Protestants Dominating Christian Fiction

[Luckster]

I work in Retail Management and one of my departments happens to include books. As I browse through the "Inspirational" category, I know cover, after cover, of Protestant-inspired "Do it yourself" theology. But the one title that irked me was this story about an Amish family. I'm sure it's a good book, but if I were to assume (which I shouldn't), I'd guess that from this author's standpoint, the Amish are the highest form of Protestantism and/or Christianity, all the while neglecting the pious ascetics and saints from centuries before.

Forgive me. I apologize if I come off as "whiny". It just makes me at times.

 

[true2theword]

I love the Amish, their my neighbors

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

Goodness, it's "they're" not "their!!" I keep telling my 11-year-olds this in my class. It's killing meeeeee!

I love the Amish, their my neighbors

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

Well there's a reason Orthodox don't write "do it yourself" Christianity. Why? Because we can't do it ourselves! Salvation is a corporate enterprise. We worship together, pray together and for one another, take the same Eucharist and other six sacraments, and our sins and works affect each other and the Church. We all are loyal to the bishops and patriarchs, and we all worship the same Triune God. We are our brother's keeper, and we're in this race together, not apart. Christianity isn't so simple as to make self-help books and do-it-yourself action, but rather it is a team sport in Christ....

 

[Luckster]

You're absolutely right, gurney. But, then my question would be, why aren't we seeing more Orthodox, or Catholic, books in major retailers? Why are the Protestants so much aggressive than we are?

 

[gracefullamb]

Personally, I think Christian fiction stinks. It has cardboard cut out characters with the personality of angst-ridden teenagers. There always seems to be some lame subplot of the non-Christian male/ female protagonist converts because the Christian female/ male protagonist is their true love, not because they believe in God. The Christian main character is a Mary Sue/ Marty Stu that is just purrrfect in every way, well except the angst over God's plan for their life. The plot is paint by, err sentence by number, no more complex than 5th grade literacy. I'd rather down a gallon sucrose, be subjected to viewing day time soaps 24-7, and have to listen to nothing but kumbaya for the rest of my life, then read that garbage.

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

I'm with you, GL. I know this is a minority position to be sure, but I never felt I needed to read Lewis' fictionalized stories to see Christ, the Church, and salvation, and he is one of if not THE best Christian fiction writer ever, hands-down. Christian fiction just doesn't help me much. I would prefer non-fiction theological works and insights and the Bible along with the words of the Fathers for comfort, not fake characters created to make a point.

Personally, I think Christian fiction stinks. It has cardboard cut out characters with the personality of angst-ridden teenagers. There always seems to be some lame subplot of the non-Christian male/ female protagonist converts because the Christian female/ male protagonist is their true love, not because they believe in God. The Christian main character is a Mary Sue/ Marty Stu that is just purrrfect in every way, well except the angst over God's plan for their life. The plot is paint by, err sentence by number, no more complex than 5th grade literacy. I'd rather down a gallon sucrose, be subjected to viewing day time soaps 24-7, and have to listen to nothing but kumbaya for the rest of my life, then read that garbage.

 

[true2theword]

Goodness, it's "they're" not "their!!" I keep telling my 11-year-olds this in my class. It's killing meeeeee!

opps! usually don't make that mistake! don't get your undies in a bundle



I love the Amish, they're my neighbors. And they have good grammar

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

Because I think much like weight loss gimicks, Protestants are more given to those quick-fix approaches and catchy hip sound-bytes. The Joyce Meyers and Purpose-driven Life junky books are designed to just give a few goose pimples of OSAS insights and self-help, whereas Orthodoxy is too complex to do so I think. Orthodoxy and Catholicism have a 2,000 year old wisdom that is just something that needs to be taken in holistically. I wish we could walk through a grocery store and find books by Father Meyendorff, Father Schmemman, Met. Kallistos Ware, and other Orthodox titans, but it is a Western country we live in dominated by Protestants. And I'm afraid that right now in history the Catholics' credibility and reputation is so trashed by pedophilia scandals and such that nobody would read their best and brightest either. It's a Baptisty Pentecostalish nation we live in, bro!

