What Makes Christian Speculative Fiction "Christian", Anyway?
This entry was posted on Friday, August 04. 2006 and is filed under Christian SF Definitions.
I like lists. I will attempt to answer the question posed in the title by offering several lists, two from a couple of smart folks and the rest by me. (Whether you think I'm smart, I'll leave to the reader.)
I will not define fiction, as I think that insults your intelligence.
Speculative refers to works of science fiction, fantasy, allegory, horror, magical realism, and other newfangled terms I tend not to keep track of. In general, it refers to that which is not "realistic" fiction. The world is not as we know it and the characters may not be human, or on earth. You may be used to some of the familiar tropes (elements, motifs, symbols) of the genre:
1. Fantasy tropes: elves, swords, sorcery, quests, castles, fairies, gnomes, goblins, talking trees, witches, wizards, mermaids, magic doorways to another world, magic books, etc.
2. Science Fiction tropes: spaceships, hyperdrives, parallel universes, alien invasions, warring colonies of earth, plagues, dangerous new planets, suspended animation for long journeys, translating devices, etc.
3. Horror tropes: haunted houses, vampires, werewolves, mad scientists, zombies, ghosts, demon possession, pyschic powers, etc.
In other words, "You're not in Kansas, anymore." Or rather, you are in Kansas, but it's 2399 and they train space engineers at the university there; or it's a Kansas with a wizard as governor; or it's a Kansas where the scarecrows in the fields are all coming to life and killing off the farmers en masse.
Now to the Christian part, which is more controversial than any definition that's come before: What makes speculative fiction CHRISTIAN?
I'll start with two lists of what makes a novel CHRISTIAN:
Martin LaBar of Sun and Shield blog makes this list in his post called "What Must Be Christian About A Christian Novel" of elements one might expect to find (not all must be present):
1. A Christ figure
2. solid Christian doctrine
3. monotheistic prayer/worship to and of a divine Being
4. expressing a relationship with the God of Christianity as Lord
5. consciousness of supernatural guidance, of providence
6. explicit rejection of evil personified or evil actions (even realization of evil in oneself that needs to battled)
(Please read the comments section and Mr. LaBar's excellent post for clarification of these points. I've added one of the elements I'd originally mistakenly left out)
Angela Hunt, prolific Christian author, has her own list in her post, "What Does Evangelical Fiction Require?":
1. story should illustrate some aspect of the Christian faith
2. Should avoid obscenity and profanity
3. Should offer hope
4. should have good craft elements
(Again, pleaes read Ms. Hunt's post for clarification of her position.)
Now, my longer list of what Mirtika's parameters are for a novel to be termed CHRISTIAN SPECULATIVE FICTION:
1. I do not believe it requires a Christ figure to conquer all evil in the story.
2. I do believe it requires a consciousness of sin/wickedness in beings and the need for a savior, whether or not the savior appears in the actual tale. This need not be the main premise or plot drive, but it should be there.
3. I do not believe that people should be goody-goody.
4. I do believe there must be an awareness of “a good” that one judges by/strives to attain.
5. I do not believe all the good or most of the likable characters need to display habits of spiritual disciplines such as prayer, worship, study of sacred teachings, etc.
6. I do believe one or more important characters should exhibit some form of recognizable spiritual disciplines that derive from their faith, even if morphed to fit the constructed SF world.
7. I believe it should offer hope.
8. I do not believe that it must be chipper and relentlessly optimistic in tone. Many suffer lives of endless struggle and torment, and it may not get better with time. However, there must be a sense that suffering, though normal, is not the only thing to look forward to. That there is something else, something beyond. Ecclesiastes is a dark book, a pessimistic one, that ultimately offers some hope. That might be a good guideline for those of us attracted to the darker corners of human experience.
9. There does not need to be a Yahweh/Jesus/Trinity/Holy Spirit by name.
10. There does need to be a Supreme Being of some recognizable Judeo-Christian sort that one or more key characters honor and/or wrestle with, and there needs to be an indication that the Being is active with the individual, even if invisible, or especially if tangible.
11. I do not believe you have to have the irredeemably Satanic Big Bad (although I love Big Bads.)
12. I do believe there has to be an idea of a power of evil, however morphed, and that the evil is not a friend to the believing characters. Believer characters should seek to avoid evil, and should seek to repent of it when they fall into it, even if reluctantly and after much struggle and/or debate.
