Who is your favourite Christian fiction writer ?

Who is Your Favourite Christian Fiction Writer ?

  • R H Benson

  • Christoph von Schmid

  • Caryll Houselander

  • G K Chesterton

  • Evelyn Waugh

  • Graham Greene

  • Flannery O'Connor

  • Georges Bernanos

  • William Henry Anderdon

  • François Fénelon


Results are only viewable after voting.
M

Memento Mori

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So nobody here has ever read any Christian fiction before ???

This subforum is not visited very often.

I have a Bernanos novel sitting on my desk in my bedroom, but I haven't started it yet. Looks good - Under Satan's Sun. I haven't read anyone else on the list though I'm familiar with who they are. I would like to read Benson sometime.
 
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fide

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Please vote. You may pick more than 1 writer.
Thank you.

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Lepanto

Hello Lepanto,

I'd have to vote for JRR Tolkien, for Lord of the Rings. That's the only Catholic fiction I've read in a very long time. My reading has otherwise been non-fiction, which seems a much more direct way to get at the point of finding Truth. Granted, there is or can be truth presented through fiction - Jesus uses parables to teach truth. But liars and uninformed but imaginative people use fiction too! So I'm cautious. But fiction can be a way to lead to truth, so I'm not criticizing.
 
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Ave Maria

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I voted for G K Chesterton although I really don't know a thing about him and have never read anything he wrote. However, I do know he is quite popular with orthodox Catholics. As for the rest of those people, I have never even heard of them.
 
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MoonlessNight

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Voted for Chesterton, though the only author on the list that I have ever read is Waugh (though I liked what I read of him).

I do like Chesterton, but the vote was kind of a proxy vote for Gene Wolfe (he has written at least two explicit tribute stories to GK Chesterton). I have been consistently amazed by the work of Gene Wolfe. Even his mediocre stuff is better than most authors. I love how many of his stories seem to be religion-neutral or even anti-Christian, but are revealed to be profoundly Christian as the story unfolds. It strikes me as a great way to write about faith, since the truest nature of our world often does seem to be hidden from sight.

His highest regarded work is the solar cycle, but since that is 12 books long (The Shadow of the Torturer, The Claw of the Conciliator, The Sword of the Lictor, The Citadel of the Autarch, The Urth of the New Sun, Nightside the Long Sun, Lake of the Long Sun, Caldé of the Long Sun, Exodus from the Long Sun, On Blue's Waters, In Green's Jungles, Return to the Whorl) it probably is not the best for the new reader. (It is actually three separate related works, so it is possible to start at the Shadow of the Torturer or at Nightside the Long Sun). A better start is the novel Pirate Freedom which just so happens to star a Catholic priest. Who used to be a pirate.

Of course, I also am quite fond of JRR Tolkien. I have recently started to get into the stories of the First and Second ages. I am also currently rereading The Lord of the Rings and I am amazed by how many references there are to these earlier stories. But I guess it is to Tolkien's credit as an author that knowledge of the history of the world is not necessary to enjoy the story.
 
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Maryla

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While studying French literature in my 20s, I read Georges Bernanos' Journal of a Country Priest (1936) [Journal d'un curé de campagne] and it made a great impression on me. I was also able to read many novels by Francois Mauriac in French and found copies of the Journals of Raissa Maritain.The American writer Flannery O'Connor was deeply influenced by French authors of the early 20th century.
And in recent years I have found myself drawn back to Geoffrey Hill's complex but wonderful long poem The Mystery of the Charity of Charles Peguy.
 
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paul becke

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Waugh, Greene and Chesterton. The Man Who Was Thursday and Vile Bodies are two of my favourite books.

My three against the field: Graham Greene and Louis de Wohl, G K Chesterton.
 
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