You're absolutely right, gurney. But, then my question would be, why aren't we seeing more Orthodox, or Catholic, books in major retailers? Why are the Protestants so much aggressive than we are?

 

[Gxg (G²)]

I work in Retail Management and one of my departments happens to include books. As I browse through the "Inspirational" category, I know cover, after cover, of Protestant-inspired "Do it yourself" theology. But the one title that irked me was this story about an Amish family. I'm sure it's a good book, but if I were to assume (which I shouldn't), I'd guess that from this author's standpoint, the Amish are the highest form of Protestantism and/or Christianity, all the while neglecting the pious ascetics and saints from centuries before.

Forgive me. I apologize if I come off as "whiny". It just makes me at times.

It may be more so an issue of awareness than a lack of Orthodox Christian Fiction resources. Many Protestant events have books and resources from Orthodoxy present, but you'll rarely hear stories on fiction or comics or other things in the realm of the imagination being shared.

 

[Gnarwhal]

Salvation is a corporate enterprise

It seems to me that in some big way, that's the crux of Orthodoxy (and Christianity as a whole), but it's also the antithesis of Protestantism. It almost seems that if Protestantism (or Evangelicalism, at least) were to embrace that, they would cease to be.

Because I think much like weight loss gimicks, Protestants are more given to those quick-fix approaches and catchy hip sound-bytes. The Joyce Meyers and Purpose-driven Life junky books are designed to just give a few goose pimples of OSAS insights and self-help, whereas Orthodoxy is too complex to do so I think. Orthodoxy and Catholicism have a 2,000 year old wisdom that is just something that needs to be taken in holistically. I wish we could walk through a grocery store and find books by Father Meyendorff, Father Schmemman, Met. Kallistos Ware, and other Orthodox titans, but it is a Western country we live in dominated by Protestants. And I'm afraid that right now in history the Catholics' credibility and reputation is so trashed by pedophilia scandals and such that nobody would read their best and brightest either. It's a Baptisty Pentecostalish nation we live in, bro!

This is also very true, the more I learn about Orthodoxy, the more I think it's almost impossible to encapsulate everything into a succinct description. This is also a reason that Evangelicalism is what it is, it lacks a detailed spiritual life and so it's just "recruit, rinse, repeat" (to echo Fr. Damick to a degree).

 

[true2theword]

Well there's a reason Orthodox don't write "do it yourself" Christianity. Why? Because we can't do it ourselves! Salvation is a corporate enterprise. We worship together, pray together and for one another, take the same Eucharist and other six sacraments, and our sins and works affect each other and the Church. We all are loyal to the bishops and patriarchs, and we all worship the same Triune God. We are our brother's keeper, and we're in this race together, not apart. Christianity isn't so simple as to make self-help books and do-it-yourself action, but rather it is a team sport in Christ....

I don't think doctrine has anything to do with it, Catholics could easily write an interesting book about their faith...........maybe its just not very interesting, lets face it catecism is grueling

 

[gracefullamb]

You're absolutely right, gurney. But, then my question would be, why aren't we seeing more Orthodox, or Catholic, books in major retailers? Why are the Protestants so much aggressive than we are?

Oh, I know the answer to this one. This very subject was part of a piece on popular book review blog. The big 6 publishing houses and the Christian publishing houses forbid the use of the words- father, priest, sister, brother, monk, nun, as it relates to clergy. They forbid the use of the words Eucharist, icons, mass, liturgy, monastery, monastic, confession, infant baptism, Saint (as in someone who is Holy), last rights, and sacrament. There are more words they forbid but those ones that stuck out to me. Anyhow any manuscript with these words is automatically rejected. The exclusion of all these words by the publishing houses makes it a little hard to have the Catholic or Orthodox protagonist in inspirational book.

 

[gracefullamb]

I'm with you, GL. I know this is a minority position to be sure, but I never felt I needed to read Lewis' fictionalized stories to see Christ, the Church, and salvation, and he is one of if not THE best Christian fiction writer ever, hands-down. Christian fiction just doesn't help me much. I would prefer non-fiction theological works and insights and the Bible along with the words of the Fathers for comfort, not fake characters created to make a point.

