Christian fiction has had a rich history that dates back to the parables of Christ. A list of literary classics would include the names of Christian writers like John Bunyan, John Milton, Dante', George McDonald, and G.K. Chesterton. More modern Christians can proudly claim C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein as fellow Believers. Why, then, do contemporary Christian writers who write science fiction, fantasy, horror, and comics sometimes sometimes find such a chilly reception from publishers, bookstore owners, and even the clergy? Why do the people from your church give you such a strange look when you mention that you write Christian science fiction?
Some people are unsettled by the bizarre imagery. "How can anything that includes dragons and other mythical creatures be of God?" they ask. Have they ever read the book of Revelation? Or Ezekial? We may be unsettled by bizarre imagery. God doesn't seem to be.
Some are tripped up by the metaphors. How could a story with aliens in it be Christian since the Bible never mentions life on other planets? How could a story with talking animals in it be Christian since animals (other than Balaam's donkey) don't talk? How could a story with ghosts in it be Christian since the Bible doesn't mention ghosts (or does it?) Part of me want to cry out, "That's not the point!" Science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories--more than any other literary genres--use the language of metaphor to illustrate concrete points. The original Star Trek series, back in the 1960s, explored issues like racism and the arms race in science fiction settings. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is the story of a man who thought he could play around with the dark side of human nature and ended up being consumed by it. The formula was just a plot device. A Christmas Carol is about a man whose heart is changed by memories of past loves, by a clearer view of the present, and by a look at where his life is headed. The ghosts, like Jekyll's formula, are a plot device.
Some might consider "Christian comics" and "Christian horror" to be oxymorons. Admittedly the labels themselves sound that way. Even so, comic books and horror stories offer some of the best opportunities for the exploration of the battle between good and evil. While this is not always carried off effectively by the authors, the media themselves are ideal for the communication of messages about the nature of good and evil and spiritual warfare.
Some may simply consider fiction a waste of time. For a story to be valid, they would argue, it must be true. Why waste one's time on something that isn't? The power of good fiction, however, comes from the truths it embodies. Some fiction is, of course, brain candy. Other fiction, however, presents profound truths in stylized ways. Mr. Holland's Opus dramatized the life-changing impact a teacher can have on students and showed that failed dreams don't necessarily make for a failed life. That's a powerful message. It's a Wonderful Life resonates with a similar message and that's probably the reason people watch it year after year. The story is fiction, but the message is true. Philip Yancy, in Soul Survivor, points to the powerful messages contained in the works of Leo Tolstoy, Theodyr Dostoyevski, and Shusaku Endo. They have left a high standard for younger writers to aspire to.
Christian fiction has, in recent times, experienced something of a rebirth. The tremendous commercial success of Jenkins and LaHaye's Left Behind series and of Jan Karon's Mitford series have hopefully opened doors for other writers as well. The challenge for authors (like me) will be to offer quality work with a powerful message and, if the genre becomes too popular, not to be victims of our own success.
| Essays on Christian Fiction
by Timothy D. Wise |
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When I was a kid, my mom bought me some Christian comics. Being the comic book fan I was I was naturally curious, but I was disappointed. The stories were nice, but where were the superheroes, the dinosaurs, and the aliens? When I wanted comics, I wanted The Fantastic Four, The Legion of Superheroes, and The Justice League. Christian comics just weren't in the same league.With a few notable exceptions, Christian comic book companies have generally stayed away from the action superhero genre. That seems a pity. With so many of the stories dealing with good-versus-evil issues, comics seem like an excellent medium for exploring spiritual realities. There are a good many comics these days that include references to angels, devils, the apocalypse, and armageddon. There's obviously a fascination with biblical imagery, but most of the stories aren't written from a Christian perspective. (What? You thought Preacher was a Christian comic?) Yes, I know we've got Bibleman, but many comic book readers today are teens and adults. They're not going to get into Bibleman. They're not going to like stories that are excessively preachy either. They're going to want stories that are creative, relevant, intelligently written, and fun to read.
Pioneers in the genre have faced some of the same barriers that Christian rock musicians faced a generation ago. Rock music was a sign of youth and rebellion. It just wasn't "respectable." Then the teenagers grew up and it became the norm. The comic book medium (and the sci-fi genre for that matter) has suffered from similar treatment. In decades past, comic books were censored and blamed for the ills of youth. These days they get a bit more respect. Maus, a comic about the Holocaust, even won a Pulitzer prize.
Another problem would-be Christian comic book producers face is how to write them. For starters, how do Christian superheroes get their powers? Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel got their powers from mythological gods. Most of the Marvel superheroes who came about in the early 1960's got their powers from exposure to radiation. The Fantastic Four were exposed to cosmic rays while trying to beat the "Reds" into space. The Hulk was exposed to gamma radiation during bomb tests at Los Alamos. (I love the way these stories reflect the 1960s Cold War era.) Spider-Man was written by a radioactive spider. Daredevil was hit in the head by a cannister filled with radioactive waste. Two exceptions are Thor, a Norse god, and Dr. Strange, a sorcerer. The X-Men represent a jump in evolution. Superman and Hawkman are extraterrestrials. While the radiation accidents don't necessarily violate any biblical principles, the gods, the sorcery, and the evolution would be problematic in Christian comics. The problem is creating a fictional universe that allows for the existence of God and super powered humans both.
