Hm. Now that's an interesting question and one I was asking myself this morning during my time with God this morning.
First off, John 17:17 says, "...Your word is truth." In other places in the Bible, we find that God is incapable of lying. Is fiction lying? Well, it certainly isn't always truth. Sometimes it's only half-truth. But if a half-truth is a whole lie, what does that make fiction?
And, if God thinks fiction is sinful, why have so many Christian fictional writers been succesful? C.S. Lewis, Frank Peretti, and Ted Dekker are just a few of my personal favorites.
If you didn't know by now, I write fiction, too. So, naturally, this concerned me a little.
As I'm pondering all of this, it suddenly hits me: Jesus told fictional stories! We call them parables. But who's to say the prodigal son or the lady with the lost coin were real people? Perhaps they were, but Jesus wasn't exactly relaying someone's biography when he told people these stories. When you think about it, Jesus was the ultimate story-teller.
Maybe it's motivation that's the key thing. Jesus told fictional stories to teach people lessons. That's not so different from some fairy tales we've been told since we were kids. Many of them have some sort of moral behind them, don't they? After all, how many times have you heard, "And the moral of the story is..."
Anyway, I hope that most of you by the time you are done reading Beast will realize the lesson behind it. No, it isn't the corny "True Love Conquers All". It's...well, I'll let you finish reading it and find out for yourselves.
Ok. It's discussion time! Yea! I love hearing from people. It makes me happy. So make me happy, people. What motivates you to write, specifically, fiction?
aFiction.. hmmm.
ReplyDeleteI am a pure no-fiction reader. Apart from Bible I read biographies, Bible related books and other contemporary articles. I used to read fiction (that was secular) some time back and I haven’t read any recently and I haven’t read any Christian fiction. May be I should give it a try.
Regarding Jesus’ parables: Since Jesus didn’t mention anywhere that these are just stories; I believe that these are excerpts from real incidents. Yes! when Jesus narrated them he didn’t give any specific importance to highlight the authenticity of the story; but instead He focused on the meaning behind it.
You can mention in the Introduction that the characters in the story are imagination. That will make sure that you are not lying by chance.
Just sharing my thoughts. Please correct me if you think otherwise :)
That is one of the best explanations I have heard about personal beliefs in religion yet. I love how you actually have a strong viewpoint in what you belief, whether i agree or not makes no difference when you can defend your thoughts in depth. Thank you for keeping my hopes for others alive.
ReplyDelete(lol sorry if this comment seems weird, it is really late and i just felt inspired for some odd reason.)