Posted on 03/24/2006 12:04:40 PM PST by HumanitysEdge
Have you read the Science Fiction Trilogy by Lewis? It has recently come back into print.
Also there is a great deal of Christian themes in Madeleine Le Engle's Wrinkle In Time series.
I am reading Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood. I can not understand why I missed such a wonderful book. But how can one who was Catholic, Irish and Southern have been anything but a great author?
I assume that you mean fiction by authors that are Christian. Pretty much anything by Stephen King is good.
THat depends... is your idea of Christian Fiction "The Chronicles of Narnia," "The Lord of the Rings," "The Inferno," "The Divine Comedy," etc...
or "Left Behind"...?
O my goodness! I just read the prologue ("Author's Apology")!
What a pretensious load of dung! One moment he is claiming that all he ever meant to do was mindless scribbles, next he is comparing his work to the gospels, exposing his claim to half-mindedness to be a sly, self-congratulatory claim of prophetic influence. And still he goes on, promising that if you only obey him, you will be taken to the Holy land!
"This book will make a traveler of thee,/ If by its counsel thou wilt ruled be;/ It will direct thee to the Holy Land"
... I think I'll pass on what appears to be neo-gnostic self-idolatry...
I read more of Pilgrim's Progress... finally motivated to by the realization I could probably read it free, at night, when I was having trouble sleeping.
As for my disgust at the prologue... well, let's say I didn't find the rest of the book as bad. It's got a very Screwtapish way of teaching Christians to avoid pratfalls along the way to salvation, which may be quite beneficial. And I sorta like precisely what others may be taken aback... He got himself to safety, then sent for his wife and kids when he could prove his success... It's too hard to carry them against his will and his cross and make it through the dismal swamps,... best to keep in mind that the best way to save them is to get saved.
The author is a self-righteous, pompous, pretensious ass in a lot of ways, and this manifests itself in some very judgmental and even hateful attitudes; he is sincerely what Rush Limbaugh playfully outs on the airs of. But in all honesty, while there is such great pretense in some ways, such as his attempts to induce his readers into believing he was inspired, there's almost a lack of pretense which makes his most glaring faults somehow less dangerous; he doesn't hide his sins with pretensious civility like the Mainstream Media. He lets them be seen, and even though he offers no repentance, the transparency of them makes them quite forgiveable.
What am I talking about? Well, when he identifies true dangers, he has a tendency to do so with brilliant insight. When he identifies dangers which are merely a product of his imperfections of prejudice, they are so clumsy and void of insight, they are completely harmless. For instance, being English, his characterization of Popery as a savage, horrificly violent monster is so hypocritical, no-one who doesn't already hate Catholicism is going to find anything to take seriously in it, except for perhaps where his greater insight has previously lent a credibility. ("THere must be something wrong with Catholicism if it has inspired such an otherwise godly man to such unhinged hatred!")
I read more of Pilgrim's Progress... finally motivated to by the realization I could probably read it free, at night, when I was having trouble sleeping.
As for my disgust at the prologue... well, let's say I didn't find the rest of the book as bad. It's got a very Screwtapish way of teaching Christians to avoid pratfalls along the way to salvation, which may be quite beneficial. And I sorta like precisely what others may be taken aback... He got himself to safety, then sent for his wife and kids when he could prove his success... It's too hard to carry them against his will and his cross and make it through the dismal swamps,... best to keep in mind that the best way to save them is to get saved.
The author is a self-righteous, pompous, pretensious ass in a lot of ways, and this manifests itself in some very judgmental and even hateful attitudes; he is sincerely what Rush Limbaugh playfully outs on the airs of. But in all honesty, while there is such great pretense in some ways, such as his attempts to induce his readers into believing he was inspired, there's almost a lack of pretense which makes his most glaring faults somehow less dangerous; he doesn't hide his sins with pretensious civility like the Mainstream Media. He lets them be seen, and even though he offers no repentance, the transparency of them makes them quite forgiveable.
What am I talking about? Well, when he identifies true dangers, he has a tendency to do so with brilliant insight. When he identifies dangers which are merely a product of his imperfections of prejudice, they are so clumsy and void of insight, they are completely harmless. For instance, being English, his characterization of Popery as a savage, horrificly violent monster is so hypocritical, no-one who doesn't already hate Catholicism is going to find anything to take seriously in it, except for perhaps where his greater insight has previously lent a credibility. ("THere must be something wrong with Catholicism if it has inspired such an otherwise godly man to such unhinged hatred!")
If you've read CS Lewis and like Sci-fi, do I take it that you've read the Perelandra trilogy (the other books being "Out of the Silent Planet," and "That Hideous Strength") A few notes on "That Hideous Strength": Lewis loses his knack for breathtakingly sharp concision, and he deals with the natural joys of sexuality in a way that many Christians aren't necessarily used to reading about. Nothing smutty -- he doesn't invade his characters modesty by learing -- but still very sexual in a way that made me, when I first read it at 13, rather uncomfortable. (Not because I was prudish, but because it was of matters I, as befitting my age and status in life, had so little connection with.)
