Christian Fiction: A Guide to the Genre

355 Pages·2002·1.5 MB·English

by  John Mort

Christian Fiction :
A Guide to the Genre
John Mort
Libraries Unlimited
Christian Fiction
Genreflecting Advisory Series
Diana Tixier Herald, Series Editor
Genreflecting: A Guide to Reading Interests in Genre Fiction, 5th Edition
By Diana Tixier Herald
Teen Genreflecting
By Diana Tixier Herald
Romance Fiction: A Guide to the Genre
By Kristin Ramsdell
Fluent in Fantasy: A Guide to Reading Interests
By Diana Tixier Herald
Now Read This: A Guide to Mainstream Fiction, 1978–1998
By Nancy Pearl with assistance from Martha Knappe and Chris
Higashi
Now Read This II: A Guide to Mainstream Fiction, 1990–2001
By Nancy Pearl
Hooked on Horror: A Guide to Reading Interests in Horror Fiction
By Anthony J. Fonseca and June Michele Pulliam
JuniorGenreflecting:AGuidetoGoodReadsandSeriesFictionforChildren
ByBridgetDealyVolz,LyndaBlackburnWelborn,andCherylPerkins
Scheer
Christian Fiction: A Guide to the Genre
By John Mort
Strictly Science Fiction: A Guide to Reading Interests
By Diana Tixier Herald and Bonnie Kunzel
Christian Fiction
A Guide to the Genre
John Mort
2002
Libraries Unlimited
A Division of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
Greenwood Village, Colorado
Copyright © 2002 John Mort
All Rights Reserved
Printed in the United States of America
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mort, John, 1947-
Christian fiction : a guide to the genre / John Mort.
p. cm. -- (Genreflecting advisory series)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and indexes.
ISBN 1-56308-871-1
1. Christian fiction--History and criticism. 2. Christian fiction--Stories, plots, etc. 3.
Christian fiction--Bibliography. I. Title. II. Series.
PN3448.C48 M67 2002
809.3'93823--dc21
2001050840
Contents
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Chapter1—TheChristianAlternative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
DefinitionsandBackground. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
TheEvangelicalNovel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
TheReaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
BeyondRomance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Chapter2—Readers’AdvisorySources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Journals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
WebSites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
ChristianFictionPublishers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Awards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Chapter3—ChristianClassics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
BritishClassics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Ransom(ScienceFiction)Series. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
LordoftheRings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
AmericanClassics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
WorldClassics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Chapter4—BiblicalFiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
OldTestament . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
NewTestament. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Chapter5—HistoricalChristianFiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
FifthCentury. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
EleventhCentury. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
TwelfthCentury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
ThirteenthCentury. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
FourteenthCentury. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
SixteenthCentury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
SeventeenthCentury. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
EighteenthCentury. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
NineteenthCentury. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
TwentiethCentury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Contents
v
vi Contents
Chapter 6—Sagas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
AmericanSagas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
EuropeanSagas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Chapter 7—RomancingtheWest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
ContemporaryWesterns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Mysteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
NativeAmericans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
RomanticWesterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
TraditionalWesterns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Chapter 8—Romance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
ContemporaryRomance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
HistoricalRomance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
LightContemporaryRomance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
UnequallyYoked . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
ProblemRomance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
RomanticAdventure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
RomanticSuspense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
ShortStories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Chapter 9—FantasyandScienceFiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Allegories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Fables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
AlternateUniverse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Apocalypse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Fantasy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
HardScienceFiction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
SpiritualWarfare. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
TimeTravel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Chapter10—MysteriesandThrillers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Mysteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Thrillers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Chapter11—TheChristianLife . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
AfricanAmericans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Angels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Humor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Literary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
