Assignment Question:
After reading through the various types of fantasy literature as well as reading through Edward Hewlett’s definition of Christian fantasy, what would you say solely differentiates Christian fantasy from other forms of fantasy?
Please address the following in your response (8 or more sentences in MLA format):
Underlying messages
Purposeful symbolism
The theme of how Good triumphs over Evil
Author’s Intent
Its easy to see then, why Christians, who believe that the world-creating and -sustaining supernatural God became a part of our normal reality, would turn to fantasy as a mode of expressing the Christian worldview.
Its also hard to see: If the Christian message has so much in common with admittedly imaginary fantasy literature, wouldnt there be a danger that, if represented in fantasy, the Christian message itself might be taken for fantasy?
This is a real concern with some Christians: Ive had a family (whom I respect very much) tell me not to teach their children C.S. Lewis because he was new age (there are witches and magic in his books), and Ive even had it suggested to me (again by a Christian whom I very much respect) that Christs parables were all true-life stories (after all, he was omniscient, hed have a whole world full of stories to draw on).
I would suggest that this concern is an extension of the iconoclastic controversies, in which well-meaning Christians went around destroying images and icons because of the danger people would end up worshipping them rather than God. The reply to the iconoclasts applies equally well to the fiction/fantasy debate: The better you know someone, and the more you respect him, the less likely you are to confuse him with his picture (or his statue, for that matter). The better you know Reality, and the more regard that you have for It, the less likely you are to confuse Reality with its fictional or its fantastic representations.
Tolkien said as much in his On Fairy-Stories:
“For creative Fantasy is founded upon the hard recognition that things are so in the world as it appears under the sun; on a recognition of fact, but not a slavery to it. So upon logic was founded the nonsense that displays itself in the tales and rhymes of Lewis Carroll. If men really could not distinguish between frogs and men, fairy-stories about frog-kings would not have arisen.”
What, then, are we to make of this sub-category called Christian Fantasy? How are we to define it?
There are at least two or three possible definitions. The simplest would be that it is fantasy written by Christians. This definition would have the unfortunate side-effect (unfortunate at least from the point of view of those wishing to engage in purely literary studies) of re-opening the currently rather vexing question of who exactly is and is not a Christian.
We could broaden the definition to include all fantasy written by those who claim to be Christians, but this would only generate controversy in the other direction: Does not a community (however fractured and divided that community may currently be) have at least some rights to self-definition by excluding from the community those who do not adhere to the fundamental beliefs that define the community? And who are these literary critics anyhow to be including as part of the community any old chap who feels like claiming to be a part of the community, even when hes not willing to abide by the communitys standards and beliefs?
Theres really no way to get entirely away from this debate, but, in a (probably futile) attempt to find a safer middle ground, I, as a Christian student of literature, proffer the following as a definition of Christian fantasy: Christian fantasy is fantasy literature that embodies or reflects some aspect of the Christian worldview and is written by an author who claims to be Christian.
