Personally, I think that God has gifted us with creating through writing. We can use this gift to either glorify God, or to go against God.

But, does glorifying God mean you have to intentionally put a Christ or God figure in your fantasy, or writing allegorically? I would say no. To me, glorifying God through your writing would mean committing it to Him and striving to do your best in your work. God gave you a gift, and you honor Him by writing to the best of your ability.

Does this mean we forget about putting any allegory or Christian aspects into our writing? Of course not! Our Christian world view should shine through our writing, just as C.S. Lewis' did. It should be such a part of us that it has no choice but to show up in what we set out to do.

There is nothing wrong with allegorical stories. In fact, I greatly appreciate them! There is a place for every type of writing. There is a place for writing allegorically and for intentionally putting a Christ figure in your writing. But I think a key to writing good Christian fantasy is to write to your best potential and always trying to honor God and committing your work to him by striving to honor him.

I also think the main key is prayer. Yes putting your best effort into it is what you should do, but looking to Him for inspiration is definitely necessary. If you are writing for Him, you will want to let him work through you get to the message out that He wants. Just my meager thoughts on the subject.

I've seen people talk about their fantasy writing style and talking a lot about C.S. Lewis. So let's say that C.S. Lewis' writing (mainly Narnia) is the basis of good Christian fantasy.

Did you know that Lewis' intention when he wrote Narnia was not necessarily to write Christian fantasy? His inspiration came from an image in his head at the age of 16: A faun carrying a parcel. He then decided to create a story from that. He did not necessarily set out to write "Christian" fantasy, but more a good story. However, because of his Christian world view, his Christian beliefs showed up in his story. They just kind of went in there, from my understanding. His being a Christian was such a part of him that it appeared in a children's book he wrote.

But, does glorifying God mean you have to intentionally put a Christ or God figure in your fantasy, or writing allegorically? I would say no.

To me, glorifying God through your writing would mean committing it to Him and striving to do your best in your work. God gave you a gift, and you honor Him by writing to the best of your ability.

Does this mean we forget about putting any allegory or Christian aspects into our writing? Of course not! Our Christian world view should shine through our writing, just as C.S. Lewis' did. It should be such a part of us that it has no choice but to show up in what we set out to do.

There is nothing wrong with allegorical stories. In fact, I greatly appreciate them! There is a place for every type of writing. There is a place for writing allegorically and for intentionally putting a Christ figure in your writing.

This is my personal observation on this subject. What do you guys think about this? How do you view this topic? How do you think we should go about writing Christian Fantasy?

Ummm ... I wouldn't agree that Lewis's fantasy is the model of good Christian fantasy. A model, certainly, but if we make Lewis our standard any number of others wouldn't measure up. Even the Inklings as a group wouldn't do for a single standard. (Though I'd aquiesce easily enough, at least for the sake of discussion, to the non-fiction writings of the Inklings about writing and fantasy as our standard.)

Indeed; this is a good example of a point he made about Christians in politics and society: what we need is not a Christian political party, or (to apply it here), "Christian fantasy" as a genre, but lots and lots of Christians who have been called to politial action, or writing fantasy, working out their faith in that vocation.

Another major point is that he started to write and didn't get anywhere until Aslan came in and dragged the whole rest of the series after him. If the stories hadn't been distinctly Christian, they wouldn't have been written.

Yes! Indeed! But that's not enough; a story can in its construction and execution glorify God but in its content attack him. (Lewis had a phrase he used to describe something once: "beautiful but depraved".) Our fiction needs to cultivate truth in our readers---as the fact that it can do so has been the only justification for its existence since the question came up several centuries ago. (See Sir Philip Sidney's "An Apology for Poetry", published 1595.)

Or Tolkien's, or MacDonald's, or ...

I'd like to see someone do a true allegory sometime; there's a reason it was the dominant form of narrative for a while. (As Lewis explains in one of the early chapters of The Allegory of Love.) Allegory can be incredibly powerful vehicle for certain kinds of stories, and similarly stories with rather direct symbolism (as the Archives of Anthropos) or with God as a character (as the Narnia series) can be quite compelling if done well.

(Somehow this topic keeps coming up in this forum, over and over and over ...) First of all, as you said, we have to produce as good a product as we can; just as a slovenly ambassador does not reflect well on the one who sends him, an error-filled or even merely mediocre nominally-Christian novel doesn't bring much glory to God. But second, we have to be sure that it conveys and cultivates truth, as we are writing in the service of the one who is "the Truth". So to make sure of that, we need to be immersed---steeped---in truth, and pray constantly for the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who alone leads to and teaches the truth. And third, our motivation needs to be right: God's glory, not our own. And we need to keep this in view whether we succeed (bringing the danger of becoming attached to the praise) or fail (bringing the danger of despair).

(Sorry about the tangents about alleory; the modern misunderstanding of it is a pet peeve of mine---and I have an essay explaining what it actually entails that I've submitted to, I hope, run on the HW blog sometime early this year.)

Aye. I'm not saying he's the only one, but for the sake of the discussion I wanted just one example to go off of.

