A Christian novel is a Christian literary

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

which features

Christian media Christian media, sometimes referred to as inspirational, faith and family, or simply Christian, is a cross-media genre that features a Christian message or moral. Several creative studios and mass media formats are considered to be aspects of C ...

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

conventions.

The tradition of Christian fiction

Christian novels are works of imaginative literature drawing on Christian themes, theology, and social norms. The European Christian literary tradition dates back centuries, and draws on past Christian allegorical literature, such as

Dante Alighieri Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...

's ''

Divine Comedy The ''Divine Comedy'' ( it, Divina Commedia ) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun 1308 and completed in around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and ...

'' and

John Bunyan John Bunyan (; baptised 30 November 162831 August 1688) was an English writer and Puritan preacher best remembered as the author of the Christian allegory ''The Pilgrim's Progress,'' which also became an influential literary model. In addition ...

's ''

The Pilgrim's Progress ''The Pilgrim's Progress from This World, to That Which Is to Come'' is a 1678 Christian allegory written by John Bunyan. It is regarded as one of the most significant works of theological fiction in English literature and a progenitor of ...

'' and ''

The Holy War ''The Holy War Made by King Shaddai Upon Diabolus, to Regain the Metropolis of the World, Or, The Losing and Taking Again of the Town of Mansoul'' is a 1682 novel by John Bunyan. This early modern English novel, written in the form of an alleg ...

''. Twentieth century proponents of the Christian novel in English include

J.R.R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlins ...

, G. K. Chesterton,

C.S. Lewis CS, C-S, C.S., Cs, cs, or cs. may refer to: Job titles * Chief Secretary (Hong Kong) * Chief superintendent, a rank in the British and several other police forces * Company secretary, a senior position in a private sector company or public se ...

, and

Madeleine L'Engle Madeleine L'Engle DStJ (; November 29, 1918 – September 6, 2007) was an American writer of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and young adult fiction, including ''A Wrinkle in Time'' and its sequels: ''A Wind in the Door'', ''A Swiftly Tilting Plan ...

Aslan Aslan () is a major character in C. S. Lewis's ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' series. Unlike any other character, he appears in all seven chronicles of the series. Aslan is depicted as a talking lion, and is described as the King of Beasts, the ...

in Lewis' ''

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe ''The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'' is a fantasy novel for children by C. S. Lewis, published by Geoffrey Bles in 1950. It is the first published and best known of seven novels in ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' (1950–1956). Among all the ...

'' allegorically represents

Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, names and titles), was ...

, for example, while L'Engle's '' A Live Coal in the Sea'' explicitly references the medieval allegorical poem ''

Piers Plowman ''Piers Plowman'' (written 1370–86; possibly ) or ''Visio Willelmi de Petro Ploughman'' (''William's Vision of Piers Plowman'') is a Middle English allegorical narrative poem by William Langland. It is written in un-rhymed, alliterative v ...

''. Many novels with Christian themes also fall into specific mainstream fiction genres. For example,

's ''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's boo ...

'' is viewed as mainstream

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

, while Julian May's ''

Galactic Milieu Series The Galactic Milieu Series is a series of science fiction novels by Julian May. It is linked to her previously-published series, the '' Saga of Pliocene Exile''; and through the fantastical device of time-travel, acts as both a prequel and a s ...

'' is viewed as mainstream science fiction, in spite of the references to the work of Jesuit priest

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin Pierre Teilhard de Chardin ( (); 1 May 1881 – 10 April 1955) was a French Jesuit priest, scientist, paleontologist, theologian, philosopher and teacher. He was Darwinian in outlook and the author of several influential theological and philos ...

. Similarly, G. K. Chesterton's

Father Brown Father Brown is a fictional Roman Catholic priest and amateur detective who is featured in 53 short stories published between 1910 and 1936 written by English author G. K. Chesterton. Father Brown solves mysteries and crimes using his intuiti ...

stories are mainstream

detective fiction Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as s ...

, even though the main character is a Catholic priest

Modern American Christian novels

In the last few centuries the existence of a conservative Christian subculture, particularly in North America, has given rise to a specific genre of Christian novel. Books such as ''

Love Comes Softly ''Love Comes Softly'' is a 2003 made-for-television Christian drama film set in the 19th century, based on a series of books by Janette Oke. It originally aired on Hallmark Channel on April 13, 2003. It was directed by Michael Landon Jr., and st ...

'' by

Janette Oke Janette Oke (née Steeves; born February 18, 1935) (pronounced "oak") is a Canadian author of inspirational fiction. Her books are often set in a pioneer era and centered on female protagonists. Her first novel, ''Love Comes Softly'', was publish ...

(1979) and ''

This Present Darkness ''This Present Darkness'' is a Christian novel by suspense, horror, and fantasy author Frank E. Peretti. Published in 1986 by Crossway Books, ''This Present Darkness'' was Peretti's first published novel for adults and shows contemporary views o ...