13. I do not believe a conversion is a necesasry focal story element.
14. I do believe that a conversion (of a major or secondary character) is valid element and a powerful one, if done properly, and should not be dismissed as overdone. A Christian worldview is really big on "salvation," after all.
15. I do not believe that the presence obscenity of profanity make a work non-Christian, anymore than the presence of an act of theft or murder or rape makes a work non-Christian. It may merely make the work more realistic, as humans routinely do and say obscene and profane things—just as they murder and rape.
16. I do believe that a writer should try to adjust to the guidelines of the publishing house they target (if they target specific houses), and tone down obscenity and profanity if that is all that impedes the work from publication. One should not be slaves to a prudish element in the audience, but one should not dismiss the sensitive readers out of hand. Make sure the objectionable elements are absolutely necessary for your vision of the work. Christians are accountable to one another in a way non-believers are not.
17. I do believe that use of specific Christian doctrine is valid.
18. I do not believe that one must have one-to-one correlations of doctrine. Whatever Christian doctrines are highlighted, however, must fit the world or the time (future or past) and the milieu of the novel. Terms used should not be anachronistic or hokey or trite. If you make up fresh worlds, then you need to make up fresh religious phrases that ring honest and true for that world.
19. I do not believe that Christian Speculative Fiction must be the duller, less innovative stepchild of General Speculative Fiction.
20. I do believe Christian speculative fiction writers should strive for writing no less good and ideally much, much better than that in non-Christian fiction—to the best of our might, as unto the Lord—and should be creating novel structures and language and build dazzling worlds that aren’t regurgitations of Tolkien or Lewis, however genius those men were. This means we all have to work harder, incuding editors, to not put what is just "okay" out there cause it's got Christian imagery that CBA readers may like. We have to be better than okay.
So, there you have it. I believe that if a novel is to be termed fiction that is Christian—speculative or otherwise—then, yes, it must reflect Christian "truth." It must deal with some aspect of the Christian faith: sin and repentance, regeneration, faith in acts of daily devotional living, spiritual warfare, conversion, religious community, overcoming besetting sins, spiritual disciplines, apostasy, the problem of evil, divine judgment, divine intervention, life-after-death, etc.
If it’s a novel about family conflict in a mutated tribe on a far-flung colony, and ideas relative to the spiritual aspects of mutation and of honoring parents don’t enter into it, it’s just speculative fiction—science-fiction. It’s not Christian speculative fiction. If it’s a novel about a thieving, gluttonous Starbucks employee who is abducted to a co-existing alternate society inside the espresso machine, a world replete with Arabica Wizards and Foam Fairies; yet it doesn’t deal with the sins of theft and gluttony as SINS, it’s not Christian fiction. If it doesn’t include, perhaps, seeking divine strength in fighting the evil Lord Latte who’s eating up all the Foam Fairies and planning to take over the souls of the cappuccino drinkers on earth, then it’s likely just fantasy—it’s not Christian fantasy.
There are differing levels of overtness within that circle I've drawn, and I've been so specific that it may seem narrower than intended, but there it is.
I would add that I appreciate what I call "Christian-friendly" Speculative Fiction. This is spec-fic that has Christian echoes and moral fiber and understands good and evil. It might be written by a Christian or a non-Christian, but it's not devoid of a tone or theme or of characterizations that we'd recognize as compatible with Christianity's worldview.
Stuart defines CSF as spec-fic with a Christian worldview. Perhaps my list is a way on expanding on "Christian worldview."
Do let me know if you think the list is off or on target. And if you disagree, tell me specifically what makes a work of speculative fiction CHRISTIAN, in your opinion.
ADDENDUM: Straight science fiction stories that are based in a real-world/extrapolated-future would, logically, allow for natural, traditional Christian terms and language and doctrine, although one would need to make changes and allowances in slang/idiom/catch-phrases for a future society.
NEXT FRIDAY: A look at a couple of excellent ABA SF stories, and how they fit the above criteria—or not—and how they can teach CBA-targeting SF writers a thing or two
Comments
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Friday, August 04. 2006
Daniel I Weaver wrote:
A very thorough list with a lot of food for thought. I would say that I agree with just about everything you have to say. The one point I can't agree with you is the profanity/obscenity. There are too many easy ways around it that I don't believe obscenities/profanity have any place in Christian fiction.
