The
Church Library Online
Surveys
Popular Christian Fiction
Evelyn E. Smith
M.S. in Library Science, University of North Texas (2012)
Ph. D. in English
(Contemporary & 19th-century Fiction & Rhetoric),
Texas Christian University (1995)
M.S. in Library Science, University of North Texas (2012)
Ph. D. in English
(Contemporary & 19th-century Fiction & Rhetoric),
Texas Christian University (1995)
While some readers might find the
thought of settling back with a Christian novel off-putting, that
doesn't necessarily mean that they must brace themselves for a
didactic, simplistic, or smugly moralizing narrative. Moreover,
although apocalyptic novels like Tim La Haye and Jerry B. Jenkins
Left Behind series are what many readers think of when they
hear the words “Christian fiction”, authors of Christian fiction
include not only evangelical writers, but also mainline Protestant,
Roman Catholic, and Jewish novelists.
Browsers looking for religious
fiction also won't find this category of books shelved separately at
their local public library like Western fiction and Science Fiction
are, for like the romance, mystery, or adventure novel, Christian
fiction falls under the general categories of either Adult Fiction or
Young Adult Fiction. Even here, the lines of various sub-genres blur
since individual Christian novels might also be classed as examples
of historical fiction, science fiction, western, or romance. That
means that Christian novels are almost as varied as all fiction is. Accordingly, this sampling of popular Christian fiction reviewed below shows how diverse Christian fiction can be. For a more detailed view of Christian fiction turn to the 6th edition of Diana Tixier Herald's Genreflecting: A Guide to Popular Reading Interests (2006).
Adult
Christian Fiction
Caldwell, Taylor. (1958).
Dear and Glorious Physician. Reprint 2008. San Francisco:
Ignatus Press. Available in English, Dutch, Portuguese, and Spanish language additions. No e-book available.
Literary Genre: Christian fiction and historical fiction.
Literary Genre: Christian fiction and historical fiction.
Taylor Caldwell builds her epic novel
on St. Luke around only a few known facts: 1) Based on a reading of
Colossians 10:14, Luke was most probably a Gentile and a Greek; 2)
textual evidence indicates the physician wasn't an eyewitness to the
ministry of Jesus; 3) Eusebius (260/265--339/340 CE), an early
Christian historian, has noted that Luke was born in Antioch in
Syria. Thus, Caldwell must fill in the blanks, turning Luke into the
freeborn, adopted son of a Roman general and a graduate of the
medical school at Alexandria. Along the way, the fictional Luke
meets up with many historical figures that prepare him for accepting
Jesus as the savior of both Jews and Greeks.
 |
| Guido Reni's St. Luke (1621) |
Dear and Glorious Physician. (2014). Amazon.com. Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/Dear-Glorious-Physician-Novel-about/dp/1586172301
Amazon reviewers
give Dear and Glorious Physician a 4.7 out of 5, calling it
sweeping, a masterpiece, and a great period narrative.
Dear and Glorious Physician. (2014).
Bookrags.com. Retrieved from
The Bookrags
review links Caldwell's interest in medicine and the occult since
Lucanius at first doesn't realize that his healing powers come God.
Dear and Glorious Physician.
(2014). Goodreads. Retrieved from
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59097.Dear_and_Glorious_Physician
Goodreads reviews give
Caldwell's fictionalized biography of St. Luke a 4.25 rating out of
5, even though this historical novel is more fiction than fact, and
many of its passages qualify as “purple prose”.
Dear and Glorious Physician.
(2012). Google Books. Retrieved from
http://books.google.com/books/about/Dear_and_Glorious_Physician.html?id=4S47PtmjTZwC
Google readers praise Dear and
Glorious Physician's character development, research, and
imagery, but alas some also find this panoramic novel particularly
“verbose”.
Diamant, Anita. (1997).
The Red Tent: A Novel. New York: St. Martin's Press. English, Hebrew, and Slovenian language editions available. Literary genre: Christian and Jewish fiction, historical fiction, and Chick Lit.
Anita Diamant's creative retelling of
the 34th chapter of Genesis, depending upon the reader's point-of-view, is either the romance of Dinah and Shalem or the rape of Dinah. This literary epic reveals the untold story of the Bible's matriarchs, whose lives center around
childbearing and fertility cults.
 |
| Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Rachel and Leah (1855) |
Genesis 34. Dinah and the Shechemites. (n. d.). Bible Gateway. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+34&version=NIV
Notes for reading The Red Tent by Anita Diament. (n. d.). Allen & Unwin. Retrieved from http://www.allenandunwin.com/_uploads/BookPdf/ReadingGroupGuide/9781864486797.pdf
pp. 1-10.
Allen & Unwin's reading guide
provides book reviews as well as questions for book club discussions.
The Red Tent. (2014).
