What is Christian Fiction?

I was recently asked a question that surprised me.

“What is Christian fiction?”

Now, to me, that was kind of a ‘duh’ moment, because it’s easy to define... Isn't it?

What does the phrase Christian fiction mean? Is it just about having a religious theme?

To set the pace for this post, let me start with a thesis statement:
The purpose of Christian fiction is honoring and glorifying God.

• There should be a Christ centered theme; either about someone finding forgiveness in Christ, or someone that is a Christian learning something that moves them closer to Christ.
• There should be realism about sin, without the celebration of sin. People sin in the World, and they will sin in Christian fiction. The difference is that the emphasis is on righteousness. In other words; if someone sins, their behavior is not glorified. The damaging aspects of sin is shown, unlike in fiction, where sin is celebrated and the consequence of sin is glossed over. In other words, are they reading about the effects of sin, or are they learning how to sin?

To illustrate, let us consider cursing and using foul language….

‘But,’ you say, ‘In real life people cuss. If there is a bad guy, won’t he cuss?’

In the world, people curse and use all manner of foul language. However, in a book whose purpose is to honor and glorify God, putting something foul into the readers mind should be something the author should avoid. Mentioning that something happened is different than actually acting it out.

Consider these two examples: first a fiction scene.

• Bad Guy X backed up, and yelled, “I will *&#^%$ kill you,” as he reached for his gun.

For the second example, a Christian fiction scene.

• Bad Guy X backed up, cursing loudly as he reached for his gun.

In the first example, I have replaced the word with punctuation, but I have seen 'Religious Fiction' where the author did not do that, they printed the curse word there, because, 'That's how real people talk.' My point is this; you can have people engage in real behaviors without drawing attention to the sin and embedding it into their mind. You don’t have to teach your reader curse words, just because you have a character engaging in that behavior. (Colossians 3:8)

A similar premise is what should guide a Christian author in dealing with sensuality. What we must remember is that the goal of an author is to 'show' his audience something, and not tell them.

The question becomes this; as we consider a book to determine if it is Christian fiction, what is the books 'showing' us? Unfortunately, with the pervasiveness of sensuality in the world, many authors have been trying to be more ‘edgy’ and appeal to the flesh to attract readers… often by describing things that are better left undescribed...

For instance: a Christian woman is instructed to dress modestly; this includes not wearing clothing that is too revealing or tight. When an author goes into a detailed description of how a character 'looks' in revealing clothing, it is like showing them someone that is sensually dressed. Christian fiction should not 'show' you things that God has specifically instructed you to not see. (Matthew 5:28)

 

In closing, take this thought with you to consider when you look at a book:

Is the reader viewing sin as a learning experience, or are they learning sin from a viewing experience?