Blog: My Views on Fantasy Have Changed.

It’s been a hot minute since I last talked about the books I’ve written and my plans on publishing them. Part of that is since I haven’t been great on working on them consistently, but another part of it is that as I’ve gotten older and became a Christian, I’ve been finding my views on fantasy changing. That isn’t to say that I hate fantasy now or that I’m now one of those Christians who thinks that if you read Harry Potter then you’re going to hell. Rather, I’m trying to figure out how to put Christianity in my fantasy stories.

When I first started on my writing journey, I was not a Christian. I considered myself a sort of deist, but because of how unhealthily obsessed I was with the Percy Jackson books and spinoff series, my parents were worried that I was drifting towards outright paganism. In hindsight, they had good reason to be concerned. My obsession with world myths – Greco-Roman myths in particular – definitely had me going in that direction and my writing reflected that. The world I created was ruled by different gods and goddesses in the pantheons I was interested in, and the main characters were demigods or, as Rick Riordan called them, legacies (grandkids of gods.)

Because of that, the early books were greatly influenced by those myths, filled with gods, monsters, and magic. However, as I grew up, the books grew up with me, and the worldview started to shift. I wanted to make it more Christian, while still keeping it fairly consistent with the other books. By book four, I decided to include a group of humans in my world who worshipped one God. Influenced by Tolkien while also wanting it to stay consistent with my other characters belief systems, I added in that they also worship or venerate other little-g gods who work sort-of like angels and that when the characters die, they may be included in those ranks.

The issue with this, though, was that at best, it was reminiscent of Catholicism or maybe Eastern Orthodoxy, of which I am not a part and do not endorse. At worst, it felt like a weird mix of that and Mormonism.

This has now proved to be a dilemma for me since for one thing, the belief systems I invented for that world don’t jive with my actual beliefs, especially when it comes to what I wrote as a younger teen. For another thing, after going to a few New Age expos and looking into some New Age festivals, I’ve come to realize that an unfortunate number of people never seem to leave their favorite fantasy novels, movies, or games. They literally try to become one with it and more often than not, it leads them into the occult.

While some of this can’t be avoided since there will always be some people who don’t want to be snapped back to reality, I am now wondering if including magic systems and stuff is good in fantasy, especially Christian fantasy.

Can magic be useful in fantasy? Sure, it can be a useful plot device. But when writing fantasy, especially if you want to put in a Christian bent, should we really be doing that? Is there a better way of going about things? Can we replace magic with something else that God doesn’t outright condemn? After all, it could easily prove as a stumbling block for many people, even if it’s painfully obvious that you’re trying to write a Christian story. Just as an example of that, look at Tolkien’s work. Sure, it might not have been super obvious that it’s a Christian story, but many people have taken Lord of the Rings and incorporated it into whatever New Age occult stuff they’re into, partially because of the magic that is present in the books.

At this point, my possibly-subject-to-change stance on magic in Christian fantasy (or fantasy written by Christians) is that it should be avoided. Does that mean we can’t read books with magic or other gods in it? No, but read with discernment and don’t put that stuff in your own books. Which means I have a ton of rewriting to do…

Until next time,

M.J.