threeoranges (![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} threeoranges) wrote, |
Take the "Christian" out of the biggest Christian series of the 20th c? Marketing ploy, nothing more or less.
As for why many of the best are done by those who don't believe, I'm of the opinion that it's because they have the freedom to play around with the darker implications of theology. To put it crudely, they can freely question God's mercy and justice because they don't believe He's gonna come down and bite 'em later on. It used to take real courage to question God's purpose - now it's the other way around, it takes courage to admit you believe.
IMHO, the trouble w/ specifically Christian literature is that if it falls into the following camps it's the kiss of death:
1) Bad things happen in this life, but if you believe you'll be happy in the next (non-believer thinks: yeah right)
2) Good things happen in this life and it's thanks to the fact you believe in God (non-believer thinks: yeah right!)
The moment the story starts going into the "acts not faith" (i.e. our deeds make us who we are) it becomes decent literature - but then people start trying to take the whole "God" element out of it, arguing that it doesn't matter. It takes a particular genius like Lewis's to incorporate the "sacrifice element" and make it matter - and we both know what happens to the "sacrifice element" when a certain YA author got her hands on it ;)
As for why many of the best are done by those who don't believe, I'm of the opinion that it's because they have the freedom to play around with the darker implications of theology. To put it crudely, they can freely question God's mercy and justice because they don't believe He's gonna come down and bite 'em later on. It used to take real courage to question God's purpose - now it's the other way around, it takes courage to admit you believe.
IMHO, the trouble w/ specifically Christian literature is that if it falls into the following camps it's the kiss of death:
1) Bad things happen in this life, but if you believe you'll be happy in the next (non-believer thinks: yeah right)
2) Good things happen in this life and it's thanks to the fact you believe in God (non-believer thinks: yeah right!)
The moment the story starts going into the "acts not faith" (i.e. our deeds make us who we are) it becomes decent literature - but then people start trying to take the whole "God" element out of it, arguing that it doesn't matter. It takes a particular genius like Lewis's to incorporate the "sacrifice element" and make it matter - and we both know what happens to the "sacrifice element" when a certain YA author got her hands on it ;)