field is to be a redemptive presence whether its in business, politics, or writing.

This means not abandoning or destroying things in culture that are not sinful, but redeeming them. To do that, we have to be bionically aware and discerning in how we approach our writing.