Christian Themes in Fantasy with Katy Huth Jones
Most of us around here are Christian - including myself. And a lot of us write fantasy. How do we justify them together?
Well, I don't know if we're talking about justification today, but Katy Huth Jones is here to talk about using fantasy to show Christian themes.
Well, I don't know if we're talking about justification today, but Katy Huth Jones is here to talk about using fantasy to show Christian themes.
Katy Huth Jones
Christian/Fantasy/Historical Fiction
Author of Mercy's Prince
What makes a fantasy “Christian”? Does it have to actively evangelize? Have a Christ figure? Be merely an allegory? Or does it count if the characters are godly people with faith in the living God, even if in their world He is called by another name?
I would argue that any or all of these approaches can be used to craft a fantasy story with a goal of honoring Jesus Christ and pointing the way to Him. C. S. Lewis did a masterful job in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe using the allegory approach. With Aslan the lion as the Christ figure, Lewis shows in a very effective way the reason and the love behind Christ’s willingness to suffer humiliation and die a painful death in order to redeem mankind (or in Aslan’s case, a son of Adam who had strayed and needed to be redeemed).
Indie author Jaye L. Knight also makes effective use of a Christ figure in book 3 of her Ilyon Chronicles, Samara’s Peril. Reading the redemption scene in many ways was even more personal for me than reading about Aslan’s sacrifice. Knight’s characters struggle with their faith, and their personal journeys illuminate the universal human condition and the need for redemption.
Madeleine L’Engle’s fantasy is rarely overtly Christian, but her personal faith shines through in every word she writes. She weaves Christian themes of love, devotion, courage, sacrifice, and the great battle between good and evil in every book.
In order for an author to write Christian fantasy that rings true, it is first necessary to be a Christian. If one is living for Christ, has given their heart and soul and mind to Him, then that worldview will permeate everything one does in life and in writing. The characters one creates can either be believers who are struggling and grow in their faith during the story journey, or start out as wicked characters who are later redeemed. Or, as in the case of J. R. R. Tolkien, most of his characters are either walking in light or walking in darkness to represent the epic spiritual battle raging all around us.
Even if one’s fantasy does not have a specific character representing Christ, themes of sacrifice can be an integral part of the story to illustrate Christ’s sacrificial love for us. Boromir in Lord of the Rings is redeemed when he dies trying to save Merry and Pippin, after he succumbed to temptation and tried to take the Ring from Frodo.
The main characters in my Christian fantasy series are all believers in the Most High God, and in the process of the long story their faith is sorely tested by antagonists who seem impossible to defeat. My hope is that a reader following their journey will be encouraged to persevere through the trials of life and find hope and light shining as a beacon in the darkness of our world, just like my characters do in their world.
Great post! I personally tend to like the less overtly allegorical Christian fantasy . . . but there are exceptions, the two you named chief among them.
ReplyDeleteI would tend to agree with you, Sarah. :)
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