Science fable is a natural scene for Christian readers — especially dystopian novels which usually depict a world without organized religion , argue one author . But Christian bookstores and publishers are loth to provide to this market . What gives ?
There ’s been an interesting discussion about science fiction in the Christian blogosphere over the weekend . First of all , over at Revelife , Stephanie Pwrites a blog post title , “ Science Fiction get going with the Christian Life . ”She explains :
Dystopia is a type of science fiction where the writer depict a succeeding humans where the politics is coif up to make everything “ perfect , ” but is actually horribly repressive . The dystopias like “ 1984 , ” “ Brave New World ” and “ Fahrenheit 451 ” all show us a world that takes the idea we appreciate to an extreme point to show where they go awry … Dystopias show us a cosmos without religion , where mankind is the quantity of everything and man - made felicity has arrive to supplant honest happiness . Moral model are out of the picture , and everything is decided by the governing body .
So it ’s too bad that speculative fiction is under - make up at Christian bookstall , aswriter Mike Duran points out at Novel Journey :
Perhaps one of the most thwarting facet of being a Christian who reads bad fiction ( supernatural , sci - fi , repulsion , fancy , etc . ) is the deficiency of bad titles available in Christian bookshop . It is routinely guess that 75 - 80 % of all Christian novels are some form of romanticism , which leaves the other quarter - of - a - per centum to duke it out for the stay on quad . But asunder from the two full-grown figure — Ted Dekker and Frank Peretti — spec title are a curiosity in Christian bookstall .
While many groups have form ( independent presses , blog tours , substance plank , crit groups , etc . ) aimed at address this disparity , the bottom demarcation remains : Christians who like questioning fiction are forced to find their “ fix ” outside the Christian market .
AtDuran ’s own personal web log , he enlarge a bit more about this . ( And reveals that one of the fastest growing Christian book categories , crowding out everything else , is “ Amish light and Amish romance . ” Who cognize ? ) Writes Duran :
My question to Christian readers who are flex off by supernatural story elements is this : Do you use that same preference to the Bible ? Heck , the very first Quran of Scripture contains stories about a talking serpent , an angel with a flaming sword driving evildoer from Paradise , an entire metropolis being destroyed by fire and brimstone , plagues of frogs and river of origin , sparring prestidigitator , a death angel who slaughters firstborns , and an sea parted at one man ’s word . And that ’s just the first book of the Bible ! Read on and there ’s a story about a beldame who conjure the shade of a oracle , an apostle whose shadow heal the mad , and four apocalyptic horseman who are en route to planet ground . And that ’s just scratch the control surface . So how can a Christian call to dislike supernatural / paranormal story element when the Bible comprise so many of those element ?
Which land me back to my initial observation : Could the preponderance of romance and Amish literature be indicative of a dangerous worldview shift amongst Christian readers – a shift away from a biblical worldview to something sanitize , stripped of mystery , and utterly predictable ?
Actually , I ’m leave wonder if this huge market for “ Amish lit ” come from just Amish multitude , or even Christians who just want to fantasize about being Amish ?
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