Gospel.com Blog

Did anybody else grow reading—and re-reading—Frank Peretti’s This Present Darkness?

Ever since my college experience changed (for better or worse) my ideas about what is and isn’t Great Literature, I have looked back at my teenage obsession with Peretti’s novels of spiritual warfare with a mixture of mild embarrassment and nostalgia. The characters and stories aren’t timeless (I can’t remember any of the details of those novels these many years later) and there’s undoubtedly much to take issue with in the theological and spiritual aspects of the tales. But while reading them I felt a vague sense that I was experiencing something new and interesting in Christian fiction.

At least one other person feels the same way. Take a look at In Defense of Frank Peretti by Joi Weaver at the Evangelical Outpost blog:

The criticisms of Peretti have quite a range: to some people he’s too overtly Christian, to others he focuses too much on the occult. For some the characterization of the people in his novels in the problem, and others find his plots too cliché. His books almost always include a dramatic conversion, angelic warfare, and New Age rituals that turn out to be Satanic in origin.

Though they might not rise to the heights of literature one hopes to see from Evangelical fiction, Peretti’s early books did something very important: they opened a door. With the popularity of This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness, up and coming authors were more free to branch out, to explore, to use other genres of fiction. In any Evangelical fiction catalog, one can now find detective fiction (The Danielle Ross series), comedy (The Wally McDoogle books), adventure stories (The Heirs of Cahira O’Connor series), and many more. It is even arguable that Peretti’s ground-breaking stories allowed Christians to be more engaged with the Harry Potter, Golden Compass, and Twilight series. Such books are no longer “off-limits,” but open for reading and debate.

I think Weaver’s definitely on to something. For me as a young reader, Peretti’s sometimes-clunky spiritual thrillers helped me see that C.S. Lewis, brilliant though he was, was not the only Christian allowed to blend faith and fantastic fiction. Other Christian writers like Stephen Lawhead and John White helped to push that door even further open.

I think Weaver’s final observation is particularly insightful; it may be that the most important legacy of Peretti and his peers is not the fiction they wrote so much as the way they encouraged Christians to approach the genres of fantasy and science fiction with a mind toward their spiritual aspects.

What about you? Did you, like me, spend many a childhood evening with your nose buried in a Peretti novel? What other authors might you add to the above list? And do you think these Christian fantasists have had a positive impact on Christianity’s relationship to literature?

Despite visual media’s best attempts to kill off reading, people still really like books. Between libraries, online bookstores, Google Books and devices like the Kindle, it’s almost trivial to find any book we could ever want.

But with all those choices comes the next question of “What do I read next?” For Christians that question takes on a spiritual element as well, becuase—as we all know—what we read does affect us.

So, with that in mind we’d like to hear your thoughts on the question: should Christians read non-Christian books?

What do you think?

Do you have a favorite devotional? It might be a classic of Christian literature or a fresh-from-the-printer modern work, but many Christians have a favorite devotional that they turn to each day to complement their prayer and Bible reading.

Do you have a favorite? What is it, and why do you like it?

Share your answer!

The publishing industry has undergone massive changes in the internet age. Where does that leave Christian writers who want to take advantage of the new opportunities presented by the digital age?

James Watkins is a Christian writer who has been charting a course through the challenges and opportunities of publishing amidst a rapidly-changing industry and a massive economic crisis. He was recently interviewed by Upper Case about how to avoid becoming a digital dinosaur. He talks about his own experience making the transition from the traditional Christian publishing model to the wide-open world of modern web-savvy publishing. It’s an interesting discussion of the importance of adapting to the new online medium.

It also goes along nicely with a recent discussion among Christian bloggers and writers about the increasing pressure on writers to market themselves in the online world. Christian literary agent Rachelle Gardner kicked off the discussion on her blog, and the ensuing conversation is well worth reading.

Has a work of fiction ever helped you to better understand a difficult story or ambiguous character in the Bible?

A great deal of fiction—Christian or otherwise—draws on characters and themes from the Bible. When we encounter a fictional character who’s been inspired by a Biblical one (Superman, for example), we can often gain extra insight into that fictional character by studying the Biblical character that inspired him.

But have you ever experienced the opposite—a situation where a fictional character or story element helped illuminate a Biblical character or event?

The First Things blog has an interesting post that explores what we can learn about Job by studying the fictional character Faust. The close parallels (and key differences) between Job and Faust provide us with a new angle from which to understand Job.