Goodreads. Retrieved from
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4989.The_Red_Tent#other_reviews
Told in the marginalized voice of the
only daughter of Jacob mentioned in Genesis, this midrash, or
rabbinic exegesis, reveals that sisterhood is powerful if not
historically accurate.
The Red Tent. (2014). Spark
Notes. Retrieved from http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/redtent/
Spark Notes ushers Diament's The
Red Tent into the literary canon by providing the reader with the
novel's context, plot summary, and character list as well as an
analysis of its major characters, themes, motifs and symbols, and
analysis.
Rothman, Avram. (2014). The Red
Tent: If You Knew Dina Like I Knew Dina. Aish.com.
Retrieved from http://www.aish.com/ci/a/48931452.html
Rabbi Avram Rothman severely criticizes
The Red Tent for its lack of historical accuracy as well as
for its imposition of post-modern values on the wives and daughter of
Jacob, who unlike Virginia Woolf, have a tent rather than a room of
their own as well as their own pantheon of gods.
Stuart, Mary B. (2003). The Red
Tent. Curled Up. Retrieved from
http://www.curledup.com/redtent.htm
The Red Tent “details” the
“imagined lives” of Leah and Rachel as well as Dinah, Leah and
Jacob's daughter, in the red tent where they are segregated
during their menses and after childbirth. Although the major female
characters are midwives, Stuart argues that Diament gives too much
attention to the graphic detail surrounding the birth process. Even
so, she views the story of Shalem and Dinah as a “compelling Romeo
and Juliet story”.
Turnanov, Vladimir. (2007, December).
Dinah's Rage: The retelling of Genesis 34 in Anita Diament's The
Red Tent and Thomas Mann's Joseph and His Brothers. Canadian
Review of Comparative Literature. 34(4): 375-388.
Retrieved from
http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/crcl/index
Diament undermines the main premise of
Genesis 34 as her novel turns the rape of Dinah into mutually consensual behavior, thus transforming
Dinah's brothers and father into savage brutes rather than defenders
of the family's honor, and her lover, Shalem, into a more sensitive
lover than any Iron Age prince would most probably be.
------. (2007, June). Yahweh vs. the
Teraphim: Jacob's pagan wives in Thomas Mann's Joseph and His
Brothers and in Anita Diamant's The Red Tent. Nebula:
A Jounrnal of Multidisciplinary Scholarship. 4(2): 139-151.
Retrieved from
Peretti, Frank E. (1986).
This Present Darkness. Westchester, Illinois: Crossway Books. English and Spanish language editions available. No e-book available. Literary genre: Christian fiction, suspense, and fantasy.
As evangelical Christians simultaneously confront the sexual revolution and New Age mysticism, Peretti's This Present Danger promotes the value of engaging in spiritual warfare as a member of a Christian family, congregation, and community.
Dager, Albert James. (1992). This
Present Darkness: Spiritual warfare—fact or fantasy. Media
Spotlight. Retrieved from
http://www.mediaspotlight.org/pdfs/ThisPresentDarkness.pdf
The “suspense tempered with humor”
found in This Present Danger has given this fantasy novel cult
status (Dager, 1992, para. 2-3). Dager nevertheless warns that if
readers see this allegory as an accurate depiction of spiritual
warfare, real harm might result (Dager, 1992, para. 5). Although
Ephesians 6:10-12 groups satanic forces into principalities and
powers, the New Testament gives no evidence that they fight among
themselves (Dager, 1992, para 9). Furthermore, prayer is only a
powerful weapon of spiritual warfare if it's coupled with the study
of scripture (Dager, 1992, para. 15-16).
Gribben,
Ireland Crawford. (2009). Prophecy fiction and evangelical
political re-engagement. Writing
the Rapture: Prophecy Fiction in Evangelical America.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp 107-119. Retrieved from
http://books.google.com/books?id=feMOPumxz-IC&dq=This+Present+Danger+AND+Peretti&lr=&source=gbs_navlinks_s
This Present Darkness has
earned an Assembly of God pastor
turned carpenter the sobriquet as the “Stephen King of evangelical
culture” and made it one of the top-selling Christian novels.
Interestingly enough, Peretti also manages to combine apocalyptic and
confrontational themes without once mentioning the rapture.
Howard, Jay R.
(2004, March 5). Vilifying the enemy: The Christian right and the
novels of Frank Peretti. The Journal of Popular Culture,
28(3): 193-206. Retrieved from
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.0022-3840.1994.2803_193.x/abstract
In
This Present Darkness (1986) and
its sequel, Piercing the Darkness (1988),
Peretti intermingles a world inhabited by avenging angels and demons
with present-day reality, thus providing believers either prayer
cover or else tempting them (Howard, 2004, March 5, p. 193).
This Present Darkness. (2014).
