The Sword Review-The History of Christian Fantasy

The History of Christian Fantasy

Rebecca Shelley

With the release of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and now Narnia in the movie theaters, a lot of controversy has risen about the Christian fantasy genre. What are its roots? Why do we love it? Here is the truth about the genre.

Editorial
Fantasy

    The history of Western literature is the history of Christian fantasy.

    One of the earliest pieces of English literature is Beowulf, thought to have been composed in the first half of the eighth century.

    It's an old tale that talks about a time following the initial invasion of England by Germanic tribes in 449 A.D.  We don't know exactly when the story was first told, but it is thought that the poet who put the old story into writing in its present known form was Christian.

    We see in this heroic story, an overlay of Christian beliefs and morals. Beowulf has all the key ingredients of a Christian fantasy.

    I have to pause here and define fantasy in general, and Christian fantasy in particular.

     What makes fantasy?

    One definition of fantasy is a fictional story in which a fantastic or supernatural element, "magic" is a main focus of the story.

    The second thing we need for a fantasy is conflict.  Usually some threatening evil (man, nature, devil, monster, whatever). There is a problem that must be solved.

    Which brings us to the hero.  Fantasy must have a hero who faces the threatening evil, and through his own strength, cunning, or virtue defeats it in the end.

    This is fantasy in a nutshell: magic + evil threat + conquering hero = fantasy

    Okay, that's very simplistic, but it's an easy formula that we can use to discuss the history of Christian fantasy.

    So what makes a fantasy Christian?

    To keep things simple, I'll just say Christian fantasy, is a fantasy that is expressed with Christian morality at its base.

    Some Christian fantasy teaches a lesson, but not always.  Always a Christian fantasy affirms a Christian worldview, though.  That's a bold saying, because the diversity of Christian worldview is as wide as each individual Christian.  I think this is a good thing, because it gives writers endless possibilities.

    So how about Beowulf?  In Beowulf, the huge, horrible, unstoppable giant, Grendel, is plundering and killing Heorot, the main gathering and sleeping place of a certain Germanic tribe. Grendel is both the magic element and the evil threat.  Beowulf is the hero who battles and defeats Grendel.

    The fact that Beowulf is overlaid with Christian morality is obvious from the third paragraph on:

"Afterwards a son was born to him, a young boy in his house, whom God sent to comfort the people: he had seen the sore need they had suffered during the long time they lacked a king. Therefore the Lord of Life, the Ruler of Heaven, gave him honor in the world: Beow was famous, the glory of the son of Scyld spread widely in the northlands." (based on F. Klaeber's 3rd ed. of the poem)

    Another early Christian fantasy was The Song of Roland, C. 1100 A.D.

    Very little "magic" seems to be present in this epic poem, but there are a few things.  For instance, Charlemagne is thought by his enemies to be two hundred years old, and he believes God has called him to the crusades he has undertaken.  The element of the Divine is, in this case, not only what makes the story Christian, but is also the main element of magic.

    Roland's threatening evil is the Saracens.

    But Roland is not the story's conquering hero.  This story has a moral lesson.  Because of Roland's pride, his army is defeated and he is killed.  It is Charlemagne who conquers in the end, defeating the Saracens and destroying Roland's betrayer.

    Let's move along to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, ca. 1375-1400.  The setting is Camelot, a magical place without a doubt.  King Arthur and his knights are in the middle of a celebration when the evil threat arrives in court--a green knight who challenges someone to chop off his head and then he'll return the favor.  Sir Gawain takes up the challenge.  In the end, not only is Sir Gawain's courage tested, but also his integrity.  Sir Gawain is tested three times and succeeds the first two but fails the third.  Because of his contrition he is saved by Grace.  Therefore, the evil that Gawain finds and conquers in the end is the evil in his own soul.  He is the repentant sinner who goes on to be a better man.  Gawain's tests, failures, and contrition are some of the most poignant Christian fantasy I've ever read.

    How about Everyman (1485)?  This is great Christian allegory with a hint of Divine magic.  I'd call it Christian fantasy.

    Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene (~1589) is one of my all-time favorite Christian fantasies.  Everyone should read this one.  There's too much to tell for the scope of this article.

    The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe.

    I need only flip through my English literature textbook, and story after story is Christian fantasy:

    Milton, Paradise Lost.

    Dante's Divine Comedy.

    Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales.

    From this search of early literature we see that Christian fantasy existed long before Tolkien and C.S. Lewis ever came along.  Furthermore, for hundreds of years, it was one of the main forms of Western literature.  Why?

    Because fantasy, of all the genres, has a way of dealing with the Divine.  It can tell an exciting and interesting story that brings to light Christian principles without preaching.  It is a powerful form of literature.  Those who sneer at fantasy now do not understand the roots of our own literary culture.

    Dare I go one step further?

    Before Tolkien and Lewis, even before Beowulf there was The Bible.  When I say The Bible is Christian fantasy, I don't mean fantasy, as in make-believe, I mean fantasy as a literary form according to the formula offered above:

        magic + evil threat + conquering hero = fantasy.

    Of course The Bible is not make-believe!  It is, however, the first and great Christian fantasy, a grand epic from which all other Christian fantasy derives. The Bible is the basis for the Christian worldview, after all.

    How does The Bible fit the formula?  "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."(Genesis 1:1)

    Magic, Divine power.  In fact, the whole book is about the Divine power interacting with mankind.

    After the creation, God places Adam and Eve into the Garden of Eden and lo and behold what happens?  An evil threat.  The serpent shows up, convinces Eve to eat the fruit of The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and whammo, the world is filled with threatening evil.

    Story after story in The Bible depicts the hero's battle against evil.  Those who seek God and obey his commandments are granted "magic" (miraculous) power to defeat the evil of the devil and his minions.  But time and time again our human heroes win for a time, then get proud and forget God, and are lost.

    Even David, who defeated Goliath and became a great king, falls to evil in the case of Bath-sheba.  It's a heartbreaking story.  His lust overcomes him and he commits murder to justify his scandalous action.  Where then is the conquering hero in this grand epic?

    There must be one.  Mankind is fallen and can't redeem itself.

    Of course there is a hero.  "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord." (St Luke 1:11)

    Jesus Christ comes to earth, faces the threatening evil, and defeats it.  He atones for all of mankind's failings so that mankind can come back into God's presence.  He dies and is resurrected, shattering death itself so all mankind can be resurrected in time.

    The Bible is a grand epic battle between good and evil, fought from the lowliest person, a simple shepherd boy, to the greatest of all, God himself.  This book is the greatest Christian fantasy ever recorded--that is to say, the greatest example of a Hero overcoming evil, in this case, with Divine power.

    Furthermore, all other Western fiction written in the classic form is derived from it.

    Anyone who's ever taken a literature or writing class has probably seen the story outline diagramed as a line of rising action that peaks at the climax and then drops down a bit and levels of for the resolution.  This is the story arc The Bible gives us.

    The great story of the fall and the atonement is so deeply ingrained in Western culture, because of The Bible and the Christian religion stemming from it, that our accepted and expected fiction form mirrors the biblical writings.

    This then is the proud heritage of Christian fantasy.  It has been lost and forgotten for too long.  Until now, when it finally looks like it might come back into the mainstream Christian awareness, ironically, via movies.  That doesn't bother me.  I like good movies, and if it leads people back to good books and stories, all the better.  I see a bright future ahead for this genre.

(This writing originally appeared in the author's blog in the DKA Magazine forums December 15th and 21st 2005.)

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