One way around this problem is to avoid the issue entirely by placing the entire story in a fantasy universe that bears little resemblance to our own and to deal with spiritual issues allegorically or symbolically. C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia novels use this approach. Kathy Tyers' novel Firebird and its sequels (Go to Amazon and check them out if you haven't heard of them.) place her characters in universe without an Earth. Both of those approaches would translate well to comics.
DC and Marvel Comics, the two industry leaders, have placed their heroes in a world that is identical to our except for the superheroes. If a Christian writer wanted to tell stories with spiriitual messages in a universe like that, how in the world would he or she do it? Again, how would the superheroes get their powers?
In Christian comics, the superheroes would just get their powers straight from God, right? While this would seem like a logical conclusion (it worked for Samson, didn't it?) a writer would be treading a fine line theologically with the "powers from God" premise. Having God speak to a comic book character just sounds sacrelgious at the outset--unless it's an allegory. Having an angel, a prophet, or some other intermediary speak for God would avoid the problem of having God speak directly. (Mother Abigail, the prophetess in Stephen King's The Stand, powerfully symbolized the presence of God without the need for booming voices from heaven.) Any un-godlike behavior could be blamed on the messenger.
What kinds of powers would a Christian comic book character have? Powers like healing and prophecy might make for good comic adventures. (They worked very well for Stephen King in The Green Mile and The Dead Zone. It should work in comics too.) Basing a comic on the spiritual armor described in Ephesians also has possibilities. I can picture a kind of Green Lantern approach to the armor scenario.
The "Angels as Superheroes" concept has been used effectively by some. It works well in Frank Peretti's This Present Darkness novel and in Eternal's Archangels comic book series. The only down side of it is that the heroes don't live in the human world. They don't have jobs. They can't have girlfriends--John Travolta's Michael not withstanding.
The use of Christian artifacts to grant superpowers might also be used in a Christian superhero comic. The sword of King Arthur supposedly fell from heaven in an anvil while the people of Camelot were praying. Excalibur could be brought back and used in much the same way as Thor's hammer is used--perhaps in battles with demonic villains. The Grail granted immortality and healing in Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade. By using an artifact like that, you'd avoid the problem of depicting God directly, but you'd have the power of God being used to fight evil.
Another alternative for writers is to assume that Christian superheroes get their powers the same way some of the other superheroes get theirs. They're born on other planets or in other times. They build fantastic machinery. They're involved in accidents that miraculously endow them with uncanny abilities. The only difference is that the values and beliefs of the characters shape the way they use their abilities. Like regular, non-super powered Believers, they assume "this happened to me for a reason" and struggle to find that reason. I think I like that approach best of all because it parallels our own experiences. We're born with talents or involved in accidents and no one shows up to tell us why. It is in the search for meaning that we encounter God. Superman has a sense of honor, ethics, and responsibility that borders on religious dedication because he was raised by an honest, hard-working farm couple. Spider-man fights crime to atone for his failure to stop the criminal who later murdered his beloved Uncle Ben. His mantra, "With great power comes great responsibility" closely parallel's Christ's statement, "To whom much is given, much is expected."
Aside from the issue of superpowers, writers of Christian superhero comics face another problem: How can superheroes fight evil when Christ insists that we turn the other cheek and love our enemies? One solution is to pit the heroes against non-human enemies. The angel superheroes in This Present Darkness grappled directly with demons. (Fighting demons is a good thing.) Mainstream fiction provides plenty of examples of non-human foes as well. The characters in Battlestar Galactica, the Terminator movies, and Matrix fought against machines. The characters in the Aliens and Starship Troopers movies fought deadly alien creatures. Blade and Buffy the Vampire Slayer fought people who were already dead and controlled by demonic forces.
On the other hand, one could ask the more subtle question about whether the Bible really demands pacifism. Clearly the idea of killing for revenge (like Daredevil--the movie version anyway--and the Punisher) doesn't fit with Christ's teachings, but are the police and the military behaving in non-Christian ways when they use deadly force against an enemy? There is no easy answer to this question. Some would say that any use of deadly force is wrong, but many Christians also serve as police officers and fight in the armed forces. I'm sure many of them wrestle with ethical issues. If they were super-powered space marines, they'd probably be asking themselves the same questions. So you'd have your superheroes fighting to defend the weak, but they'd do it with a sense of honor and not a thirst for blood. That's not to say that a Christian comic couldn't be about a character driven by the desire for revenge, but it wouldn't portray that desire in a positive light,
I hardly consider myself deprived because I didn't have Christian superhero comics to read when I was growing up. The characters in the Marvel and DC titles I read were usually noble people with high ethical standards, and I'm grateful to the writers who wrote them. (I have been concerned about some of the trends I've seen in comics lately, but that's another soapbox.) I still feel like comic books and graphic novels have a great deal of untapped potential when it comes to the exploration of spiritual issues.
...and I'd love to see Tim Jr. (if he ever exists) reading Christian comics for sheer delight because they've got superheroes, dinosaurs, and aliens in them
... and I'd want him to realize that the Christian life, like those comics, is no pale imitation.