Why aren’t evangelicals writing books that have lasting literary value? A recent essay at Touchstone Magazine sees few modern successors to Graham Greene, G.K. Chesterton, Flannery O’Connor, and many other Christian writers whose works are respected as great art even by those who don’t share the authors’ religious beliefs.
We’ve discussed this question of “why aren’t Christians today producing more good art than they are?” from time to time here at TC. The Touchstone article, which quotes heavily from the writings of Flannery O’Connor, narrows in on one big problem with Christian literature today:
O’Connor understood that good writers do not simply parrot these [religious] insights; they must take this doctrinal understanding and apply it to the concrete realities of human life. “Your beliefs will be the light by which you see, but they will not be what you see and they will not be a substitute for seeing.”When we do not understand this distinction, Christian fiction becomes mere religious propaganda. “The sorry religious novel comes about when the writer supposes that because of his belief, he is somehow dispensed from the obligation to penetrate concrete reality.” Doctrine is a light to see human experience by, not a formula to be dressed up in a fictional disguise.
In other words, Christian writers are falling into the trap of simply dressing up and repeating their own beliefs, rather than using those beliefs to inform their exploration of the world and human behavior.
Food for thought. (And as a side note: I’d love to see an article tackle this subject by looking at the works and ideas of some of the other great Christian writers mentioned in the article: Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser, George Herbert, T. S. Eliot, Graham Greene, Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, etc. Flannery O’Connor, Tolkien, Chesterton, and Lewis references are starting to become awfully familiar when this debate comes up; for variety’s sake, I’d enjoy hearing about some of the other greats, and how their faith inspired their writing.)
(Hat tip: Behind the Books, where you’ll find some additional commentary.)
Loading ...
August 29, 2007 at 20:47
I don’t think there are enough Christians or non-Christians who appreciate Chesterton. I think Chesterton is quoted a lot but rarely read. I’d add him to your list with Elliot, Greene, etc. as under-appreciated.
August 30, 2007 at 09:20
One word: The Ghetto.
The separation of sacred and secular in the large midsection of the 20th century resulted — from what I can tell (that is, I wasn’t alive then) — resulted in Christians backing out of culture. Not just writing, but the visual arts, the sciences etc.
This is why Schaeffer, in Art and the Bible, so laments the ideas of sacred and secular at their most basic levels.
August 30, 2007 at 12:49
It seems as though too many writers are too busy with preaching that they fail at writing a good story.
August 30, 2007 at 13:14
Add Walker Percy, Frederick Buechner, Charles Williams, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Walter Wangerin to the list.
August 30, 2007 at 13:22
I think we do have great literature, it is just not popular and people do not read Books by Schaeffer or Middleman or Krejcir… In fact I just read one of Krejcirs books, it was very well written incredibly insightful, deep and even practical…I also read the popular books on the subject of relationships , pure fluff without substance or thought. So the question is what do you read?
See http://www.truespirituality.org
August 30, 2007 at 15:12
If you want more modern examples of great literature with a Christian worldview, I highly recommend River Rising by Athol Dickson, and Peace Like a River by Leif Enger.
August 30, 2007 at 15:13
Oh, I also forgot – any short stories or novel or poetry by Wendell Berry.
August 30, 2007 at 18:26
Where can you submit short stories for a Christian audience? I don’t claim to be great. My stories have been published by a Catholic college literary journal, but I think my themes may be too religious for mainstream journals looking for things that are more racy and (in my opinion)slightly obscene.
August 30, 2007 at 23:11
Thanks for this fabulous conversation….I won’t say much as it would be redundant. Many of us have been saying this for decades and your contributions are fabulous.
One small part—-and I run the risk of being self-promoting here—-is that so-called “Christian Bookstores” have this sacred vs secular split, with the resultant ghetto, and therefore don’t even carry mainstream classic authors of deep faith (like the aforementioned ones.) That most evangelical bookstores, and most serious theological bookstores, don’t stock O’Connor et al, keeps evangelical readers in the dark. It is very, very frustrating.
It is cool, though, when folks see all kinds of literature in our shop. And, of course, some complain (or ask, rather dumbly, “I didn’t know Elie Wiesel was a Christian” or, “You stock Douglas Coupland; why?” or “Is this Graham Greene guy a believer?” Sigh.