'' by

Frank Peretti Frank Edward Peretti (born January 13, 1951) is a ''New York Times'' best-selling author of Christian fiction, whose novels primarily focus on the supernatural. , his works have sold over 15 million copies worldwide. He has been described by the ' ...

(1985), combining a specific brand of conservative Christian theology with a popular romance or thriller form, have gained approval in the subculture, just as in earlier times '' Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ'' helped make the novel acceptable to conservative religious people of the day. Publication of such Christian novels has increased greatly from this beginning, and excellence in the genre is now recognised by the

Christy Award The Christy Awards, established in 1999, are awarded each year to recognize fiction of excellence written from a Christian perspective with matters of faith at its core. Awards are given in several genres, including contemporary (stand-alone novel ...

s, although an article in ''Christianity Today'' recently argued that such use of popular forms risks "foisting on the world impoverished—even laughable—expressions of those genres." In North America, the Christian novel has evolved into a specific genre of its own, written explicitly by and for Christians of a particular type. Such a Christian novel does not have to involve an actual event or character in

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

history. A novel can be Christian in this sense merely because one of its characters either comes to a Christian understanding of God and of man's need for

salvation Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its c ...

from sin, or faces a

crisis A crisis ( : crises; : critical) is either any event or period that will (or might) lead to an unstable and dangerous situation affecting an individual, group, or all of society. Crises are negative changes in the human or environmental affair ...

of his or her faith. Nor does the plot need to turn on whether any given character is a Christian or not—although many Christian novels do have plots that explicitly reference

persecution Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another individual or group. The most common forms are religious persecution, racism, and political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these term ...

(in the past, the present, or the future), Bible history, or unfulfilled

prophecy In religion, a prophecy is a message that has been communicated to a person (typically called a ''prophet'') by a supernatural entity. Prophecies are a feature of many cultures and belief systems and usually contain divine will or law, or prete ...

(as in the immensely popular ''

Left Behind series ''Left Behind'' is a multimedia franchise that started with a series of 16 bestselling religious novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. It focuses on a seven-year conflict between the Tribulation Force, an underground network of converts, ...

''). Popular authors of Christian novels include

Francine Rivers Francine Sandra Rivers (born 1947) is an American author of fiction with Christian themes, including inspirational romance novels. Prior to becoming a born-again Christian in 1986, Rivers wrote historical romance novels. She is best known for ...

in the

romance Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings * Romance languages, ...

subgenre, and

Ted Dekker Ted Dekker (born October 24, 1962) is an American author of Christian fiction, Christian Mystery fiction, mystery, Thriller (genre), thriller, and fantasy novels including ''Thr3e'', ''Obsessed (novel), Obsessed'', and the ''Circle Series''. B ...

and

Robert Liparulo Robert Liparulo is a former American celebrity journalist and author. His publications include a short story featured in James Patterson's short story compilation, ''Thriller''. He was a contributing editor for the American Christian New Man ma ...

in the thriller/suspense subgenre. Other authors of Christian novels include

Karen Kingsbury Karen Kingsbury (born June 8, 1963) is an American Christian novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists ...

, Judith McCoy Miller, Kristena Mears,

Tracie Peterson Tracie Peterson (born 1959) is an author of Christian fiction. She writes many historical novels, with romantic threads in them, as well as writing with other Christian authors on joint novels. Many of her books are published by Bethany House. ...

, Bethany Kennedy Scanlon,

Tosca Lee Tosca Lee (born December 1, 1969) is a bestselling American author known for her historical novels and thrillers. Biography Lee was born in Roanoke, Virginia, United States to a Korean father and Euro-American mother. Her father, Professor Emerit ...

and

Robert Whitlow Robert Whitlow is a film-maker and a best-selling author of fifteen legal thrillers. He is also a contributor to a short story ''The Rescuers'', a story included in the book ''What The Wind Picked Up'' by The ChiLibris Ring. In 2001, he won th ...

. Some authors of Christian novels have received a mixed reception within the conservative Christian community.

William P. Young William Paul Young (born May 11, 1955), referred to as Wm. Paul Young or simply Paul Young, is a Canadian author. He wrote the novels '' The Shack'', '' Cross Roads'', ''Eve'', and the religious book ''Lies We Believe About God''. Early life Y ...

