Theology and Fiction

The Power of FictionLibrary Day at my Christian school was always my favorite day of the week. I was eager to return the book that I had finished that week, and to bring home a brand new one. As I grew older, this passion for books never dwindled. I read every book that could get my hands on. Every book my mom brought home from the public library. Every book I could find at home. At the age of twelve, my mom became more concerned with what kind of books I was reading, and began giving me historical Christian romance novels to read. I inhaled the words of these books as fast as I could. Sometimes I would finish one within a few hours. “Is that a new book already?” my brother would ask. I would smile and nod my head.These books became and addiction—an escape away to a reality that was far different from my own. While I battled through insecurities, body image, and depression, the characters in these Christian novels seemed to have life all together. The women were strong and intelligent. They left their comfortable home life for the trials of the West in pursuit of God’s will. And when they got there, they had a few ups and downs, found the perfect Christian man, fought a few times, and then somewhere along the lines one of the antagonists is saved. Usually the story ends abruptly, because you can count on there being at least four more books to the series.These books left me, like many others, believing at a young age that God would fix everything and make me happy. I believed I was sure to find the perfect Christian man. And after everything, because I had been redeemed by Christ, there would be very few, if any, consequences for my actions.This account from my early teen years shows how, like many, the books we read can greatly impact our ideas, views, and even our theological beliefs.The Lack of TheologyFor many years, these books altered my theological views. These were “Christian books”. In my mind, they were supposed to be true to the Bible. These Christian authors were supposed to get it right! It is not that my only source attempting to understand God came from these books; I devotedly read the Bible. At my Christian school, I was thought of as the one who knew the most about God. I had the “best Christian character” according to my classmates.Overtime, I came to understand that my theological ideas gained from these fiction books were false. I became fascinated with the study of theology. I wanted to know as much about who God was as I possibly could. While I wanted to gain this new theological insight though, I still found this theological reading to be extremely boring. I questioned how the theological books and articles, all on the study of God, could possibly make God sound so dull, so lifeless, so impersonal. How is it possible to make an all-powerful, loving, creative God, sound so boring?It is during this time that I turned to the “secular” literary fiction books in my public high school’s library. Much to my mother’s dismay, I scarfed these books down just as fast as the Christian fiction books she had handed me. This time though, instead of just taking in everything the books had to say, I began comparing the messages found in these books with the truths of the Bible. As I would excitedly talk about these books I was reading at home or at church, much to my surprised, I realized that most people within my Christian circle, did not have the same views or passions that I did about literature.Frivolous Fiction, Tedious TheologyIn the Christian worldview, often fiction is looked down upon as being irrelevant and frivolous, and theology is viewed as dry and mundane. Fiction is a powerful tool that should be used to convey strong, practical, and relevant theological truths in a way that shows both the fallen nature of man and the redemptive grace of God.Theology is BoringIt is no secret that there is a lack of theological understanding within the Christian church. A recent survey by LifeWay showed how over fifty percent of the Evangelical Church has an insufficient grasp on theology. Many claim to believe fallacies that were deemed heretical centuries ago. Many contradict their own beliefs, claiming that God let’s all people into heaven, but also stating that they believe that only those who believe in Jesus Christ will enter heaven. These contradiction and heretical beliefs that many Evangelical Christians are claiming to believe are not the Christians belief after thought out and careful study; these views are held because of a deficient method of theological teaching within the church. Maybe because the way in which theology is presented within the church is faulty?The Importance of ImaginationChristians, and even to extent our western culture, has partially pushed away from beauty and imagination. The important role of imagination in the lives of man is placed inferior to logic and reason. Christians have started to lose the power of imagination, but the problem is that this imagination or creative beauty is important to our Christian faith. It is so significant because our God is a creative God. This push away from imagination has caused theology, to an extent, to lose a sense of beauty. (For more insight on the importance of imagination read my peer Michael's work). While people might not always recognize the importance of this beauty, creativity, and imagination within Church, people will still unconsciously turn towards the beautiful and away from the mundane. Again, is it any wonder why the average Evangelical Christian has no grasp beyond the basics of the Christian faith?So why then is fiction looked down upon as being so irrelevant?God as CreatorThe Christian will not bat an eye if you tell them that God is the Creator. This is common knowledge. The Christian knows this as fact—a Sunday school answer they learned at the age of five. Because