NARNIA SERIES:
ISBN 978 0 583 331 371
WINGFEATHER SAGA:
ISBN 978 0 593 235 690
THE MAGNIFICENT TIME MACHINE:
ISBN 978 1 527 107 915
TREASURES OF THE SNOW:
ISBN 978 1 785 062 858
THE LITTLE PILGRIM’S PROGRESS:
ISBN 978 0 802 420 534
G.K. Chesterton said that literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity – but is it true?
There are different ways to look at fiction. Jessamyn West described fiction as revealing truth that reality obscures. Author Tim O’Brien wrote that fiction is for ‘getting at the truth when the truth isn’t sufficient for the truth’.
Sometimes we need our imaginations in order to really understand. But can fantasy bring anyone to a better understanding of faith and God? How about a child?
Many would point to C.S. Lewis and his Narnia stories as their favourite fantasy books. The fact that Lewis’ Christian faith lights up the page is undeniable. A more recent series that has lit the power of imagination and faith in young readers has been the Wingfeather Saga by Andrew Peterson. Both of these series introduce the concept of good and evil – and the reality of evil that is not just an external force but something internal to us.
We are complicated, magnificent creations with minds capable of seeing what is and what might be the truth. And when as children we have strong foundations built in our lives through the word of God and prayer, a story can bring to that foundation colour and a living truth that is beyond knowledge. Because, paradoxically, fiction can be true when it lights up facts and moulds them in a life. Through a fantasy world children can see their own lives as they really are. Something as deep as their worldview can be formed through narrative. They can even see faith and the future with the help of a time machine if you read Sinclair Ferguson’s book The Magnificent Time Machine.
Patricia St John used her childhood experience of Switzerland and her missionary work in North Africa to write Treasures of the Snow and Star of Light. Rainbow Garden and The Tanglewoods’ Secret are from the more familiar background of England. An elderly spinster brought to life characters and places from her imagination and her memory. But the truth of the gospel is the one solid fact that is the ingenious part of these engaging tales.
Christian fiction didn’t start with Jeanette Oke and Frank Peretti. Centuries of believers have been blessed by The Pilgrim’s Progress. And new editions appear all the time. I was delighted this month to see a rather unique edition called The Little Pilgrim’s Progress (adapted by Helen L. Taylor and published by Moody) ingeniously using animals as the main characters to get across the same allegory that Bunyan adeptly created so many years ago.
I think we need to open our minds to good Christian fiction. We must be discerning about it for ourselves and our children. What it does, when done well, is shape and illuminate what has already been built. There is something about a story that lights up the heart. That really makes us understand the truth. Jesus understood that.
