Help! Help!
From a colleague:
"I have a goal to assemble a list of books of Christian fiction that would be of help to a Christian who wants to build bridges to the Christian worldview with his unbelieving friends. The kind of work I have in mind are those with an implicit Christian worldview - C Lewis, J Tolkien, F. O'Connor, M L'Engle come to mind - or one's written by sensible unbelievers (thank God for common grace) that do a good job of provoking us to think about sin, grace, gratitude (they might not use those words, but the concepts are there). The movie Seven, for example, is one of the best *movies* I can think of that deals with human depravity, but it's, well, not a book. (It's hardly worth mentioning, but Evangelical "kitsch" - stuff that you wouldn't give to your best friend - isn't what I'm looking for.) I'd love to find works other than Lewis, Tolkien, et al but I don't know the fiction world very well and my guess is that unbelievers blessed with huge doses of common grace are probably the only ones out there who have written any good, thought provoking fiction worth reading. If there are Christians out there hanging a shingle writing good fiction, it would be great to find something "contemporary", i.e., written since WWII or thereabouts. George MacDonald is probably a brilliant writer, but how many unbelievers (and believers!) will be riveted by Phantastes?"
So, recommendations?
posted by return home gnome @ 12:51 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
I don't care for most of his stuff and some of his views, but Frank Peretti's 'The Oath' is pretty good. Oozing black filth from your heart is kinda descriptive. That's the only "contemporary" author I can think of other then the old friends you listed. If I think of anyone else I will let you know.
Wow....can't think of any off the top of my head that haven't already been listed. Sounds like a great project though! Hm...will think too. Of little help, I know. =)
Will is BOUND to have something interesting to add (but I think he's in CA already for the weekend.) Will?
Anyone read Frederick Buechner?
Contemporary authors... I don't know. None come to mind.
Hawethorne would be one author who has an imense amount of "Christianity" in his writing. Uncle Tom's Cabin as well by Stowe. Dickens of course, has a social conscience informed by Christianity. Dostoyevsky is a brilliant writer, who was a strong Christian. Don't read Brothers Karamazov unless you want to be deeply challenged. Tolstoy was also a Christian.
Oh, one fantasy writer who is well liked on both sides, if you will, but is in fact a Christian, is Stephen R. Lawhead. His Pendragon Cycle (or at least the first three books) is very good, interesting. I think his other books are well liked and respected as well. He is contemporary.
I would have to sit down and look at a list of authors for a bit to think of many more. There are ALOT of classic authors who are Christians. The contemporary one's tend to over Christianize everything (Left Behind anyone?).
Thanks so much: our recomendations list is growing!! (Keep 'em coming!)
While I agree there are many classic authors who were Christians (I am a classics major after all), I don't think people like Hawthorne or Dickens are exactly what this guy's looking for. They don't quite create that "secondary world" that is so convincing and compelling in a Christian way (like the other authors previously mentioned do.)
Dostoyevsky is an excellent recomendation though (esp Brothers K, which I've read 3 times; why did I think of that? *slaps forehead*).
I knew y'all would be the ones to ask!! :)
I must not have read the post thoroughly:) Yeah, Dickens doesn't create a world... although, he may have. Apparently much of what we know about England and London at that time comes from his writing, and no one is really sure it is perfectly accurate.
Hawthorne certainly doesn't. Those were just books that are informed by a Christian ideology. The Scarlet Letter was the first piece of American liturature that was considered to be on par with European lit, which I found interesting.
Anyway... if i think of any more books, I'll alet you know.
Again, thank you all for your helpful recommendations. I have passed it on. :)
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