Christian Authors and Readers: How "Christian" Are Your Books?
Modern pop culture has an immense influence upon people’s lives because they spend so much time immersing themselves in it. But what about the content of this immersion? Does it bring people closer to God, or just occupy their attention?
Christian fiction is a small segment of today’s popular culture. What is the goal of it? Is it to entertain and edify Christians? Is it to subtly nudge people into considering giving more of their lives to God? Probably yes to both, but perhaps a greater goal should be considered.
What about the purpose of Christian fiction to leading people to Christ? Shouldn’t that be a primary objective? We writers are told in every book about writing fiction that we should never preach in our writing. Why not? It is true that many will be turned off by preachy fiction, but what if some readers are not? Are we Christian authors willing to risk a writing career to help bring a needy soul to Christ?
If you write Christian fantasy, is the Christian theme of your story so buried in allegory that Christ cannot be seen without someone writing anther book about it? Will your stories make the reader want to read the Bible, or play Dungeons and Dragons? Will your stories make the reader remember your name, or the name of Jesus?
If you write Christian romance, is the goal or the protagonist to fall in love with the man, or with Jesus? Is there a basis for the claim that your romance novel is Christian?
Christian characters should be a lot more than just nice. So many already have the wrong idea that Christians are to just be nice and never say anything disagreeable. Just because a book does not have vulgarity does not make it Christian. Nice is not the same as good. Read more about this here for free.
Like most men, I wouldn’t read much Christian romance. But here are a couple of Christian cyberpunk books that you can trust to be thought provoking to someone pondering spiritual matters and presented with the Christian option. The Lucid Series: Android Uprising and The Last Christian. Both of these would make a thoughtful gift.
Christian fiction is a small segment of today’s popular culture. What is the goal of it? Is it to entertain and edify Christians? Is it to subtly nudge people into considering giving more of their lives to God? Probably yes to both, but perhaps a greater goal should be considered.
What about the purpose of Christian fiction to leading people to Christ? Shouldn’t that be a primary objective? We writers are told in every book about writing fiction that we should never preach in our writing. Why not? It is true that many will be turned off by preachy fiction, but what if some readers are not? Are we Christian authors willing to risk a writing career to help bring a needy soul to Christ?
If you write Christian fantasy, is the Christian theme of your story so buried in allegory that Christ cannot be seen without someone writing anther book about it? Will your stories make the reader want to read the Bible, or play Dungeons and Dragons? Will your stories make the reader remember your name, or the name of Jesus?
If you write Christian romance, is the goal or the protagonist to fall in love with the man, or with Jesus? Is there a basis for the claim that your romance novel is Christian?
Christian characters should be a lot more than just nice. So many already have the wrong idea that Christians are to just be nice and never say anything disagreeable. Just because a book does not have vulgarity does not make it Christian. Nice is not the same as good. Read more about this here for free.
Like most men, I wouldn’t read much Christian romance. But here are a couple of Christian cyberpunk books that you can trust to be thought provoking to someone pondering spiritual matters and presented with the Christian option. The Lucid Series: Android Uprising and The Last Christian. Both of these would make a thoughtful gift.
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