In Fantasy and Sci-fi worlds, you can create your own obscenities that won't offend anyone, but can be recognized as vulgar. Ex, Robert Jordan's use of "bloody" is a replacement for vulgarities rather than just a negative word. And I've never encountered a story that I found lacking where a particularly vile character was portrayed by an author saying something as simple as: he swore. Or obscenities fell off his mouth. etc.
Outside of that one point, I think you have the genre pegged. That's my take. A non-believer might be touched by a book that includes a little profanity if the life-lesson touches them, but it would turn off most of the Christian readers I know. Including myself, and I love the darker side of Spec. Fic.
Daniel I Weaver
--Fiction to scare the Jesus into you--
www.danieliweaver.com
www.songofexistence.com/blog
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Friday, August 04. 2006
Mir wrote:
"Bloody" is a cuss word. Ask a Brit. It's not got the same kick as it did, say, 100 years ago, when it might make a gal swoon away in offense, but it's still considered a cuss the way the S word is a cuss in the US, not up in the category of the F word (which has lost some punch, too).
Any word that substitutes still has the same intent. There are those who say Gosh is a profanity, cause it's a derivative of God's name. I think that's poppycock.
I recently read something where a character who was supposed to be on the seedy side uses the word "dang." I can tell you that threw me out of the story faster than a full-fledged blut streak, because it was utterly non-credible.
Better not to use an alternative than use a ridiculous one that makes the reader laugh unintendedly.
While I'd never ask a writer to use words that they have an objection to, or editors to publish them, as a reader, I cut writers slack in using the words they need to make characters like real people, up to a point. I don't like profanity for the sake of profanity. I don't like shock elements for the sake of shock. Just as I don't like sex scenes just for the sake of sex scenes--nothing important happens other than gymnastics and genitalia. Those are purely gratuitious and, craftwise, ill-advised. (But porn sells, so I suppose many writers figure inject some whoopsie and please the masses.) But we allow characters to lie and kill, which are sins, but we don't let them cuss? That's just weird.
Of course, a gratuitious conversion scene (unsupported, unrealistic, generic) is offensive, too.
Mir
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Friday, August 04. 2006
Mir wrote:
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Friday, August 04. 2006
Stuart wrote:
That's a pretty comprehensive list that I can agree with, and that expounds more on my own defenition.
Basically what I mean is that the novel's world must work consistently with out God has revealed our world to work under His rule. (make sense?)
As far as cursing. Well I prefer not to run across any in English(and even most of the ABA books I read are wonderfully absent of such words). But I don't condem authors who feel the must include those words.
I do have my characters use curses from within their own language (Shards! Kersheth's Ring!), which is what I think Daniel was reffering to (Blood and Ashes!).
Of course I have been told that one of my character's names is very close to a mild curse in England or Austrailia... and then there's the Jerk in Jerkrenak that I have heard concern over...
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Friday, August 04. 2006
Rebecca LuElla Miller wrote:
Mir,
This was very helpful. I found Martin LaBar's list too restrictive (but that also might explain why some people don't thing my trilogy is "Christian enought") I mean, if a work deals with symbols and types and is not overt, it makes it hard to have the characters pray and have a consciousness of supernatural guidance.
I found Angela Hunt's list to be too open-ended. I mean what qualifies as "an aspect of the Christian faith"? I think that phrase puts us right back where we started. Is belief in marriage between one man and one woman an aspect of the Christian faith? Or how about, love your enemy? Or do not murder? I mean, where is the deciding line between what is Christian and what is moral that other religions or even atheists might share?
As to your own list, I think that is much more helpful. I am stuck on whether or not there needs to be a Christ figure/type. I'm thinking, as I write this, that perhaps belief in such an individual by one of the characters might qualify. I don't think having a Christ figure/type needs to be overt. But having a representation of the "Judeo-Christian" Creator-God seems incomplete to me. Other religions are monotheistic, so I'm thinking that would not give a work a Christian distinctive. Maybe coupled with the other elements ... I'll have to give that some further thought.
As to the use of profanity or obscenity. I find it odd that to have such a standard earns the label of prudish. Jesus, then was a prude. Or have we stopped believing that breaking the Ten Commandments (which includes the prohibition of using God's name in vain--profanity) is sin?
