Why Christians Should Read Fiction

If you were to drive to the mall and visit the bookstore, you would see that all of the books are neatly arranged on shelves and tables and organized by different genres. You would see a literature section, featuring collections of classic novels; you would see a poetry section, containing slim volumes of unassuming poems; you would see a history section, overflowing with thick stacks of biographies of renowned men and women; and of course, in most bookstores, you would eventually see a section with the rather simple heading of Christian. 

In the Christian section of the bookstore, you would find a myriad of titles by a multitude of different authors. One minute, you could be thumbing through a book called Walking With God Through Pain and Suffering by Tim Keller; the next minute, you might find yourself perusing a copy of Your Best Life Now by Joel Osteen; and then, to top it all off, you may find yourself taking a cursory glance at a paperback entitled The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell. 

It would seem that the range of what’s considered “Christian” in the publishing world is quite wide; as long as a book has something even vaguely to do with God and our relationship to/with him, it’s Christian. Naturally then, you’ll find a number of profoundly helpful (and a number of utterly dreadful) books in the Christian section of your local bookstore, covering almost every topic imaginable.

But tragically, there is one vital thing that is completely missing from the Christian section of most American bookstores - something that most of us, perhaps, wouldn’t normally think to give a second thought.

Good fiction.

WHAT IS USEFUL?

Perhaps one of the key reasons we don’t often find well-written fiction in the Christian section is because we don’t see the practical value of it. 

I’m already busy enough as it is, so if I’m going to take the time to read at all, I want to read something that will be “useful,” we think to ourselves. 

And oftentimes what we deem “useful” is, sadly, anything but fiction: books on theology, or self-improvement, or leadership, or history, or some other such thing. Not that any of these are bad for us to read - far from it! But our lives are at risk of becoming gray and pallid if that is all that we read. Fiction can provide a much needed splash of color and brightness to a monochrome heart. Here are at least two reasons to consider adding some works of fiction to the stack of books sitting on your nightstand.

GOOD FICTION CAN PUT COLD, ACADEMIC TRUTHS INTO FLESH AND BLOOD SCENARIOS

Most of the books that bear the label of Christian are propositional in nature - that is, they present big ideas that are bolstered by various arguments and statements. For example, say you picked up a book that had this basic premise: human beings are inherently valuable because they are made in the image of God. For the remainder of that book, the author might utilize various arguments from Scripture and life to try and convince you that their basic premise is true: all people are indeed valuable because they are made in the image of God. 

These kinds of propositional books are essential and necessary, but if we subsist solely on propositional books, we are in danger of starving our souls. Propositional truths can give our lives a certain skeletal structure - but all by themselves, they often fail to provide the flesh and blood necessary to make the skeleton more than just an anatomical science display. Good fiction can put a beating heart into the cold skeleton of true propositions.

Consider the novel Silence, by Shusaku Endo. In this phenomenal book, two Jesuit missionaries travel to Japan in order to find their mentor, who has allegedly abandoned the faith due to the harsh persecution of the Japanese in the 1600s. As the story progresses, cold propositions are thrown into the wild world to be lived out in all their untold complexities. For instance, most Christians are familiar with this propositional verse: “whoever denies [Christ] before men, [Christ] also will deny before [the] Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:33, ESV). It sounds simple and straightforward enough: don’t deny Christ, no matter the cost. But what happens when other people are persecuted because you refuse to deny Christ? That’s exactly what happens in Silence, and it provides a whole new framework for seeing and feeling the weight of truths like those found in Matthew 10:33.

Or ponder the fact that Jesus himself told fictional tales - called parables - to put breath and life into the abstract principles of the faith. The Parable of the Good Samaritan is the prime example of this. Rather than take up “useful” time sharing a story, Jesus could have simply said, “Love your neighbor as yourself. And by the way, technically everyone is your neighbor; even the person you don’t much care for.” That is a very true statement. But when that proposition is put into the context of The Parable of the Good Samaritan, it is animated and realized in unexpected and delightful ways.  

GOOD FICTION CAN SHARPEN OUR IMAGINATIONS

When I was around six or seven years old, my mother would gather me and my younger siblings into the living room, where we would all scrunch closely together as she read aloud to us from C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia. Those wonderful books were my first real exposure to the world of fantasy - a world where wardrobes became portals to mystical lands, where animals could really talk, and where evil witches and monsters were slain by a good and mighty lion. As a child, those books were a feast for my imagination. To paraphrase G.K. Chesterton, I needed to be told not only that evil witches and monsters exist, but that they can be defeated. Chronicles did that for me.

Now, at 24 years old, I need my imagination more sharpened than ever before - and I imagine that you do, too. Our hearts so easily become dull and lethargic in the haze of day-to-day living. We aren’t prone to feel wonder and awe. We begin to doubt that there’s anything beyond what we can see with our eyes. We stop believing that the world’s monsters can be defeated. And that seems to be, in part, because our imaginations are on their deathbed. One of the best ways for us to reinvigorate our imaginations (and thus, reinvigorate our joy and wonder and hope in Christ) is to immerse ourselves in the fantastical work of fiction. 

It would be one thing if, on a day when you were feeling particularly discouraged, I simply reminded you of glorious truths like these: 

• There is an unseen reality at work in creation, and we are engaged in a war that has been raging in that unseen reality for millenia (Ephesians 6:12).
• The Spirit of God is at work in the most surprising places, always on the move for our ultimate good (Romans 8:28). 
• All that we’ve lost in this life will be found, restored to us a hundred times over (Mark 10:29-30).

But it would be another thing entirely for the eyes of your heart to witness the dazzling beauty of these truths played out in the story arc of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, or Frederick Buechner’s Godric. Stories like these don’t just tell you what is true; they show you. Stories like these open the door to let your heart stroll once again through the bright fields of imagination, and it is in those fields that the seeds of truth often take deepest root.

I hope, for the sake of your joy and hope in Christ, you will pick up and read more fiction. I hope that you will come and join in a feast of literary wonder with me.