of this, the Christian rarely stops to ponder what this means about God. Yes, they ponder what it means for them personally. The Christian ponders God’s creation, but rarely God as Creator. They fail to stop and think what God as Creator has to do with who God is. God created, therefore, God is a creative God with a creative mind. Genesis 1:27 tells us that God created man in His image. Since man is created in the Image of God (a creative God) than man is created with a creative mind in a way that mimics and reflects God. This reason alone is enough to justify the argument for why man should create, and more specifically, why creating fiction is justified.The Image of God in ManIt is because man is created in the Image of God that can cause fiction to be a powerful tool for understanding theology. Throughout any fiction story, the characters face conflicts that must be resolved. Through these conflicts, the characters are bound to experience and array of different emotions. Emotions allow us to feel and resonate with one another. The emotions conveyed throughout a fictional story, are usually what allow the reader to connect with the characters, and then, in turn, learn from them. When it comes to these emotions felt by the characters within a novel, it does not matter if the author is “Christian” or if the characters are “Christian.” The author or characters do not need to hold the same beliefs as the reader in order for the reader to feel for them. This is because emotion is a part of what makes humans created in the Image of God. Therefore, because this theological truth is present, to an extent, within all humanity, whether believer or unbeliever, man is able to connect with each other. Fiction becomes a wonderful way to experience these emotions together. (For more insight into this idea, read my peer Elora's work). A study done at the NNew School in New York City shows that children’s ability to empathize with others enhances with an increase of reading literary fiction. This study affirms the importance of reading fiction throughout one’s lifetime, and also the powerful role that fiction can play in our lives and the lives of others around us. We are called as Christians to feel for others. Romans 12:15 tells us to “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.” If fiction can help us better do this, then why are we not reading fiction?Fiction in the BibleThis fact alone is not enough for some though. There are people who will simply not read fiction because they feel it is a lie or a waste of time. The Bible supports the power of fiction though. Yes, there are fictional stories in the Bible! Jesus taught in parables (fictional stories) to convey a lesson or truth. As seen within the parables, fiction can contain just as much truth as a historically factual story. In 2 Samuel, the prophet Nathan uses a fictional story about a lamb to point out King David’s sin. Upon hearing the story, David felt the emotion of the poor man who had his precious ewe lamb stolen by the rich man. David grew angry for the poor man, but then the prophet Nathan told David “You are that man!” It is through the fictional story, told by Nathan, that David was able to see a truth within his own life. The fictional Bible stories are powerful tools that help give an illustrative example of who God is or what his desires for mankind are. These stories help to show practically how God’s truths are carried out.The Power of AnalogyFiction is so useful for believer because man often speaks through analogy. Many might say that our analogies about God are useless, because they will always fall short. But it is nearly impossible for us not to use analogies to explain God. It helps us to better wrap our minds around a concept that is much too big for us to understand. God is too vast for us as humans to grasp. The Bible is full of analogies! Isaiah 64:8 describes God as the potter and man as clay. Obviously God is not actually sitting up in heaven at a potter’s wheel spinning humans out of clay, but the analogies help man to understand God as creator and man as creation. This analogy is a creative, fictitious way to convey a truth about God. Another analogy running through the Bible is “the Lord as our Shepherd and man as sheep.” Again, God is not actually a shepherd and man is clearly not the same as the sheep, but it is a tangible way for believers to understand ourselves in relation to God. Because of the Bible’s frequent use of analogy, I do not believe it is wrong for man to create analogies about our God in an attempt to better grasp who He is. Dorothy Sayer, in her book The Mind of the Maker, words it this way, “It may be perilous as it inadequate, to interpret God by analogy with ourselves, but we are compelled to do so; we have no other means of interpreting anything.” (23). Our analogies will always fall short of explaining God, but that does not mean they are useless or unimportant!Popular Christian FictionFiction is not always looked upon as having value or truth. This is evident within most of our popular Christian fiction. As mentioned previously, many of these books, often historical romance novels, place an unrealistic expectation on love, life, and God. Christian literature generally falls one of two ways on the spectrum. Either the story is overly romanticized by placing a heavy emphasis on the joys of life and the abundant love of God that it neglects to see the pains and trails of life, or it places too heavy of an emphasis on these pains and trails that it neglects to emphasize the redemption of God. It is important for fiction to take a balance of the two. The balance is truer to life and truer to God. This should be the purpose of creation fiction: to gain a better sense of who God is, and how he is active in His creation.Studying Theology through FictionI believe in the importance of