MoralityTales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Nostalgia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Pastors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Popular. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Sentimental . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
ShortStories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Contents vii
Chapter12—CatholicFiction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Classics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Historicals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
MoralityTales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
NunsAndPriestsAsSleuths. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
Apocalypse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
ScienceFiction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
Thrillers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Vatican. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
AndrewGreeley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Chapter13—Amish,Mennonite,andQuakerFiction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
AmishandMennonite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Quaker. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Chapter14—MormonFiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Historicals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Contemporary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Mysteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Romance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
ScienceFiction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
ShortStories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Chapter15—YoungAdults. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Historicals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
Mysteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
ScienceFictionandFantasy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
TeenLife. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
SuggestedReadings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Acknowledgments
IwishtothankthestaffsofRiverBluffsRegionalLibrary,MidContinentLibrary,Johnson
CountyPublicLibrary,andKansasCityPublicLibraryfortheirforbearanceandunfailingcourtesy
with my endless reserves and interlibrary loans.
MythankstoBillOttandBooklistforpermissiontouse,inalteredform,someofthereviews
that first appeared in my column, “Christian Fiction.”
MythankstoBethanyHouseforpermissiontoquotefromRobertFunderburk’snovel,The
FiresofAutumn(1996);toWriter’sDigestBooks,forpermissiontoquotefromPenelopeStokes’s
The Complete Guide to Writing and Selling the Christian Novel (1998); to Ohio State University
Press,forpermissiontouseapassagefromtheintroductiontoRoyalRhodes’sTheLionandtheCross:
EarlyChristianityinVictorianNovels(1995);andtoScribner,forpermissiontoquotefromReed
Arvin’sThe Will(2000).
Mythanksalsotoallthepublisherswhohelped,andspecialthankstoJeanneMikkelson,Carol
Johnson,andDavidHortonatBethanyHouse;LydaHopeatHarvestHouse;BethThorntonatB&B
Media;RebeccaGermanyatBarbourPublishing;andRobbyNicholsatCovenantCommunications.
All Bible quotations are from the King James translation.
LibrariesUnlimitedisgratefultoNoveList(ofEBSCOPublishing)fortheirpermissionto
adapt and use images from their program throughout the Genreflecting Advisory Series.
viii
Introduction
ThisbookaimstodefinetheliterarygenreofChristianfictionforanyonewhoisinthebusiness
ofansweringquestionsaboutit:librarians,booksellers,home-schoolteachers,writers,andeditors.The
broadtraditionsofthefieldareexplored,andwhereitstandstodayisdescribed.Almost2,000titles,
classic and contemporary, are covered and in most cases annotated.
ChristianFictionisalsoaself-helpbookforthosereaderswhohatetoaskanythingofthe
librarian.
ChristianFictionisacollectiondevelopmenttool,enablingthelibrariantosearchoutgapsin
hercollectionoreveninstructingheronhowtobuilditfromthegroundup.Home-schoolandpublic
highschoolteacherscanusethechapteronyoungadultsandthedesignation toextendtheirreading
lists.Writerswantingtobreakintothefieldwillfindthedescriptionsofsubgenresandtheannota-
tionsinstructive,aswillbooksellersandpublisherswhoarepuzzledbythelibrarymarketorseeka
snapshotoftheirindustry.Finally,ChristianFictionprovidesinstantbibliographiesforchurchactivity
workers, teachers, and book group moderators.
ClassicsasdiverseasPilgrim’sProgressandBloodoftheMartyrsareplacedhistoricallyand
summarized.Classicsarenotalwaysinprint,buttheyremainavailableinmanylibraries,andarea
vital portion of the lingua franca shared by the writers and readers of Christian fiction.
Thisbook’semphasis,however,isonfictionfromthemid-1990sthroughthebeginningof
2002,includingalsotheearlierentriesofongoingseriesandcontemporaryclassicssuchasFrank
Peretti’sThisPresentDarkness.Titlesaresummarized,orseriesaresummarizedwheretheyencom-
pass many individual titles, as in the case of Gilbert Morris’s House of Winslow series.
Someiconoclasticoratleastcontroversialtitlesareincluded,withthefullrealizationthatthe
very mention of The Last Temptation of Christ causes some readers to see red. Others regard the
novel as a profoundly reverent work, illustrating that what the majority wants is never the whole
story, and that readers’ advisors should always be prepared with an alternative.
Like other titles in the Genreflecting series, this book is organized according to genres,
subgenres,andthemes,enablingreadersandthosewhoworkwiththemtoeasilyidentifyread-alikes
andgroupsoftitlesthatwillappealtoparticulartastes.Beyondthesegroupings,readers’advisors
should take note of the descriptions and designations within the annotations.
Forexample, indicatesevangelicaltitles,thatistosay,titlespublishedbymembersof
theEvangelicalChristianPublishersAssociation(ECPA)andbelongingtotheChristianBooksellers
Association(CBA).Suchtitlesareassuredofacertaintheologicalstance,butthedesignation’spractical
applicationisthatECPAandCBAsubscribetoapublishingcodethatexcludesprofanityorexplicit
sexuality.Thattherearemanyreadersdemandingsuchguaranteesisnottobedoubted.Considerthis
testimony from an anonymous amazon.com customer:
I recently started reading Christian fiction as I am so sick of the
filthinsecularreading.Thisstorymademesmileandcryandpraise
the lord all at the same time. It was beautifully written and the
characters all seemed alive to me. If more of our young people
wouldreadthesekindsofbooksmaybetheworldwouldnt[sic]be
going to hell the way it is!
Introduction
ix