Gospel.com Blog

I was pleased to find out from blog readers earlier this month that I’m not the only person whose favorite Narnia book is Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The official trailer for the upcoming movie adaptation has been released this week. Fellow Dawn Treader fans, what do you think?

Does this trailer make you more or less confident that the film will be faithful to the book? Do you see any red flags? I, for one, was pleasantly surprised to see the monopods hopping around—that was probably my favorite of the Dawn Treader’s many adventures (although I look forward to seeing Eustace’s unfortunate “transformation,” with its moving allegory of sin and forgiveness, on the big screen as well).

The third Narnia film, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, is due out later this year. Are you excited about it?

It’s been years since I last read it, but Dawn Treader is my favorite of the Narnia books. Its episodic island-hopping plot means that there’s always a strange new encounter waiting in the next chapter, and although some of the island adventures teach obvious Biblical principles, the Christian allegory is more subtle than that of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. If the plot is looser than many of the other Narnia stories, Dawn Treader compensates by simply narrating a series of good old-fashioned imaginative adventures.

And it doesn’t hurt that one of the main characters is a brave, swashbuckling mouse.

So I’m certainly looking forward to the Dawn Treader film, although with the usual concerns about how the “Hollywood treatment” will change the story and characters. If you want to keep up with news and developments related to the film (and stress out about whether or not they’ll be faithful to the novel), NarniaWeb and NarniaFans are both posting regular movie updates as details emerge.

How about you? Are you excited about this movie? Does anybody else count Dawn Treader as their favorite Narnia book, and if so, what makes it so special to you?

Evil is easy. Not just easy to do, but easy to portray in writing or film. Think about all of the interesting, memorable evildoers in literature and film: Count Dracula, Ebenezer Scrooge, Michael Corleone, Darth Vader, Benjamin Linus. Most exciting stories revolve around the reaction of heroes to dramatic evil, whether it takes the form of murder, deceit, theft, or any one of countless instantly-engaging acts of villainy.

Even the goodness portrayed in most of our stories is defined as a specific response to evil. The heroes of film and literature may be good people before the villain appears on the scene, but we don’t pay much attention to their goodness until they’re provoked by evil—and even then, the goodness we’re most interested in is that waged in opposition to evil.

Can you think of any good examples in film or literature of genuine, Christlike goodness practiced for its own sake? Are there characters whose kindness, grace, or compassion is even more striking than any portrayal of evil?

I was surprised at how easy it was to call to mind effective portrayals of evil, and how challenging it was to think of memorable, inspiring examples of good. One that occurs to me is the portrayal of Gandalf in the opening scenes of Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring (both the book and the movie). Before the evil Sauron or his minions appear on the scene, Gandalf is portrayed as someone who genuinely loves, without condition, the meek and humble. He’s one of the most powerful figures in the land, and yet he takes time every few years to pay a visit to the diminutive hobbits (who are ignored or scorned by some of Gandalf’s peers). He laughs with them, helps them put on dazzling parties, and watches out for their well-being without a single selfish motive. Once the story proper kicks in, Gandalf’s goodness becomes more closely defined by his fight against evil; but his kindness up to that point is inspiring and Christlike.

Do you have a favorite example of good portrayed stirringly and effectively in art?

Last year, while looking through my local bookstore for a particular book by C.S. Lewis, I stumbled across several books of his that I wasn’t at all familiar with. I’d venture to say that most English-speaking Christians (and no doubt many non-English speaking ones as well) know Lewis’ Narnia books quite well. And some of his more overtly theological books, like Mere Christianity or The Great Divorce, are well-known and easy to find.

But the subject of Lewis’ lesser-known works came to mind again today when I came across a lengthy analysis of one of Lewis’ more obscure works of social commentary. It sounds fascinating—and it makes me wonder what other Lewis books are worth tracking down. A check of Wikipedia confirms that Lewis authored a truly huge number of books and essays.

What’s your favorite C.S. Lewis book? Is it one of his Narnia classics, or a work that has so far passed under the radar of mainstream notice? If you’re a Lewis expert, what books of his would you recommend to someone who has read his well-known works and wants to explore his ideas further?

Share your thoughts!

I didn’t create an official list of New Year’s resolutions for myself for 2010, but every January I like to compile a list of books I’d like to read by the end of the new year. There’s no shortage of novels and history books to pick from, but I’d like your help in selecting a few good books about Christianity.

What’s the best book about Christianity you read last year (other than the Bible, which I hope we’re already reading regularly)? It could be a book of theology, a novel, a set of essays, or any other written work about the faith. Why would you recommend it to others?

Share your thoughts!

I recently came across a statistic claiming that only about 10% of professing Christians have read the entire Bible. I’m not sure if that claim is correct, but it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that only a minority of believers have read the Bible in its entirety, for a variety reasons.

I would guess that most active Christians have read or been exposed to most of the New Testament (and maybe the “famous” Old Testament books, like Genesis and Psalms) in the course of their churchgoing and personal devotions; but once you start getting into the lesser-known Old Testament books (Leviticus and Numbers, I’m looking at you), I’d expect to see a dropoff in reading.

Does that 10% include you? Have you read the entire Bible? If not, what stopped you, and do you plan to do so in the future?

Share your thoughts!

Maybe it was an inspiring devotional collection or a moving biography; or maybe the book itself had little to do with Christianity but somehow prompted you to think about your faith in a new way.

If you had to name one book other than the Bible that has influenced your Christian life, what would it be?

Share your thoughts!

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!