Christian Writing going in the wrong direction?

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I'm with you 100%. A perfect example of a top-notch writer who doesn't shy away from the gospel but simply writes good fiction from a Christian World View is Brandilyn Collins. I knew Brandilyn before she signed her nine book deal with Zondervan and became a hot commodity on the Christian writers circuit.

As I mentioned in an other post... Brandilyn writes mazing works of suspense. There are some Christian characters but the main character of her one forensic series is not a Christian. I think she's heading in that direction and will make a profession of faith before the series is over, but it is not bang-them-over-the-head writing.

Brandilyn also has a book out called "Getting into Character." Excellent writing book. She teaches at Christian writing conferences around the country, has a great website (http://www.brandilyncollins.com/) and a writers blog called Forensics and Faith (http://www.forensicsandfaith.blogspot.com/) To top all that off, Brandilyn is a lovely lady with an amazing faith.

If you decide to drop Brandilyn a line through her website, tell her I sent you there .

Other writers who can write interesting stories without shying away from Christianity or beating you over the head with it: Dee Henderson, Kathy Tyer, Francine Rivers, John Laurence Robinson (hey, Gravity!!), Sally Wright, Tricia Goyer, Jane Fitzpatrick.

Well, garsh!! (blush). Thanks Betty! I'm in pretty good company there, and not entirely deserving of it, but I'll take what I can get! *G*

John

Those of you who are curious to see what all the fuss is about can see my review of Gravity's book here:

http://www.midwestbookreview.com/rbw/mar_05.htm

I can't wait until John
1) gets back the rights to his first book
2) gets the next one published.
Hurry up, John, hurry up!! People are waiting here!!

Going In the Wrong Direction????

I ejoyed your review, Betty. John's book certainly does sound interesting. I'm not a man, but I love suspense and I think I'm going to get a copy of this book. Nothing "going in the wrong direction" here.

Thanks, ya'll! By the way, I was talking with a colleague recently, and she said that when the second book in a series comes out (for instance, my next Joe Box book will be out October 1), it naturally helps with sales of the first. Then the next one out helps with the first two, and so on, growing exponentially.

Sounds good, but does anyone have any any hard data that this is so?

Thanks in advance.

John

I know what you mean. The guy who teaches the Sunday School class I attend sometimes jokes about Christians who are so into their own parallel world that they "eat Christian cookies and wear Christian underwear." Some Christians manage to become too insular. I've seen some people in church commenting that they can't understand how non-Christians can get by without (well, fill in the blank here). I usually wind up thinking, "Well, you'd better figure it out if you want to have any meaningful dialog with them."

I sometimes wonder if some of the Christian fiction out there also reflects this sort of mindset. I haven't read any of the Left Behind novels myself, but I've found a lot of the Christian attempts to dramatize the Rapture don't even manage to sell me on their interpretation of how the various end time prophesies fit together. They're written with the assumption that both the writer and the reader or audience agree on the underlying interpretations. This does sort of limit their appeal...

I'm not sure if I would write a "Christian novel," per se. But if I wrote a novel, it would definitely be from a Christian mindset, and I might even work in various questions about faith or Christian living into the book's themes. But I'm not sure if I would call it specifically "Christian fiction."

I've said this before but I'll say it again, since we're on the topic. I think part of the problem is the modern secularization of culture in general. This forces Christianity into a kind of cultural ghetto, where its insularity breeds mediocrity. In the past, everything was made in God--architecture, paintings, literature, music--it was all infused with Christianity, and it was never labeled "Christian music," "Christian literautre," "Christian art." It was just literature, music, art. And it was Christian because the culture was informed by Christianity.

Christians need to re-enter the cultural mainstream and bring their Christianity along with them. It's hard to do, because our culture is so secular, and it puts up barriers to anything remotely Christian in its message. And this in turn leads the Christian cultural ghetto. The first way out of that is to raise our artistic standards to meet those of the secular world. Yes--I'm saying I think Christians have low artistic standards. I'm saying the Christian public tolerates in work labeled "Christian" a low quality it would never tolerate in work labeled secular. It puts up with mediocre art simply because it appreciates that the art is theologically correct. Until the Christian public demands higher quality, it won't happen.

There is also an anti-intellectual strain in modern Amercian Protestantism which has bred this problem as well. The problem is not as widespread, I do not think, in Catholic culture--there you tend to see works of greater depth, complexity, nuance and more widespread appeal. I'm not sure how one overcomes this anti-intellectual tradition, other than to continuously remind people of the riches and complexity of older Christian writings.

I think Skylar has nailed this one--in an argument much like Francis Schaeffer made about art/literature and Christianity.