I believe Evelyn Waugh said once, that if an author has to identify their book as Christian [fiction] they already failed at doing their job in telling their story.

I like the Chronicles of Narnia, cannot stand the new movies- what is with the angst-ridden teenagers in those movies??? I think if you ditched the high budget fx people would not think the new movies are so wonderful.

 

[Gnarwhal]

Oh, I know the answer to this one. This very subject was part of a piece on popular book review blog. The big 6 publishing houses and the Christian publishing houses forbid the use of the words- father, priest, sister, brother, monk, nun, as it relates to clergy. They forbid the use of the words Eucharist, icons, mass, liturgy, monastery, monastic, confession, infant baptism, Saint (as in someone who is Holy), last rights, and sacrament. There are more words they forbid but those ones that stuck out to me. Anyhow any manuscript with these words is automatically rejected. The exclusion of all these words by the publishing houses makes it a little hard to have the Catholic or Orthodox protagonist in inspirational book.

That's interesting, where did you learn that? I guess that's where Conciliar Press comes into play.

I believe Evelyn Waugh said once, that if an author has to identify their book as Christian [fiction] they already failed at doing their job in telling their story.

I like the Chronicles of Narnia, cannot stand the new movies- what is with the angst-ridden teenagers in those movies??? I think if ditched the high budget fx people would not think the new movies are so wonderful.

That reminds me of a quote from Rob Bell, who's been a very big influence on my exploring Orthodoxy (which may comes as a surprise to some), he said:

I don't believe in Christian art or music. The word Christian was originally a noun. A person, not an adjective. I believe in great art. If you are an artist, your job is to do great art and you don't need to tack on the word Christian. It's already great. God is the God of Creativity. Categories desecrate the art form. It's either great art or it isn't. Followers of Jesus should have the first word instead of coming late to the game with some poor quality spin-off. Let's talk about things before everyone else.
​

I think that's a profoundly true statement and I agree with it wholeheartedly. I've almost completely quit listening to the Christian radio stations I have programmed into my car radio, and I barely touch the Christian music I have on iTunes. When I'm listening to music for fun I tend to play secular artists, when listening to worship I stream the worship channel on AFR. To me "Christian art" (especially music) has just become too kitschy.

 

[gracefullamb]

The list of words not allowed can usually be found on the submission pages for publishing houses. Submission pages will list what the publishing house allows and does not allow to even consider a manuscript. When this blog had the write up they actually copied the list of words right into the blog and linked to the publishing house page, so people could verify for themselves it was all true. The big 6 publishing houses, the major Christian publishing houses and Harlequin's inspirational line were all mentioned. In every case the words listed as not allowed in the manuscript made it clear no RCC, EOC, OOC fiction allowed.

ETA: All of this is in reference to Christian fiction, just in case anyone thought it applied to non-fiction as well.

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

I guess I'm just a Tolkien fan, pure and simple, and the allegories of Christendom in the LOTR are good enough for me. No need for further fiction...

I believe Evelyn Waugh said once, that if an author has to identify their book as Christian [fiction] they already failed at doing their job in telling their story.

I like the Chronicles of Narnia, cannot stand the new movies- what is with the angst-ridden teenagers in those movies??? I think if you ditched the high budget fx people would not think the new movies are so wonderful.

 

[rusmeister]

It helps if you can read Russian...

Julia Voznesenskaya - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Gnarwhal]

I guess I'm just a Tolkien fan, pure and simple, and the allegories of Christendom in the LOTR are good enough for me. No need for further fiction...

Tolkien for the win!!

You going to see The Hobbit?

Sent from my iPhone using Forum Runner

 

[gracefullamb]

I guess I'm just a Tolkien fan, pure and simple, and the allegories of Christendom in the LOTR are good enough for me. No need for further fiction...

I like Tolkien too. To be honest, I really don't understand why people compare the two set of stories. Tolkien and Lewis were writing their stories for two different age groups, so it just seems strange to compare the two and state one set of stories is better than the other, in my opinion.

It helps if you can read Russian...

Julia Voznesenskaya - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Acutally some of Voznesenskaya's works have been translated into English.