's best-selling theological novel '' The Shack'', for example, was strongly criticised by some reviewers. Deborah Bryan of the Kansas Library Association suggests that this genre of books typically promotes values, teaches a lesson, always has a happy ending (good prevails over evil in all books), adheres to a decency code (certain boundaries such as sexuality, strong language, and topics of such cannot be crossed), and that Christian fiction is created for defined boundaries within a particular community. She also notes that a Christian fiction writer must comply with certain restraints such as: #Accept the truthful authority of the Bible #Address dilemmas through faith in Jesus #Believe that Jesus died and rose for sins of all people #Avoid writing about certain “taboos” Publishers of Christian novels include B&H Publishing Group,

Baker Publishing Group Baker Publishing Group is a Christian book publisher that discusses historic Christian happenings for its evangelical readers. It is based in Ada, Michigan and has six subdivisions: namely Bethany House, Revell, Baker Books, Baker Academic, Chos ...

(whose imprints include Baker Academic, Baker Books,

Bethany House Bethany House Publishers is a publisher that publishes Christian fiction and non-fiction books. Bethany House Publishers was bought in 2003 by Baker Publishing Group. Bethany House publishes both historical and contemporary fiction. Historica ...

, Brazos Press, Chosen, and Revell), Bridge-Logos Foundation, David C. Cook,

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...

Christian ( Thomas Nelson) and

Zondervan Zondervan is an international Christian media and publishing company located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Zondervan is a founding member of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA). They are a part of HarperCollins Christian Publ ...

Harvest House Harvest House Publishers is a Christian publishing company founded in 1974 in Irvine, California, United States, and is now located in Eugene, Oregon. It publishes Christian fiction and non-fiction books, coming out with over 160 new books a y ...

, Howard Publishing (a division of

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...

Kregel Publications Kregel Publications is an Evangelical Christian book publisher based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It has three subdivisions: ''Kregel Publications'', ''Editorial Portavoz'' and ''Kregel Parable Bookstore''. History The company was founded in 1909, ...

Tyndale House Tyndale House is a Christian publisher in Carol Stream, Illinois. History Tyndale was founded in 1962 by Kenneth N. Taylor in order to publish his paraphrase of the Epistles, which he had composed while commuting to work at Moody Press in C ...

, and Waterbrook Press (a division of

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

). Such novels are today marketed world-wide through Christian bookstores and online distributors, such as ChristianBook.com and Amazon.com, respectively.

Urban Christian fiction

Urban Christian fiction is a genre in which conflicting stories of emotion and vividness mixes God, the urban church, and faith. Violence and sex is not purposely excluded, but are included whenever necessary for the story line. God is the center of the characters lives in Urban Christian Fiction and these stories usually portray African-American or Latino urban culture. Urban Christian publishing company publishes urban Christian books along with other subdivisions of urban Christian which includes urban renaissance and urban soul. Some best-selling authors in this genre for 2012 are Kimberla Lawson Roby, Victoria Christopher Murray, Tony Dungy, Lutishia Lovely, Neta Jackson, Keyon C. Polite, Serita Jakes (

Bishop T.D. Jakes Thomas Dexter Jakes (born June 9, 1957), known as T. D. Jakes, is an American bishop, author and filmmaker. He is the bishop of The Potter's House, a non-denominational American megachurch. Jakes's church services and Evangelistic sermons are b ...

' wife), and ReShonda Tate Billingsley. Some book titles and authors of urban Christian fiction are: ''Married Strangers'' by Dwan Abrams, ''Sheena's Dream'' by Marilyn Mayo Anderson, '' First Comes Love'' by Shana Johnson Burton, '' Count It All Joy'' by Ashea Goldson, ''Secrets and Lies'' by Rhonda McKnight,

Til Debt Do Us Part ''Til Debt Do Us Part'' (also stylized as Til Debt Do U$ Part'') is a Canadian television series produced by Frantic Films for Slice in Canada, Zone Reality in the United Kingdom and CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Busines ...

'' by Michelle Larks, and ''Soul Confessions'' by Monique Miller.Hennepin County Library, "Bookspace," (accessed 14 May 2013) Some best-selling authors in this genre for 2015 are Jonathan Cahn, (

),William Paul Young, (

Sarah Price (author) Sarah Price is a Christian fiction novelist and adult and children's author of over 40 books. Much of her writing focuses on the Anabaptist heritage and the Old Order Amish. Her paternal grandparents, Sarah Marie Alderfer and Harlan Nice, were ...

), and Francine Rivers. A Christian urban title that ventures into the Young Adult/SuperHero genre is "In the Shadows of Myrmidons" by B. Lloyd Reese and Nicholas J. Rzepczynski. Urban Christian fiction is classified as part of the African-American Christian Market (AACM), where the hot-selling topics are fiction, books for dating, dramatic testimony, and single parenting. Prominent pastors of megachurches and leaders of powerful ministries contributes largely to AACM.

is one publisher to make an authentic impact in publishing African-American authors of Christian fiction and religious materials.

References

External links

Home of the Christy Awards
{{DEFAULTSORT:Novel Christian literary genres

The tradition of Christian fiction

Modern American Christian novels

Urban Christian fiction

See also

References

External links