Once upon a time, a long but not too long ago, there lived three men who wrote fantasy stories. These three writers went onto become quite popular and - perhaps intriguing of all - identified themselves as being Christian.
Is Christianity and imagination compatible? Can religion and literature mix? If you have ever pondered these questions, as I have, THE FANTASY MAKERS makes a case for the affirmative.
Personally, however, I have my doubts about whether fantastic storytelling - tales that center around magic, sorcerers, witches, and fauns - have their place within the Christian worldview, even if only fictionally. (Does this not border on interfaith?) It would seem to me that fictional characters such as these, those normally associated with paganism, would have no place, even in a favorable sense, within Christian literature.
Never-minding what Freud believed of phantasy, I'm in agreement with those who view the importance of imagination as a fundamental aspect of not just a child's but an adult's life as well. Not all stories have to be grounded in reality and keep to the known laws of physics.
Incidentally, two of my favorite movies are of the Fantasy genre: "Clash Of The Titans" (1981) and "Merlin" (1998).
The genre of Fantasy has its talking lions. The Bible has its talking donkey. Perhaps there is not much of a difference between the two, other than that the latter is considered to be a part of what is thought to be divinely inspired scripture.
George Macdonald. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. Clive Staples Lewis. They're the subject of this fascinating documentary, which examines something I have always grappled with intellectually: regarding what role, if any, imagination plays within a religiously devout lifestyle.
We learn of how fantasy stories had at one time flourished back during the otherwise staid Victorian period; of how Tolkien was said to be a Catholic, and Lewis an Anglican. These were literary types who thought that by their creative writing they were enriching their Christian faith and quite possibly making it accessible or palatable to either the fantasy-prone or to those who would never pick up a Bible.
Still, I wonder how many people have been led to Christ by the reading of fairy tales?
Some Christian theologians might even argue that these authors went beyond what is written in Holy Writ, in their penning of elaborate and escapist narratives to explain the biblical concepts of there existing a spiritual battle between Good and Evil in the cosmos. Macdonald, as it is noted here, rejected the teaching of eternal judgment in favor of what is termed universalism.
Then again, some have interpreted Christ as having been more of a magician than anything else. And certainly the Book of Revelation reads like the ravings of a master fantasy teller. A book, by the way, that features a dragon to end all dragons.
Is Christianity and imagination compatible? Can religion and literature mix? If you have ever pondered these questions, as I have, THE FANTASY MAKERS makes a case for the affirmative.
Personally, however, I have my doubts about whether fantastic storytelling - tales that center around magic, sorcerers, witches, and fauns - have their place within the Christian worldview, even if only fictionally. (Does this not border on interfaith?) It would seem to me that fictional characters such as these, those normally associated with paganism, would have no place, even in a favorable sense, within Christian literature.
Never-minding what Freud believed of phantasy, I'm in agreement with those who view the importance of imagination as a fundamental aspect of not just a child's but an adult's life as well. Not all stories have to be grounded in reality and keep to the known laws of physics.
Incidentally, two of my favorite movies are of the Fantasy genre: "Clash Of The Titans" (1981) and "Merlin" (1998).
The genre of Fantasy has its talking lions. The Bible has its talking donkey. Perhaps there is not much of a difference between the two, other than that the latter is considered to be a part of what is thought to be divinely inspired scripture.
George Macdonald. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. Clive Staples Lewis. They're the subject of this fascinating documentary, which examines something I have always grappled with intellectually: regarding what role, if any, imagination plays within a religiously devout lifestyle.
We learn of how fantasy stories had at one time flourished back during the otherwise staid Victorian period; of how Tolkien was said to be a Catholic, and Lewis an Anglican. These were literary types who thought that by their creative writing they were enriching their Christian faith and quite possibly making it accessible or palatable to either the fantasy-prone or to those who would never pick up a Bible.
Still, I wonder how many people have been led to Christ by the reading of fairy tales?
Some Christian theologians might even argue that these authors went beyond what is written in Holy Writ, in their penning of elaborate and escapist narratives to explain the biblical concepts of there existing a spiritual battle between Good and Evil in the cosmos. Macdonald, as it is noted here, rejected the teaching of eternal judgment in favor of what is termed universalism.
Then again, some have interpreted Christ as having been more of a magician than anything else. And certainly the Book of Revelation reads like the ravings of a master fantasy teller. A book, by the way, that features a dragon to end all dragons.
