Random Thoughts on Christian Fantasy

Ultimately there are only two ways of thinking — one that starts with the revelation (biblical record) from God as foundational to all thinking (biology, history, geology, etc.) — which would be called a Christian world view; or, starting with man’s beliefs (evolutionary history) as foundational to all thinking — which would be called a secular world view. [1]

It has been said by many a soul that Christian speculative fiction is (should be) the most powerful tool for communicating biblical thinking.

I’m going to be a bit critical, here, not to pick on what good writers are doing, but to talk about where the genre hasn’t even gone yet.

Metaphors Without Reality

Within the mainstream of CBA readers, there seems to be a perception that there are only two valid classic fantasy models for Christians to draw on: Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, and ergo, an allegorial structure. As such, Christian fantasy writers targeting the audience of the Christian Booksellers’ Association distribution system have been slogging an upward path to convince anyone there’s anything else left to write.

Let me just say this in terms of the spirituality of Christian fantasy models: Tolkien–not so good. Lewis–only mildly better. The Bible–best.

Sure, epic good and evil is a Christianish thing. It was definitely lacking in the highly-reviewed TOR fantasy I picked up the other day, which was simply an examination of how everything is evil and degraded, and why we should be content to find beauty in it arbitrarily.

I grew up on Tolkien and Lewis as a non-Christian, and they didn’t point me toward Christ. That can only happen effectively when the pre-existing world view is in place. They’re examples of what I would actually call neutral reading, and I don’t generally believe in neutral. It always floors me how Christians can say LOTR is “so Christian.” As far as Narnia, Aslan’s death was just a heroic plot point to me, because I’d never heard that Christ died for anyone. Let alone me.

New Footing, or Not So Much?

So I think we want to keep that in mind–that Christian writing to a non-Christian world view is, at best, often just neutral. There is an increasing divide between Christian and non-Christian thinking, and translation is needed.

So our world view has to be backed up and anchored effectively to reality, and relying on the pop culture’s thirst for clear-cut heroism is probably not sufficient. Winds change. God doesn’t.

Also, what’s being done with Christian fantasy today is reinvention and revision, not direct challenge on the genre’s own grounds. It’s taking the same Gospel story, still without showing non-believers any realistic background for it, and just retelling the same thing over again.

This is silly. Christian fantasy is the most biblically conservative genre available. In fact, it’s downright creationist.

Is the irony slaying you yet? Don’t laugh too hard.

Fantasy, Pwned

When we do world-building, what we’re actually building is a world view. the elements we include and how the characters perceive  and interact with them are tools for conveying message. Here, then, are some common fantasy elements, and why we own them.

Dragons.

We’ve all heard of the word “dragon.” Dragon legends are numerous around the world. Legends tell us that the Chinese bred dragons. Many of the descriptions of these “dragons” fit dinosaurs. Could the stories about dragons actually be accounts of encounters with what we now call dinosaurs? [2]

Talking dragons. Magical dragons. Evil, tricksy dragons. Who did it first? Seriously? The conservative Jews, or the original God-believing forebears who handed the story down to them, however you want to look at it.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”

And the woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.’ “

And the serpent said to the woman, “You surely shall not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Genesis 3:1-5

You want to communicate the Gospel? This is where the Bible starts telling the story of the Redeemer. With a talking dragon critter. Think on that. It makes us look insane and primitively superstitious to the world, so we’d better explain clearly how we can hold such a reality. And there are explanations, and they’re unexpectedly sensible.

The whole idea of spirit beings possessing an animal and speaking through it brings me directly to another ever-recurring trope:

Visions and Prophecy.

The Bible is 1/3 prophecy. If you’ve ever been to an actual prophecy conference, one that deals in a scholarly fashion with the Bible’s prophetic elements rather than goofing around making up emotionally-charged  random new ones, you’ll have heard this factoid. Otherwise, it may not have occurred to you.

“I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy falsely in My name, saying, ‘I had a dream, I had a dream!’

“How long? Is there anything in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy falsehood, even these prophets of the deception of their own heart, who intend to make My people forget My name by their dreams which they relate to one another, just as their fathers forgot My name because of Baal?

“The prophet who has a dream may relate his dream, but let him who has My word speak My word in truth.

“What does straw have in common with grain?” declares the Lord.  “Is not My word like fire?” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer which shatters a rock?”

Jeremiah 23:25-29

The Bible includes two types of vision and prophecy: The real kind, and the evil, misleading fake. Understanding when, why and how God gave visions and truth throughout history, and how the spiritual deceptions of Satan and our own sinful hearts are described and analyzed by Scripture, is a powerful inoculant against the real-life spiritual deception that’s rampant in our culture. Shouldn’t we use it?

Questing.

The questing theme is universal to humankind. It’s in all our hearts. Why?

He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.

Eccles. 3:11

Make a study of Ecclesiastes. It’s the ultimate quest story. It is an exposition of the heart of what every quest only wishes it could be.

Wizards, Sages, Steampunk Mages.

There is a lack of evidence pointing to a step-by-step development of the technology possessed by ancient cultures. Instead, each culture appears full-blown right from the beginning. [3]

Raised a secularist, I grew up reading guys like Erich Von Daniken, who attempted to explain highly sophisticated, “out-of-place” technology using aliens and such. It was downright kooky.

One of the great ironic gifts of secularism is the attempt to explain the “magic” of ancient cultures, such as Excalibur or alchemy or Stonehenge’s way-too-precise orientation to the sun, using scientific materialism. They’re not so far off, in my humble opinion.

Even though the early people of the earth, Adam and Eve and their descendants, were in a fallen and degenerating state, they were not “primitive” people.

Being closer to [the original perfect state of] Creation than we are, they had not degenerated as far as we have. Their bodies were far more perfect, their minds more alert and capable, and their lifetimes longer.

With their good health, keen observational powers and alert minds, they soon began to develop a high level of science and technology. [4]

Again: 3,000 years ago, God was writing (or had already written) what we now consider spiritually dangerous in literature, because we’ve tossed the roots of faith which require us to search forensically for reasonable explanations of the Bible.

And his brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe.

As for Zillah, she also gave birth to Tubal-cain, the forger of all implements of bronze and iron…

Genesis 4:21-22

I have this theory that the best way to freshen the fantasy genre would be to flip it on its head and call it “reality, revised.” Isn’t that what all great writing is about–taking another look at what the world really is?

~~~~~~~~~

[1] The Great Dinosaur Mystery Solved, p. 16, Ken Ham, Master Books, 2000.

[2] ibid., p. 33

[3] The Puzzle of Ancient Man, p. 12, Dr. Don Chittick, Ph. D., Creation Compass, 1998

[4] ibid., p. 32