Does anybody know Larry Woiwode? Or the poetry of Scott Cairns? What about Updike? Thanks for mentioning Wendell Berry!
August 31, 2007 at 06:12
Not only literature, christian content in general (besides music) is not good. By observing children, we see that good quality on content is indeed a decisive factor for them to choose where to put their attention. The effect of this in their minds is immeasurable. My dream is that christian content and production become more and more excelent.
September 1, 2007 at 00:30
Francine Rivers and Liz Curtis Higgs have really blessed me with their Christian yet very contemporary (and very genuine!) fiction writing.
V. Nacamura: I agree. It’s not just literature but all content in general. Which is why, I don’t want to look like a political opportunist here, but I just came across Barack Obama’s talk on his Christian faith and how it applies to his approach in politics: http://www.barackobama.com/issues/faith/
Also, being God’s light in any workplace: http://www.christianitytoday.com/tcw/2007/julaug/9.54.html
God bless, everyone
September 1, 2007 at 19:47
I’m a little exited becuase I think writing is an art. And God made the arts, and His servants should be producing the best of the crop. I love to write and i have so much that i have been writing but i always think, oh everybody knows that or there are probably 1000 books on the same things and this article encourages me to write more and as a believer that God does want us to write if we write and paint if we can paint and dance if we can dance because we are His kids and representing his kingdom and i beleive He wants to use the gifts He has given to us to spread His love and grace and salvation and word throughout the world. If there is a lack of good writers or good modern day christian literature then praise God we can step up and fill the gap. He is giving us an oppurtunity to do this. This is a great call of service and faith to multiply our talents.
September 1, 2007 at 21:37
A couple of 21st century books that may wind up having literary value are “Peace Like a River” by Leif Enger and “Gilead” by Marilynne Robinson. Both are published by secular publishers.
Enger’s book has made several Christian reading lists and book clubs. He’s an imaginative storyteller and writes about being human with and without faith.
Marilynn Robinson has written an amazing piece of literature about being Christian. She did a really interesting interview in “Religion and Ethics” http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week829/interview.html
I would also add Madeliene L’Engle to the list of older writers who have written important literature about faith. I don’t think writing for children and being great are mutually exclusive.
I wonder if marketing has anything to do with the lack of great literature from Christian publishers. Projected sales, target markets and endorsements along with questions like “Who might it offend?;” and “What sort of add on products can we bundle with it?” are as important as “Is it great?” or “Is it important?”
Writing by formula in order to be “successful” is probably not going to yield great literature. Yet numbers seem to rule to day in the business of Christian publishing.
And there just could be some great literature out there on the web that hasn’t hit print. Unfortunately, with so much out there, it’s possible that something amazing is going to be completely overlooked unless someone with a public voice stumbles upon it.
September 3, 2007 at 18:08
Who knows, perhaps in a few years writers like Philip Yancey, Rob Bell, Adrian Plass, RT Kendall et al will be seen as great writers too. I consider Plass’s fiction to be top notch and his Sacred Diary to be funnier than the book that inspired it (The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole). I also think the Christian market doesn’t value great writing as much for a variety of reasons. e.g. No offence to Larry Crabb, but I wasn’t a great fan of his writing style in Finding God. On the other hand I thought his message in that book was superb.
Plus culture has moved on. For example, in the past many more people went to church whether they believed or not and so they knew the great hymns. Nowadays a smaller proportion of the population is exposed to the great modern hymn writers, like Stuart Townend, Graham Kendrick, Matt Redman or Keith Getty.
I also agree that the separation of sacred and secular has polarised the market. I love my town’s Faith Mission bookshop, but it means the other bookshops in the town will only carry a limited selection of Christian books.
Finally, due to the polarisation of the literature market Christian writers, either consciously or subconsciously aren’t writing for the mainstream, so their appeal is automatically reduced unless their writing survives the test of time.
September 4, 2007 at 08:42
First, Christians are writing good literature, but it is marginalized, attacked, ignored, and excommunicated by the church proper, because the church has a hard time with anything that isn’t formulaic. I say this as a Christian fiction writer and musician who is quite a bit frustrated.