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Kathrine Elaine's avatar

Hm… I’m a practising Catholic and I write spec fiction (blood, non-graphic sex scenes, violence, horror), and I don’t do intentional moralising. How does that work with me being Christian? Well, first of all, I think my values show in my work inevitably - the good guys win, the evil get punished. All the best, timeless themes are also core Christian themes - pure love, self-sacrifice, friendship, brotherhood, courage, family, etc. Secondly - I am a professional visual artist. It means I had to draw nudes from nature. The whole history of Christian art is full of depiction of nudes, violence, blood etc. Take Adam and Eve. David chopping off Goliath’s head. Etc. Creativity is a gift from God, and if I listen to my conscience (which is deeply influenced by Christianity) I am free to create, as long as I don’t corrupt. Thirdly - the sex scenes. God has given us the beautiful ability of manifest our love through physical nearness. I want to make it beautiful again. Not diminish it to ugly physicality. In my stories, often the couples go through some kind of Marriage ritual. If not, often they face some unpleasant consequences. So, you can write fantasy. Even brutal, dark fantasy. Even as a Christian. Just make sure it has the moral grounding in Christian values. As for horror? I try to write poetic and symbolic horror which also raises questions about the motivations of characters. I do not show the villains in good light, but I do like to mess with the readers head.

My point is - Christians can and they do write readable spec fiction (at least judging by my work, and there are plenty other good Christian authors on Substack).

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Richard Ritenbaugh's avatar

I am a Christian pastor and write fantasy stories and have done so for years. I am from the Tolkien/Lewis camp, especially the former. In these days, I believe Christian fantasy needs to be more like Tolkien and less like Lewis. Tolkien wrote fantasy with Christianity (in his case, Catholicism) deep in its bones rather than on its skin. I've read or listened to a lot of fantasy stories that come from Christian writers, and it always strikes a sour note when the Christianity and moralizing are just too blatant. So, I try to write stories that keep overt mentions of Christian things to a minimum (I do have a religion in them that calls its deity "the Shepherd," but its doctrines are vague, and it is not Christianity). So, like Tolkien, I try to write a good story with Christian themes first and let the reader find them (show, don't tell).

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