Good point. From what I heard, though, (and this could be totally wrong) Lewis had just been recently dreaming about lions and decided to put one in his story. After he added Aslan, it took off. So I'm not sure if it was exactly even "distinctly Christian" there, but more his beliefs influencing his writing.

I believe I was more implying that with our focus on God in the process, it should only be natural to continue that into the actual writing.

Along these lines, would you consider Hind's Feet on High Places a true allegory? Perhaps I just didn't like the style, but it seemed way too obvious, even for an allegory... I don't think I've read very many allegorical works, so I could be utterly wrong there. I'm just curious as to that book.

Good thoughts! I enjoyed your post. This is becoming a good discussion.

Mmmm. Still, there are a few problems with picking Lewis (and his fantasy specifically; I'd have fewer objections if you'd picked the Space Trilogy): first, that there are (I believe) some who claim seriously that works along the lines of the Narnia books (though preferably less subtle, apparently) are the only fantasy books that should be written or read. Second, that attempting to imitate Lewis tends to lead writers into traps, like thoughtlessly tossing in any and all elements that leap to mind, or creating a symbolic representation of Biblical stories so transparent and simplistic it's almost a roman à clef.

I remember the "dreaming of lions" bit too, but the way I remember him putting it (wherever I read it) was that "Aslan dragged the whole story after him" (emphasis mine). What I gather from his descriptions is that what got him past his block and propelled the whole series thereafter was Aslan, the Second Person of the Trinity incarnate in the story as a lion. Just "a lion" wouldn't have done it.

You'd think so, but recent (the past several generations) trends in "Christian" "non-fiction" makes me want to to ensure that the need to represent and cultivate truth is explicit.

I'm not familiar with it; from the Wikipedia article (which looks to me like a review from somewhere ...) it may well be, but probably a simplified form relative to Bunyan, who himself used a massively simplified version of the form. What I want to see is a revival of the form as it was at its height, like in the Faerie Queene.

I'll have to look into Faerie Queene... it sounds better than Hind's Feet on High Places.

The world doesn't need another Peretti, they need the next BushMaid

I'm not sure that the model should change... We write Christian Fantasy. There's already been a Lewis, a Tolkien, and a MacDonald. I, personally, am not fond of writers who strive to follow a certain someone. The world doesn't need another Peretti, they need the next BushMaid (I used you sweetheart, because I knew you would appreciate it ).

We write Christian Fantasy. There's already been a Lewis, a Tolkien, and a MacDonald. I, personally, am not fond of writers who strive to follow a certain someone. The world doesn't need another Peretti, they need the next BushMaid (I used you sweetheart, because I knew you would appreciate it ).

I'm not sure that the model should change...

As a side note, I too us Lewis as an example in conversation, Captain, because he is perhaps the most widely accepted Christian Fiction writer, thus making him an easy author to use in discussions.

How ... odd. Perhaps it's because his books are thought of as children's books, or perhaps because it might be easier to forget that Tolkien is a Christian author. Tolkien essentially sparked the genre.

Imitating those who have gone before is part of what makes a genre a genre, and something that's similar enough to earlier works to be familiar but different enough to be fresh and new is both easier to write than and arguably superior to something completely new.

I'm not talking about who we should model our writing after , but for our discussion of "what is 'good Christian fantasy' anyway? What are its essential elements?" the Captain picked Lewis as our (to use a less ambiguous phrase) case study, so she asked whether putting in a Christ-figure or "allegorical" elements is necessary. I think we've about exhausted the lines of inquiry that Lewis's fantasy affords us, so let's look at other authors. One possible question (merely rhetorical in this group, probably) one might ask after looking at Tolkien is whether you have to create a vast world in great detail, including thousands of years of history?

I'm not sure that the model should change... We write Christian Fantasy. There's already been a Lewis, a Tolkien, and a MacDonald. I, personally, am not fond of writers who strive to follow a certain someone. The world doesn't need another Peretti, they need the next BushMaid (I used you sweetheart, because I knew you would appreciate it ).

More seriously, look at MaDonald. Of his fantasy I've only read The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie, and that was before I really realized that there was such a thing as "Christian fantasy" as distinct from mere "fantasy". Looking back, I get the definite sense that those two novels are certainly "Christian fantasy" and not merely "fantasy written by a Christian", but I can't put my finger on why.

* peeps in * Well...they were allegories, so perhaps that has something to do with it? I don't know.

What would you say to someone who says that Christian fiction must be explicitly Christian, and says that God-glorifying fiction like Narnia is just fluff?

"You're wrong."

What would you say to someone who says that Christian fiction must be explicitly Christian, and says that God-glorifying fiction like Narnia is just fluff?

Hrm... what I would want to say is "Why do you believe that?"

But if one doesn't write explicitly Christian (whether fantasy or otherwise), couldn't the reader connect the principles to anything but Christianity?

But if one doesn't write explicitly Christian (whether fantasy or otherwise), couldn't the reader connect the principles to anything but Christianity?