Are we moving in the right direction? Depends on your viewpoint, I guess. Love it or hate it, the success of the "Left Behind" series opened a lot of doors--for people such as Ted Dekker. I think we'll be seeing edgier Christian fiction coming out of the CBA in the next year or two. If you are truly interested in this topic, I suggest you check out the "Faith*in*Fiction" blog maintained by Bethany House Editor Dave Long at http://faithinfiction.blogspot.com; Dave talks at length about this very subject, and his goal is to find the kind of fiction we're talking about.

skylarburris said:

Christians need to re-enter the cultural mainstream and bring their Christianity along with them. It's hard to do, because our culture is so secular, and it puts up barriers to anything remotely Christian in its message. And this in turn leads the Christian cultural ghetto. The first way out of that is to raise our artistic standards to meet those of the secular world. Yes--I'm saying I think Christians have low artistic standards. I'm saying the Christian public tolerates in work labeled "Christian" a low quality it would never tolerate in work labeled secular. It puts up with mediocre art simply because it appreciates that the art is theologically correct. Until the Christian public demands higher quality, it won't happen.

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In his book, Open Windows written in 1982 Philip Yancey predicts exactly what you are saying, Skylar. And I quote:

Somewhere in the magnetic field between art and propangada the Christian author works. One force tempts us to lower artistic standards and preach an unadorned message; another tempts us to submerge or even alter the message for the sake of artistic sensibilities.. . .Success often lies with the extremes: an author may succeed in the evangelical world by erring on the side of propaganda. But ever so slowly, the fisure between Christian and secular worlds will yawn wider. If we continue tilting toward propaganda we will soon find ourselves writing and selling books to ourselves alone. On the other hand, the Christian author cannot simply asorb the literary standards of the larger world. Our ultimate goal cannot be self-expression, but rather a God-expression.

There is also an anti-intellectual strain in modern Amercian Protestantism which has bred this problem as well. The problem is not as widespread, I do not think, in Catholic culture--there you tend to see works of greater depth, complexity, nuance and more widespread appeal.

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skylarburris,

You're on to something here -- i.e. the bit about Catholic culture. But, I suggest it is not Catholic culture per se, but rather the sacramental spirituality that underlies it which is "delivering the goods." Sacramental spirituality is based on a fundamental relationship between the external, objective, tangible, sensate world and that of the internal, subjective, intangible, and reflective. Within a sacramental world-view, everything has meaning, everything is haunted, as it were, with significance. Those who are reared within this kind of intellectual framework routinely develop the capacity -- even if only an embryonic capacity -- to do what all good art does, viz. to capture meaning which is otherwise unsensible and to render it in sensible forms.

Looking around the American landscape, we can see this tendency in Catholic culture, because Catholic culture is just largest and most familiar culture to evince a sacramental world-view. It is certainly present within other Christian cultures (for example, Anglican or classical Lutheran culture), but these are not nearly so common or so highly populated on the American scene.

Homesar

Homesar Runner said:

skylarburris,

You're on to something here -- i.e. the bit about Catholic culture. But, I suggest it is not Catholic culture per se, but rather the sacramental spirituality that underlies it which is "delivering the goods." Sacramental spirituality is based on a fundamental relationship between the external, objective, tangible, sensate world and that of the internal, subjective, intangible, and reflective. Within a sacramental world-view, everything has meaning, everything is haunted, as it were, with significance. Those who are reared within this kind of intellectual framework routinely develop the capacity -- even if only an embryonic capacity -- to do what all good art does, viz. to capture meaning which is otherwise unsensible and to render it in sensible forms.

Looking around the American landscape, we can see this tendency in Catholic culture, because Catholic culture is just largest and most familiar culture to evince a sacramental world-view. It is certainly present within other Christian cultures (for example, Anglican or classical Lutheran culture), but these are not nearly so common or so highly populated on the American scene.

Homesar

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I think you are correct in this assesment, but it is more than the sacramental quality--it is the intellectual quality as well. I should probably say that I am an evangelical Protestant, lest anyone think I have a particular axe to grind with Protestants. Though of a non-denominational/Baptist background, I have, however, joined a Lutheran church because my soul longs for the beauty of tradition, and I wanted to participate in the liturgy.

TLHines said:

I think Skylar has nailed this one--in an argument much like Francis Schaeffer made about art/literature and Christianity.

Are we moving in the right direction? Depends on your viewpoint, I guess. Love it or hate it, the success of the "Left Behind" series opened a lot of doors--for people such as Ted Dekker. I think we'll be seeing edgier Christian fiction coming out of the CBA in the next year or two. If you are truly interested in this topic, I suggest you check out the "Faith*in*Fiction" blog maintained by Bethany House Editor Dave Long at http://faithinfiction.blogspot.com; Dave talks at length about this very subject, and his goal is to find the kind of fiction we're talking about.

