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Novels as Parables I was shocked when I heard that there are church leaders out there who condemn all fiction, including Christian fiction, as lies and therefore wrong. I’m assuming there aren’t many of this mindset, simply because I’ve never personally met one. I’m also assuming this minority also never reads comics, watches scripted television, or reads portions of the Gospels. No, no, I’m not implying the Gospels are fiction. I’m just saying that even Christ told us stories. What, after all, are the parables? Do we think that there was really a Prodigal Son? A Sower and a Seed? A bride’s father that brought in the rabble to fill up his banquet? Well. . . it’s possible. But I daresay everyone will admit these are illustrations of commonly understood examples, that Christ was using things familiar to his students to teach them a lesson. (On the same token, it’s possible that a novel’s plot has played out exactly at some point in history, but let’s be realistic and say the author creates the sequence of events to be easily related to.) Now how, I ask these fiction-condemners, is a good Christian novel any different from a parable? Okay, so a novel is entertainment more than lesson. But I’ve yet to read a book I didn’t learn from, and Christian titles especially have a way of weaving a message through the pages that can not only reach out to the unbeliever but can challenge a person of faith to improve themselves, their relationships, and their spiritual life. I’ve talked with a lot of Christian novelists, and I’ve yet to meet one who hasn’t claimed that they hoped their writing would share a lesson they’d learned, spread the Good News of Christ, or otherwise work to glorify the Lord. Plato observed through Socrates way back when that a truth is easier to swallow when it’s presented as a confection rather than medication. (Nope, Mary Poppins wasn’t the first one to come up with the spoonful of sugar thing.) For many of us (myself included), lessons are better taken when presented in the form of a pleasing story. I have a hard time getting through a non-fiction instructional book. But present the same ideas through the voice of a compelling character, and I’ll think about it for hours. Novels aren’t like Aesop’s fables. They don’t end with a handy "And the moral of the story is. . ." We have to glean the truths for ourselves. We have to pick the wisdom from the entertainment. But it’s there. No matter how good or bad the book, I guarantee there’s something in it that you can take away to make yourself better, even if it’s what not to do. There will always be people aplenty to condemn. For the novelist, that’s disheartening, especially when one’s own pastor says, "You write fiction? You deliberately spread untruths?" I hope most of us have instead leaders who smile and say, "Wow, what a message you packed into those pages! What an audience you can reach for Christ with your readership!" Probably, most of the people we know take an in-between road: they value fiction as fiction, as story, as entertainment, and grant that it can reach people, just like it probably can mislead some, if they misread it. Novels, like life, and even like the Bible, require some discernment. You can’t accept fiction as fact. You can’t believe everything you hear out in the real world. And you generally have to look at context in the Bible to get what it’s actually trying to tell you. But no one would ever say you shouldn’t read the Bible lest you misunderstand parts of it. No one will ever tell you not to live life and make friends lest one of them say something that isn’t true. So read fiction the same way–enjoy it, take it as what it’s meant to be, and keep your eye out for that pearl of wisdom and truth waiting between the pages. You’ll be the richer for it. Wanna give me your take? Questions, comments, silly statements? Email me at BtL@ChristianReviewofBooks.com View Other Columns: Celebrating the Tradition |
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