studying theology through fiction, and I believe that there has been a neglect by the church in understanding not only the importance of fiction but the importance of theology. I do not want to give the impression that in any way the study of systematic theology is wrong, nor do I want to come across as thinking that by reading fiction one should come to understand God this way and base his theology off of his reading of fiction. I believe it is a combination. First and most importantly, the believer should be rooted in the Bible. It is important to gain a grasp on systematic theology, and not enough believers do this. But as Darren Middleton put it in his book Theology after Reading, “Unlike the systematic theologies that today’s Christians find so appealing, stories are seldom neat and orderly. Instead they often appear as chaotic as the lives and the world they mimic.” (5). Life is not systematic like our systematic theology textbooks sitting on the bookshelf. The joys we face are never systematic and orderly. In this instance, I believe fiction becomes more truthful. We learn about God when reading and studying these textbooks, but how often do we find the practical application? How often do we read those and understand why it matters? How often do we read them and say, “Wow, we serve an amazing God.”This is why a combination of the Bible, theology books, and fiction is useful. Our fiction can be rooted in the Bible and theology books, while theology books are rooted in the Bible. Our fiction books can help to show theology is practically played out.Christians should not study theology through fiction, but should be taking fiction and reflecting theologically on it. The beliefs within the book may be different from the one you hold, but that does not make the book useless and does not mean that truth cannot be found within the book. Reflecting theologically on the fiction that we read can help to ground our doctrinal understandings.Reflecting Theologically through FictionAnother important reason to reflect theologically on the literature we read is because, if we don’t, than what are allowing ourselves to believe? If we simply just put the book down after finishing it, without taking the time to properly reflect upon it, either we have wasted our time and took nothing from the book, or we are unknowingly allowing the book to affect us in a way that may or may not correlate theologically with our beliefs. This can be destructive to our Christian beliefs. Not reflecting theologically on the reading we intake can cause us to either not form any beliefs or causes us to simply just believe the last smart thing we read.Fiction gives us the ability to see and understand. Through fiction people can be moved and convicted. People can feel through fiction. Flannery O’Connor, quoted in The Christian Imagination, powerfully says, “I don’t know if anybody can be converted without seeing themselves in a kind of blasting annihilating light, a blast that will last a lifetime.” (70). This quote helps to emphasize that rarely are people converted by reading straight from a theology textbook. Imagination, creativity, and beauty play a huge role in capturing people’s hearts towards the gospel. Straight facts are rarely convicting.ConclusionThe study of theology should be first and foremost studied through the Bible and then through the combination of art, such as fiction, and theology books. Fiction in and of itself is important. It is important because it is art. It is important because it is beautiful, creative, and imaginative. It is important because we were created in the image of God. It is important and necessary to be creating. God has given us art. He has given us the ability to create art. We should be using this art to reflect on him. We should use it as a way of bring to praise to him.Here is an excerpt from my fiction short story, title "The Dress of Pearl":The peasant girl was lost. She had followed after a man who had not deserved her trust. She had broken the one and only rule: stay on the path. At the time it seemed like an okay exception. It had turned out to be her biggest mistake. It had caused the most damage. And unlike the others this was completely her own fault.The peasant girl now clothed in rags had strayed from the path. Lost with nowhere to go. She would never make it to the ruler, nor did she want to anymore. He would never want to see her now.The woods were dense. The peasant girl in rags struggled to make her way through. Tears poured down her face because she would never reach the end of her journey. She aimlessly walked. Briars cut her skin, but her body had gone numb to the pain. She no longer cared (or remembered) that she had once been a beautiful peasant girl in a pearly white dress walking along the road with a mission at hand.She still carried the basket with her. It weighed her down. Her back hunched over. She sulked along, forgetting why she was even moving. The strange noises coming from the distance no longer scared her; she did not even notice them.No one knows how long she walked on her own, but one day she came out of the thick woods and stumbled across a large clearing. For a brief moment, the peasant girl in rags thought that maybe she had found the path. Quickly she realized that this was not it. In a circle were shabby shelters made of rags, sheets of metal, branches, rocks, mud. Odds and ends covered each site: shoes, pots and pans, broken toys, torn books. People stumbled around aimlessly with glossed over eyes. They all wore torn and dirty clothes, much like the peasant girl. They did not wear shoes and every area of uncovered skin was covered in dirt. Who these people were, she did not know.