I’ve experienced this on occasion, most recently while re-reading Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory. The main character is a priest and (highly flawed) Christ-figure of sorts. In the course of the novel, he interacts with and even helps a person who he strongly suspects will eventually betray him to his enemies… but he helps the man anyway, knowingly putting himself in danger. The priest’s thought process is complex, and he isn’t a perfect picture of Christ by any means, but the exploration of his attitude toward his would-be betrayer has influenced the way I read the interaction between Jesus and Judas. The Bible doesn’t tell us what Jesus thought and felt as he ministered to the man who would betray him to death, and so the insight from Greene’s novel provides some ways to ponder that question.

What about you? What fictional characters or stories have shaped the way you view certain people or stories in the Bible?

Reflecting on Sony’s recent announcement of e-readers to compete with the Kindle, Mart De Haan wonders whether or not moving our Bibles to digital devices is a good idea:

But here’s what I’m really interested in. As I continue to find Bible software enormously helpful in doing research, and even though online searches provide far more information that I could get from most of my paper books, I sometimes wonder whether I’ve lost some of the “personal relationship” with my Bible.

Obviously, we here at Gospel.com believe that the Bible and Biblical resources can and should have a place in the digital world. But should digital resources replace print versions? I’m not so sure myself. There’s something about holding a weighty mass of paper in my hands that connects to me spiritually.

What do you think? Do you think that Bibles inherently need to be physical? Or do you welcome the availability of God’s word on your iPhone, Kindle, laptop, etc.? How does having a digital Bible change your Bible Study habits?

There’s no theological topic more important to the Christian faith than the doctrine of salvation. The question of how we are saved from sin continues to be actively discussed and debated even today, and one theologian who has brought a new angle to the age-old topic is N.T. Wright. He’s championed what some call the “New Perspective” on the writings of Paul, and in particular the doctrine of justification.

It’s a complicated subject, but you can read some of Wright’s views in his 2003 essay on Paul. Wright’s perspective on justification is not without its critics, including the respected theologian John Piper, who disagrees with Wright’s take.

Why bring up an ongoing theological debate here? Because InterVarsity Press recently published Wright’s latest book Justification, in which he responds to criticisms of his ideas. IVPress has put the first chapter of the book and an extensive Q&A with Wright about Justification online. To read Wright’s full take, of course, you’ll have to pick up the book, but between the free chapter and the Q&A, there’s a lot of fodder for reflection and discussion.

Looking to publish your world-changing Christian book? Getting published in today’s economic climate isn’t easy, and the Christian publishing world certainly isn’t immune to such challenges.

Writer and humorist James Watkins has recently written two essays with advice for Christians looking to get their work published. One offers advice for dealing with prospective agents—since the Christian market lacks a major accrediting organization, it falls to authors to do extra homework in finding an agent.

The second piece talks about various questions and issues surrounding self-publishing and print-on-demand, an alternate-publishing route that is rising in popularity due to services like Lulu.

All good advice that can help you steer clear of a few potential pitfalls as you look for a publisher for that Great American Novel or timeless theological tome!

What do you do when life deals you lemons? James Watkins, columnist (and friend of Gospel.com) has a new book out that asks just that: Squeezing Good Out of Bad. The new book focuses on practical strategies for dealing with the trials and setbacks we encounter in everyday life.

James has put a full chapter from the book online; it challenges us to rethink pain—and to consider that God can work through pain and tragedy to bring about good in our lives, even though it’s hard to see that in the midst of our suffering. There’s also a Yahoo group where you can discuss Squeezing Good Out of Bad with James and other readers.

And while you’re taking a look at James’ site, don’t miss his Valentine’s Day resources—lots of articles and essays about love, marriage, relationships, and sex, all of which are probably on your mind as television ads and florists remind us of the approach of Valentine’s Day!

The 2009 Christianity Today book awards have been announced! The editors choose the top books in each category from 436 submissions.

• Fiction: Home: A Novel by Marilynne Robinson
• Theology/Ethics: People and Place: A Covenant Ecclesiology by Michael S. Horton
• Spirituality: Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer’s Life by Kathleen Norris
• Missions/Global Affairs: Transforming Worldviews: An Anthropological Understanding of How People Change by Paul G. Hiebert
• The Church/Pastoral Leadership: Why We’re Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be) by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck
• History/Biography: Bill Bright and Campus Crusade for Christ: The Renewal of Evangelicalism in Postwar America by John G. Turner
• Christian Living: Reconciling All Things: A Christian Vision for Justice, Peace and Healing by Emmanuel Katongole, Chris Rice
• Christianity and Culture: Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling Andy Crouch
• Apologetics/Evangelism: The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism by Timothy Keller
• Biblical Studies: Stories with Intent: A Comprehensive Guide to the Parables of Jesus by Klyne R. Snodgrass

Intervarsity Press also reported today that they nabbed two top honors and one merit award. On a personal note, I’m about 3/4 of the way through Culture Making and enjoying it thoroughly. The Reason for God is sitting in my “to-read” pile.