So I'm a Christian and a would be writer. My fondest hope is to write a great "Christian" novel- something you'd find in the ordinary literature section. Think the fiction of Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh. This type of literature was once fairly common, but now it's almost extinct. Christian writers, where they exist, are retreating into their bunker rather than venturing onto the battlefield- they preach to the converted. And, if we can judge by the quality of their writing, they're only absorbing from the converted. The secular world, and all it has to offer the writer of discerning taste- technique, language, theme- has been utterly abandoned. The Christian writer today has missed centuries of good literature. I find this awfully depressing. There are a great many people, and I am one of them, who need an intellectual case for Christianity. There are a great many people who will turn away from Christianity if they can't point to something, and someone, who is toiling away for the cause on secularism's terms.
Greene and Waugh did this. So did Chesterton. And so did C.S. Lewis and his merry band of Inklings. The Inklings were a literary group in the middle of the 20th century composed primarily of Christians. Lewis and Tolkien were its most famous members. Together they read and discussed literature, including their own. They were serious and they were taken seriously. For awhile now I've wanted to start a similar group: primarily Christian, interested in literature and writing, willing to engage secularism by absorbing secular achievements, and capable of reinforcing and improving each other by steady degrees. I want to be a great writer. I want to help make others great writers. I want to make the argument, through novels, that humanity is lost without the Christian religion. But I can't do any of it alone. So I'm coming here. Why the young adults forum? Because I'm young and because the young have a lifetime of growing ahead of them. We are at a point in our lives where we can undertake such a project and make it a reality.
Anyway, I'm wondering if anyone is interested. You don't have to want to write novels- wanting to write anything will do. We'll read fiction (both prose and verse), and even some non-fiction. Anything challenging. The classics of Western Civilization. And we'll read and critique each others' writings. We all have different strengths and weaknesses. We need another person's eyes and thoughts to know where we stand. Because people have different responsibilities and priorities the schedule would be, relatively, light. I have a pretty good sense of the classics so I'm more than happy to drum something up, if the idea of creating a schedule is too daunting for some of you. Oh, and we would be reading good Christian fiction and the King James as well. So post something in this thread if you're interested.
Greene and Waugh did this. So did Chesterton. And so did C.S. Lewis and his merry band of Inklings. The Inklings were a literary group in the middle of the 20th century composed primarily of Christians. Lewis and Tolkien were its most famous members. Together they read and discussed literature, including their own. They were serious and they were taken seriously. For awhile now I've wanted to start a similar group: primarily Christian, interested in literature and writing, willing to engage secularism by absorbing secular achievements, and capable of reinforcing and improving each other by steady degrees. I want to be a great writer. I want to help make others great writers. I want to make the argument, through novels, that humanity is lost without the Christian religion. But I can't do any of it alone. So I'm coming here. Why the young adults forum? Because I'm young and because the young have a lifetime of growing ahead of them. We are at a point in our lives where we can undertake such a project and make it a reality.
Anyway, I'm wondering if anyone is interested. You don't have to want to write novels- wanting to write anything will do. We'll read fiction (both prose and verse), and even some non-fiction. Anything challenging. The classics of Western Civilization. And we'll read and critique each others' writings. We all have different strengths and weaknesses. We need another person's eyes and thoughts to know where we stand. Because people have different responsibilities and priorities the schedule would be, relatively, light. I have a pretty good sense of the classics so I'm more than happy to drum something up, if the idea of creating a schedule is too daunting for some of you. Oh, and we would be reading good Christian fiction and the King James as well. So post something in this thread if you're interested.
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