Obscenity then. We could just include obscenity--unless we believe what the New Testament says about barring unwholesome words. OK, I concede "unwholesome" is open to interpretation. But a broad understanding of the word makes a person prudish? Isn't that really the evaluation of the world? Since when do we abandon what makes Christians distinct in favor of what makes them less prudish?
Becky
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Friday, August 04. 2006
Rebecca LuElla Miller wrote:
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Friday, August 04. 2006
Elliot wrote:
Good list, Mir. I think it's quite reasonable.
Just a note - I think Martin LaBar said that a Christian work would have any ONE of those things, not that it must have all of them to be considered Christian.
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Friday, August 04. 2006
Pixy wrote:
A great list! A whole lot to think about.
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Friday, August 04. 2006
Mir wrote:
Becky, the commandments say a lot. You characters can't covet, then, or steal, or kill, or commmit adultery, or have another god, or dishonr their parents.
If the guiderule is that your character can't "use God's name in vain," because that is a commandment, then your characters must keep them ALL, not just one.
And there goes fiction.
I am of the opinion that a character saying a bad word is not the same as a person saying a bad word, just as a character working on Saturday is not breaking the Sabbath. Although a writer writin gon the Sabbath may well be. :)
Mir
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Friday, August 04. 2006
Martin LaBar wrote:
Thanks for mentioning my post. (I also mentioned having a relationship with God as a characteristic, and said, as Elliot mentioned, that I didn't think all of my list was necessary, just one or more of them.)
You have done a lot of work here, and I hope to have time to think about what you have put forth. Certainly food for thought!
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Friday, August 04. 2006
Mir wrote:
I'm thrilled you dropped by, Mr. LaBar, and I've just tweaked the post, because I really do want folks to read your post, which has better examples than what I give.
My position is much closer to yours than Angela Hunt's, I think, because I do agree with this you wrote:
a Christian element, it should be reasonably clear that the element was put it deliberately--the reader isn't finding something that the author didn't intend that way.
Mir
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Friday, August 04. 2006
Martin LaBar wrote:
I decided to check Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis against your list. It fits, in my judgment.
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Saturday, August 05. 2006
Shannon McNear wrote:
Good post, Mir! I've wondered for a long time whether my series can really be considered fantasy because it has *none* of the tropes you mention. Where on the list would you slot supernatural abilities?
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Saturday, August 05. 2006
Mir wrote:
Shannon, my lists only had representative and common tropes. It was not exhaustive, but meant to show what might be found in the genres. Since supernatural abilities cut across genres, I didn't attach them specifically to any.
Supernatural abilities could be in either fantasy or sci-fi or horror. Depends on what's going on elsewhere. If the ability is scientifically underpinned--that is, something ingested with certain properties gives powers,such as the spice of DUNE, or the properties are of an "evolved" species, such as the Organians on Star Trek--then that's science fiction.
If the powers came from being "born that way" without further explanation or from touching an old druid stone or from some other non-scientifically (no matter how lame scientifically) explained source, you're almost surely looking at fantasy. Harry Potter has power because he lives in a world where some folks (witches and wizards) have innate powers and some (muggles) don't. And Harry has extra powers cause of someone else's power affecting him. But the only reason it's so is cause, in Potterworld, wizards are born with power to BE wizards. Where you want to place Star Wars (science-fiction, fantasy) depends on how you handle the idea of "the force." Is it fantasy in science fiction trappings. :)
If the powers, however gotten, lead to a terrifying and horrific plotline, intended to spook, it's likely horror.
In fantasy, magic can be taken for granted, in a sense (there is magic because there is magic), although any number of reasons can be offered. In sci-fi, a reason is generally offered:breeding for superhumans, alien intrusion in DNA, radiation --the comic book standby--chemical experiments gone wrong.
If you have a God or Devil offering the powers to people, that could be horror or fantasy, but it's likely not to be sci-fi.
Mir
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Saturday, August 05. 2006
Shannon McNear wrote:
Nice delineation. I guess mine is fantasy after all ... since it involves abilities given directly by God. (Different world, different dispensation, if you will, for those who might have trouble with that sort of thing scripturally.)
