Every now and then I blink my eyes and suddenly remember that a main purpose of this blog is to get readers interested in my writing and hopefully motivate them to try my books. Over the years, this has worked dozens of times.
Another purpose is to get readers and writers interested in fantasy fiction that serves the Kingdom of God. This is difficult because there is very little of such fiction.
And so turn we unto amazon.com and its convenient Top 100 list for Christian Fantasy.
Is this a reliable guide to selecting a book for particularly Christian relevance?
Nope.
Case in point: Pax Daemonica by Julie Kenner, #7 in her series about the adventures of “a demon-hunting soccer mom.” It was No. 1 in amazon’s Christian Fantasy several weeks ago, and it was No. 1 yesterday. It must be selling quite well.
Thing is, the theology is off. It seems there’s this secret Vatican unit whose mission is to hunt down and destroy demons: otherwise demons will take over the world, and that’ll be curtains for the human race.
Huh? What? You mean the bad guys really can rub out the human race, after Jesus Christ, the Son of God, went to so much trouble to redeem us? And, like, forget the absolute sovereignty of God–we can only be saved by these Vatican Navy Seals’ mastery of really cool martial arts skills?
I daresay the difference between right Christian doctrine and almost-Christian belief is as wide as the gulf between life and death.
Life lesson: Just because somebody says it’s “Christian fantasy” doesn’t mean it is.
That sounds to Christian literature to be about the same as “Genuine Imitation Pasteurized Process Cheese Food Product Substitute” is to food. 🙂
Great analogy, Unknowable! 🙂
It was my genuine, processed, imitation opinion of the matter. 🙂
Genuine, processed, pasteurized, but never imitation! 🙂
Reminds me of Dracula, lol.
Not saying anything against it as a book, though. It creeped me out and I really enjoyed reading it. But the whole ‘if you turn into a vampire then your soul may very well be lost for eternity even if you were a Christian before that’, well, that was a little hard to swallow (OK, more than a little).
These stories tend not to be written from a Christian perspective or, in some cases, mix certain Christian beliefs with pagan teachings.
Frankenstein, for example, is essentially about the resurrection of a human, performed by a human. It makes for interesting drama, but doesn’t really stand up to scriptural scrutiny. A Christian’s hope for the dead is based upon Jesus, not a scientist experimenting in a lab.
Friends and relatives vary in their opinion of whether or not Christians should even take in such materials. I know people that won’t go anywhere near such a thing and others whom watch zombie shows. Frankly, I don’t see the appeal, but I prefer not to be dogmatic about the matter.
The biggest problem, that I can see, is that some people don’t draw a solid line between fiction and reality and carry the notions of such fiction into real life. The Walking Dead may be a much watched show, but I don’t think it’s a good source of guidance for real world problems. From what little I know of it, it’s basically a Soap Opera heavily salted with violence, most of which comes in the form of shooting zombies. As I said before, I don’t see the appeal.
I don’t watch the show. What’s the point of shooting zombies? They’re already dead.
I agree. The whole concept is absurd. Basically these are supposedly dead people who are not completely dead, because they walk around mindlessly, looking for brains to feast upon, but they can be stopped if you shoot them in the head or decapitate them.
I have been present in the room when the show was on a couple of times and what little I know is from those experiences and asking a few questions. I frankly didn’t want to watch at the time, but was being courteous and respectful of the rights of someone to watch what they saw fit to watch in their own home.
I’ve never been able to generate any interest in these shows of my own initiative and never will. Much of the entertainment out there today deals in negative imagery. I try to avoid such, whether in music, movies or literature, but it’s not always easy.
Bram Stoker was only a little better at theology than Al Gore.
Thank you for this important post.