Writing religious characters

veinglory said:

Happy pro-religion tolerance message ending. I'm not quite sue where that came from but I just identified more strongly with the deeply religious protagonist rather than the atheist one. Every had that happen.

In plots I think religion often adds an extra dimention because it gives strong structures to guide conduct that can part company from what a person whould do just following their instincts or conscience.

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That's a great truth! I recall a movie entitled The Five Feathers or something similar in which an unconscious British cavalry deserter is rescued by an Islamic nomad, who states he had to aid the former, because God/Allah placed the unconscious European "in his path." Beautiful.

When you create a world

veinglory said:

My last novella took a little twist on me.

Happy pro-religion tolerance message ending. I'm not quite sue where that came from but I just identified more strongly with the deeply religious protagonist rather than the atheist one. Every had that happen.

In plots I think religion often adds an extra dimention because it gives strong structures to guide conduct that can part company from what a person whould do just following their instincts or conscience.

Click to expand...

As a writer, to some degree you stand in loco creatoris to your created world. Since I've been working on a fairly elaborate cosmology in which to situate my stories I naturally appreciate those characters in the story who have a mystically high opinion of their creator's vision and logic. So it is often not the religious characters, but the mystical optimists who seem to sense that they are in a good story...that I favor. Those religious characters that are grumpy and authoritarian and try to force their own programs on my creation...well, they tend not to get very good press even though I suppose they must be right about there being a certain dangerous uncertainty and even hazardous contingency in many cosmic elements...well that's not the attitude I like to see in characters. They should trust in me, their creator, and not be so picky about details that don't come together or their friends who have disappeared between one draft and the next or cars with inconsistant features, guns and radios that are curiously generic, chronologies that don't quite add up and so on...

The MC in my Jan Phillips series is a devout Catholic. He's also a gay man.
I don't tell the reader that he's devout. I don't have him expound on religion. He simply acts as a christian in a sometimes harsh world. In one scene he refuses to help the parents of a murdered boy avenge themselves on the murders.
Here is a portion of how I handle him. The scene is in a French Monastery. My MC Jan is speaking with the father abbot, Jacques Malreve.

“Jacques, I know who the Kwons are. They’ve tried to contact our Asian Mundus representatives several times. There’s nothing we can do. Their son is dead. They know that, you know that, I know that, hell, even the Pope knows!”
The abbot said nothing leaving Jan to stand in the glare of his silent reproach.
Jan reached out taking the priest by the arm feeling his bones beneath the rough wool robe.
“Old friend, you must understand. There’s nothing we can do! Even with Mundus’ considerable resources we weren’t able to rescue the Kwon boy.”
Jan looked deep into the old man’s eyes “—believe me, we tried. As for the Kwons we certainly can’t resurrect the dead…and the Middle East? Well…it is…what it is.”
“Won’t you at least talk to them?”
“No!” Jan said exasperated.
“Jan they are souls in distress!”
“That’s your department!” Jan snapped.
Jacques pulled the wool cowl of his robe over his head and gave Jan a fixed stare.
“I remember an eighteen year old boy standing right where you are now. ‘Mon Père, help me! I am a soul in distress.’ Those were your very words my son. Have you come so far that you can no longer see yourself?”
Jan felt the stab of guilt only Catholics, and Jewish mothers can inflict. In a flash of memory that seemed like hours, he gave way under the memory of his own past heartache, a heartache borne of sexual uncertainty and the loss of his childhood and family.
“Jan?” prodded the priest.
“Alright! Alright! You win"...

Citymouse

veinglory said:

My last novella took a little twist on me.

It is a fantasy where the dominant religion is a form of Sun and Fire worship. A generic theism to use based roughly on the Egyptian version. Our hero falls for a secular werewolf who is amongst other things nocturnal (and an atheist). Nice angsty little dilemma.

Some adventures later the characters get a little out of hand and part company with the planned plot. The Sun god turns up in a vision to explain that light and fire is just a metaphor to help his followers understand a being without form or limits, and that is real life the dark and the light can be good or bad.

Happy pro-religion tolerance message ending. I'm not quite sure where that came from but I just identified more strongly with the deeply religious protagonist rather than the atheist one. Ever had that happen?

In plots I think religion often adds an extra dimention because it gives strong structures to guide conduct that can part company from what a person whould do just following their instincts or conscience.

Click to expand...

I think you make a good point, Veinglory. Not only does religion add an extra dimension because of what you mentioned, but also because a NT character falling for a theistic character can provide a good amount of conflict for the couple to overcome, in a theistic versus non-theistic struggle to understand one another.

It's an interesting idea, IMO. It could make for some very deep reading, I think.