Ray Bradbury is another author I might offer. He has some views which might seem unorthodox (un-orthodox, if you get my drift...) and at times he seems very atheistic at first blush... but then you realize he writes from the perspective of people who have let worldliness NEARLY completely shut religion and spirituality out of there lives. Therefore, when there are unmistakable hints of Christianity alive in his worlds, there seems almost a triumphantalism about it, like that line (and I can't believe I can better think of it from Jesus Christ Superstar than from scripture, but the original POINT of song was to memorize verse better): "If every tongue was stilled, the noise would still continue; the rocks and stones themselves would start to sing, 'Hosanna'!" -- It's like in Bradbury's worlds we witness the stones singing.
It's as if from the deepest reaches of his soul, Bradbury knows of the truth of Christ, and tries to infuse it into the bleak, atheistic presumptions of cold-war-era Sci-Fi; his only flaw is that it seems he hadn't the will to explode the paradigms.
Ironically, Isaac Asimov, bitter atheist that he is, manages some amazing metaphors of Christian faith... and occasion some strangely poignantly spiritual matters. In one story, he refers to a civilization which had joy in its own destruction, for theirs was the sun that went supernova to proclaim the birth of Christ, a sacrifice they were willing to pay. (As I write about it now, I wonder if that reflects some Judaic insight.) He has several stories along the lines of "the mystics were right after all..."
The movie version of Contact is interesting also. The book was terrible... anti-religious and spending hundreds of pages exploring the sexual frustrations of Jody Foster's character. The movie turned Foster's star travels into a metaphor for religious experience. Of course, a Christian in the story is a hypocritical pompous ass, but while one tires of that being the ONLY side of Christianity portrayed in Hollywood, his character was typical Washingtonian Christian, sadly.
Madeline L'Engle is a devotee of CS Lewis and Milton, who wrote sci-fi "for children" in the way that CS Lewis wrote fantasy "for children." It's been since I was a child that I read her, and some of my vague recollections are sorta what I would now call "new-agey," yet she strikes apon some of the most powerfully expressed notions that eventually led me from fairly radical leftism to conservativism.
(Yes, I am a TRUE neo-con, by Buckley's definition. I became conservative as I recognized that liberalism was a lie and was counter-productive, because I did have a few very strong conservative values alongside liberal beliefs I inherited from my then-passionately Democratic parents, informed by my parents' strong religious faith. And yes, my parents eventually also "converted" to conservativism as the Democrats became increasingly transparently incompatible with Christian faith, and I explained to them "the truth." :^D)
I should re-read L'Engle... I'm not at all certain she ever promoted a single new-agey ethic; she certainly was anti-socialist. Even my notion that a main character was Wiccan may be a hyperlexic error based on a character named Mrs. Which, not Mrs. Witch. She was magical, but she also had friends with names such as Mrs. Whatsit, etc.
***The author is a self-righteous, pompous, pretensious ass in a lot of ways, ****
Well, when you consider he wrote it while spending close to nine years in prison for the crime of preaching without a license from the Chirch of England, and that England was very anti-catholic at that time, one might give him some slack.
The book is considered one of the great literary books of the 1600's, and we read excerpts from it in public high school.
Definitly better than any of the "Left Behind" crap.
Then there is always the SCREWTAPE LETTERS, another good read.
Sorry, that's like saying, "he spent nine years in a Nazi prison for being a gypsi, so cut him some slack for being anti-semitic"! Of all people, he should suspect the vicious slandering of Catholics by the Anglicans, and EMPATHIZE with their persistent faith among their persecutions!
I'd plug my own book, but the moderator asked me to stop.
: )
Go to the web site for Tyndale House Publishers or Bethany House Publishers. Both produce good, quality Christian Fiction. I was in Christian Book Sales for 25 years, You can depend on the material they produce.
***Sorry, that's like saying, "he spent nine years in a Nazi prison for being a gypsi, so cut him some slack for being anti-semitic"! Of all people, he should suspect the vicious slandering of Catholics by the Anglicans, and EMPATHIZE with their persistent faith among their persecutions!*****
Well, since his book PILGRIM'S PROGRESS has been in print for the last 350 years, it appears that after you and I are dust and ashes it will still be in print.
So your opinion here is not worth a bucket of warm spit.
Meanwhile, could one consider BEN HUR to be Christian fiction or is it too radical for you.
I would then suggest then Lew Wallace's other epic THE FAIR GOD (If you can find a copy) about the conquest of Mexico, complete with a chapter of a Spanish soldier converting an Aztec maiden to Christianity.
>> Well, since his book PILGRIM'S PROGRESS has been in print for the last 350 years, it appears that after you and I are dust and ashes it will still be in print.
So your opinion here is not worth a bucket of warm spit. <<
Ooo, my! I must've touched a nerve!
I enjoy Steeple Hill inspirational romances (available with the romance fiction in Walmart).
***Ooo, my! I must've touched a nerve!***
Hey! That's MY line! ;-)
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