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Sunday, August 06. 2006
Kevin Lucia wrote:
Very cool to see horror up there. CBA's developing a pretty cool suspense/thriller line, but it would also be cool to see some harder stuff - I mean, along the lines of Stephen King, Dean Koontz - creep into Christian fiction too, if possible. Can't a story be honestly spooky, perhaps even scary without prolific swearing, obscenity, and glorification of the occult? I think so! I mean, there are plenty of things that are scary besides demonology. Take the Blue Man group, for instance. Horrifying.
Can a writer belong both to American Christian Fiction Writers AND Horror Writers Association? I aim to find out.
www.kevinlucia.net
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Monday, August 07. 2006
Carol wrote:
Hi Kevin, I agree with you. There are certainly some horrific scenes in the Bible. I'm glad to see some fellow horror folks around.
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Monday, August 07. 2006
Carol wrote:
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Sunday, August 06. 2006
Mir wrote:
Kevin, I'm with you. I like a good scare now and then. I pretty much haven't read a lot of horror (secular) lately, cause so little is tempting me. But I went through a spate of reading a lot of horror.
The Blue Man Group?? hahah.
Well, the Men with Blue Gloves sure were spooky...
Mir
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Monday, August 07. 2006
Carol wrote:
Mir,
I spent a lot of time this weekend following your links in this article. I think I lean more toward your lists and Mr. LeBar's rather than Ms. Hunt's.
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Tuesday, August 08. 2006
William Shontz wrote:
Very good list--and a great site, too (I was only recently alerted to it). I'd like to add a couple of humble thoughts.
This may sound pedantic, but one thing that makes speculative literature 'Christian' is that it is written by Christians. What I mean is this: Everything a Christian does should be theologically/religiously/spiritually motivated. In a sense, we cannot help it (at least, that's the goal). I've been told that Tolkien denied that his work was theologically motivated, but his buddies pointed certain things out to him from his own writing and he was forced to acquiesce. The story may be apocryphal, but it illustrates my point. So, for instance, I do not write what is often called "Christian horror." I am a Christian who writes horror, so, of course, it's going to be influenced by what is most precious to me--my faith. How can it not be?
About obscenity and profanity--This is reasonably an important issue for us and I cannot be the conscience of others. Let me say this: My writing is not a "Dear Diary" entry, and having my characters do or say things is not commentary on what I do or say--or even approve of. The Old Testament frequently shows characters doing or saying the wrong thing as examples of what not to do. I touch on these issues (e.g. 'horror' and 'sex') in a couple of essays found on my site. I think many Christians would be suprised and even shocked to learn what some of the prophets actually said in the original Hebrew, for instance.
So, thanks for this list and the thoughtful responses people have been making to it. It's nice to know one is not alone out there.
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Wednesday, November 21. 2007
mike purington wrote:
As a science fiction author and a christian I believe we do not have to use profanity to get out point across. Case in point, we use our writing, and if we're good enough the reader can well imagine what is being said, a paragraph from my book "The Oxbow Report" . Profanity had seldom been a part of his vocabulary, partly due to his education, but mostly because of the upbringing of his parents, and out of respect for his mother and her love for proper diction and the correct way to express one’s self without using what she called vulgar and un-meaningful content. But tonight all the kings English and all the highbrow flowery phrases learned in college and at his mother’s knee just didn’t seem to fit the occasion.
I don't know what comes to your mind, but during my time in the service I heard a lot of explitives... I don't need to write them out, the reader will use their imagination. Its just like sex, you don't need to use four letter words to paint a picture, we use words...Ramie put her foot in, ‘You were watching me when I came down the path.”
“I heard a noise and looked up”
Ramie smiled, “That’s not what I mean, I saw your eyes, and they weren’t just watching.”
Ramie tweaked his nose gently and then went back to the boat and picked up the blanket and food, spreading it out she spoke “I think we’ll be more comfortable here, why don’t we go for a dip before we eat?”
Ozan nodded and pulled his t-shirt off , “Why not, my trunks are back at the boat.”
A few minutes later Ozan was back, Ramie was already in the water. Ozan sat down on the blanket to remove his shoes, when Ramie stepped from the water he could see her in all of her natural beauty.
“You like what you see?”
“I…uh…I don’t guess you…are hungry?
Ramie shook her head, “Only for you.” Then laying down next to him she put her arms around him and whispered in his ear, The arrival of the cab brought him back to the present.
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