“Excuse me,” she tried talking to one. “Is there a stream around that I can clean myself in?” Their hazy eyes did not meet hers, but stared just over her right shoulder. Then they walked off without an answer. Discouraged, she walked around knowing there had to be water somewhere. She tried speaking with another, but again, they did not speak to her.She walked to the opposite side of the clearing and past the shelters. Some sat outside staring off with glazed over eyes. There was a low growl as she past, and she moved faster to get as far away from these people as possible.On the other side of the clearing, she reentered the woods and soon found a stream. A spark of happiness ignited inside of her for a moment. It was the happiest she had been in a while. She waded in the stream and let the cool water rush over her feet. She crouched down low, letting her arms hang down. She splashed the icy water on her arms, and gently wiped away the mud. It came off her skin easily. Her almost healed cuts trickled with blood. Her blood flowed away with the mud. She put her hair in the water and let it rinse away the caked on mud. She cringed as she tried to run her fingers through her hair, because her hair was tangled in thickly wound knots. She pulled and yanked as she tried to loosen the thick balls of hair. Instead she only yanked out clump after clump of her once precious silk hair. She wept as hair and blood fell into the stream of water and was carried off downstream.She pulled her achy, dirty body from the water. Her clothes, still stained, dripped a caramel-colored water. Her cuts, still freshly opened, trickled streams of red liquid down her arms and legs. She sat down on a cool rock and shivered. She pulled her legs in closely to her chest and wrapped her arms around herself, trying to keep warm. The sun was setting though and the cool night air was blowing in.The girl in rags became afraid to sit out in the woods all on her own. She worried about the cold and the strange noises that she often heard. So the girl headed back towards the camp. Maybe now they would welcome her.She reached the clearing in the woods with the circle of small, rundown shacks. There she found a large, inviting fire in the center of the camp. People sat hunched around the fire, staring into the mesmerizing flames. Slowly, she crept over and took a seat next to an old, gray haired lady. Her hair stuck out in all direction, frizzing and curling. The lady was covered in filth. She sat rocking back and forth in her place, transfixed on fire. The old lady mumbled quietly to herself. At the sound of a sharp noise, she would turn her head frantically, like a paranoid cat, looking for the culprit of the sound.The girl’s stomach growled. She looked in her basket but found no food. “Hey lady? Do you have anything to eat?” The girl asked.The old, hunched over lady turned and looked at her. “The moon is very bright tonight.”The girl in rags was confused as she watched the old lady. She tried again. “I’m really very hungry. I don’t know when the last time was that I had something to eat.”“There is not a cloud in the sky. Very good. Very good. I do hate the rain.” The old lady replied. Or, well, it might not have been a reply. The girl in rags wasn’t quite sure if the old, hunched over lady was actually talking to her or not. She tried to ask where she was, but the lady responded by saying she wished the air was a bit warmer.“Lady, I don’t know where I am! I have been traveling for weeks. I’m tired and hungry…” The girl in rags began to recount all that had happened to her.“We had a big storm a while back…” the old lady began.The peasant girl in rags was furious! “LISTEN TO ME!” She screamed. The camp grew quiet as all eyes turned and looked at her. Everything was silent. “Listen to me.” The girl whispered, and then she began to sob. But just as quickly as all eyes turned to her, they turned away paying her no mind. She curled up next to the fire, shivering in sorrow. She awoke the next morning covered in soot.She was dirtied again. No one cared. No one listened. They all walked around zombie-like. They were angered by the slightest sounds. No one talked to each other, just too themselves. The days were quiet, and the nights terrifying. They all came out of their shacks at night. Screaming and crying. Each one screamed for help, but no one helped each other—they couldn’t. The girl in rags tried, but each time she tried to help she was ignored. They begged and pleaded as she stood in front of them, but no one quieted down long enough to accept her help.As time went on, she gave up trying. No one really wanted to be helped. And the more she gave up on them, the more she became just like them. She wailed along with them, pleading for someone to listen. Anyone to listen! She stopped eating and drinking. She stopped bathing. Her body reeked with sweat and filth, but she no longer cared. It didn’t matter that her dress was torn and dirty or that her flesh was cut and bloody.She spent her days building a shelter of her own. She built it from the inside out. At first it was for protection, but then it became to hide herself away from others. It was to hide her dirt and shame. Then it was to block out the light. Oh how she grew to hate the light and love the darkness. Just like the rest, she came out in the night.And she forgot her mission. She forgot that she had been summoned to the ruler. She forgot that she had a burden to bear and a path to follow.It’s uncertain how much time passed. The girl may have been their only days or many years. It does not really matter. What matters is that it seemed an eternity that she was there—an eternity of hopelessness.One day the sun set just as all the other days before. The girl in rags slowly emerged from her shelter, cautiously making sure that all the light of the day was hidden. She wandered the camp, crying and screaming. She begged and pleaded. She shouted and cursed. But her cries were unanswered. Drowning souls can’t save others who are drowning.