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Thanks for the URL. I'll be reading that blog.

I don't even want to read "Left Behind" and I'm a Christian.

skylarburris said:

I think you are correct in this assesment, but it is more than the sacramental quality--it is the intellectual quality as well. I should probably say that I am an evangelical Protestant, lest anyone think I have a particular axe to grind with Protestants. Though of a non-denominational/Baptist background, I have, however, joined a Lutheran church because my soul longs for the beauty of tradition, and I wanted to participate in the liturgy.

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And might I add, the mystical quality (though this term makes a lot of evangelicals wince). I, too, am an evangelical Protestant raised in a nondenominational/Baptist background, who has attended Anglican services (in addition to my Bible church attendance) due to that same soul-longing for a richer experience of worship. This seemed to go hand-in-hand with my discovery of the early church writings, and writings of the early saints and mystics. It's truly a shame that there is so little Christian writing today that reflects the same depth, passion, and wisdom.

Edgy Christian Fiction

It's good to see some of these posts. I've always felt a little bad that if I had the choice between a Christian novel and something by Dean Koontz or Stephen King, I'd end up picking DK or SK, (unless it was a Frank Peretti or Ted Dekker novel), because even though I have to put up with things like swearing and sexual references, at least I have NO idea where the story will go next...and isn't that the point...the journey?

I would love to someday, if it is God's Will, publish an "edgy" Christian novel. I'm self-publishing one right now, (not going to go into it, because this is the wrong thread...check the self-promotion for Dark Waters), and I'm doing some small promotion, hitting a few Christian writing conferences in my area with copies, but I sometimes despair of ever getting really published. I think I'm far too conservative for a secular publisher to pick up....but maybe a little too edgy for the Christian market.

Anyway, seeing posts like these gives me some hope.

Kevin Lucia
www.kevinlucia.net

Kevin...don't give up. If RiverOak, a CBA house, can take a chance on my stuff (and they did) which is waaaaay out on the ragged edge of "edgy", then anyone has a shot. My editor says the CBA is changing almost daily. To which I can only cheer.

John

Thanks for the encouragement. As long as I get to tell my story to even a few people, that will be enough for me.


Kevin

Puddle Jumper said:

I don't even want to read "Left Behind" and I'm a Christian.

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From what I hear, they're not very well written; nor is their theology very good. I really appreciate reading Fred's take on what's wrong with the Left Behind series from a Christian point of view--and I'm not Christian.

The comments on his blog led me to an article that labelled those books "evangelical porn". If the LB series is at all representative of Christian fiction today (I do not know; y'all will have to tell me), then this article goes along way towards answering the question "Is Christian fiction going in the wrong direction, and if so, how?"

Apparently, watching the LB books get trashed in reviews is my latest obsession--I even dreamed about the Rapture last night. Must be time I shut off the blog trawl and went back to working on my novel.

I have no problem with the theology; I've subscribed to the same scenario for nearly three decades now. From what I can ascertain in studying scripture, all the pieces are just about now in place. Yee-freakin'-hah, and ya'll can have the place. Here's the keys, don't mess up the carpet.

As to the quality of the writing of the LB series, however....well, charity forbids me *G*.

John

Hidden Liberal Fantasies

NicoleJLeBoeuf said:

From what I hear, they're not very well written; nor is their theology very good. I really appreciate reading Fred's take on what's wrong with the Left Behind series from a Christian point of view--and I'm not Christian.

The comments on his blog led me to an article that labelled those books "evangelical porn". If the LB series is at all representative of Christian fiction today (I do not know; y'all will have to tell me), then this article goes along way towards answering the question "Is Christian fiction going in the wrong direction, and if so, how?"

Apparently, watching the LB books get trashed in reviews is my latest obsession--I even dreamed about the Rapture last night. Must be time I shut off the blog trawl and went back to working on my novel.

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I scanned the article that you mentioned above and from what I could gather it is just another attempt to poke fun at fundamentalism, which is funny because the article criticizes the "Left Behind" authors for creating unsaved characters just so their readers can enjoy seeing them humiliated and made fun of.

Edgarallenwannabe said:

It's good to see some of these posts. I've always felt a little bad that if I had the choice between a Christian novel and something by Dean Koontz or Stephen King, I'd end up picking DK or SK, t

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Who said Dean Koontz and Stephen King weren't Christians? King claims to believe in a personal God, and Koontz has sometimes been called the "Christian humanist." In a good way, of course.

I have to agree with James concerning Dean Koontz. Many of his novels, especially in the last few years, have very clear threads concerning faith and God running through them.

Cheryll