Goodreads. Retrieved from
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17309.This_Present_Darkness
Peretti merges horror with a treatise
on prayer as an evangelical pastor and a newspaper editor get caught
up in a New Age plot to bring the New World Order to a small, college
town. Factions within the town are backed by the heavenly hosts or
else by demons as Peretti vilifies Eastern mysticism, the occult,
psychology, and humanism. Readers who enjoy C. S. Lewis'
Screwtape Letters and Stephen King's suspense novels will find
it an enjoyable, fast-paced read. Accordingly, Goodreads reviewers
gave it a 4.21 rating.
Wingate, Lisa. (2013). The Prayer Box. Carol Stream, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Published only in English. Large Print and e-book editions available. Literary genre: Christian fiction and Chick Lit.
Wingate, Lisa. (2013). The Prayer Box. Carol Stream, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Published only in English. Large Print and e-book editions available. Literary genre: Christian fiction and Chick Lit.
An elderly woman's wisdom serves
as a guidepost for a younger woman as a lifetime of prayer, written
out and placed in 81 prayer boxes, reveals a life of thoughtful
self-sacrifice in the face of adversity and discrimination.
Book review: The Prayer Box. (2013, July 23). By the Book. Word Press. Retrieved from http://rbclibrary.wordpress.com/2013/07/23/book-review-the-prayer-box/
While
reading the reclusive and recently departed Iola Anne Poole's letters
to her Heavenly Father, Tandi Jo Reese undergoes a dramatic
metamorphosis, changing from a much-abused and looked-down upon woman
to a self-actualizing and capable mother.
The Prayer Box:
Book Review. (2014, September 25). Memaws Stuff.
Retrieved from
http://memawsstuff.org/2014/09/25/the-prayer-box-book-review/
The Prayer Box
is a study of failed relationships, the therapeutic effects of journaling, acceptance, and
healing.
The Prayer Box (Carolina #1).
(2014). Goodreads. Retrieved from
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17714301-the-prayer-box
A 2014
Christy Award nominee for Contemporary Christian Fiction,
The Prayer Box couples the story of a a divorced mother of
two fleeing an abusive husband with the tale of Iola Anne Poole, a
91-year-old woman who dies alone and seemingly friendless in a
rambling Cape Hatteras mansion. A lifetime of prayer boxes
stored in the house thus becomes “a blessing and a source of
healing” for each woman as well as the community.
Young
Adult Fiction
Duncan, S. L. (2014). The Revelation of Gabriel Adam. Aurora, Illinois: Medallion Press. Published only in English; e-book edition available. Literary genre: Christian fiction, Young Adult fiction, suspense, and fantasy.
S. L. Duncan takes his audience on a roller-caster ride of a read that attempts to combine the intensity of Suzanne Collins and Veronica Roth's recent dystopian novels with an emphasis on Gnostic or hidden knowledge made popular by Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instrument series, although it's obvious that Duncan is marketing this coming-of-age novel to Christian readers.
Houston, Meradeth. (2014, August).
After Reading: The Revelation of Gabriel Adam. Meradeth
Houston. Write Stuff. Blogspot. Retrieved from
http://meradethhouston.blogspot.com/2014/08/after-reading-revelation-of-gabriel.html#.VCbEq7ktBhg
Houston finds this Duncan's debut novel
“an interesting and engaging read”, for she is particularly
intrigued by its settings. Nevertheless, she finds that the plot is
“a little unfocused in places”.
McGinnis, Mindy.
(2014, August 1). Book Talk: The Revelation of Gabriel Adam by S.
L. Duncan. Writer, Writer Pants on Fire. Retrieved from
http://writerwriterpantsonfire.blogspot.com/2014/08/book-talk-revelation-of-gabriel-adam-by.html
While Gabriel Adam
has his own plans—attending NYU and settling down to an otherwise uneventful college life—he must flee to
England to avoid a stalking assassin whereupon the last living member
of the Essenes explains that Gabe is one of the four archangels, born
human, who is charged with protecting humanity.
The Revelation of Gabriel Adam
(Revelation Saga #1). (2014, June 23). Goodreads. Retrieved
from
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18397323-the-revelation-of-gabriel-adam
High school senior Gabriel Adams is
looking forward to attending New York University until he discovers
that he his destiny is to stop Armageddon. Goodreads
reviewers give this fast-paced adventure novel a 4.36 rating.
The Revelation of Gabriel
Adam. (2014). Library Thing. Retrieved from
http://www.librarything.com/work/14977330/reviews/
Although some of the
reviewers liked the well-developed characters and descriptive
settings, others panned the bildungsroman, noting that “it makes Raiders
of the Lost Ark seem like a serious work of theology” and find
the plot “simplistic” and “predictable”. Thus, reviewers only
award it a 2.7 rating.
The Revelation of
Gabriel Adam. (2014). LitPick. Retrieved from
http://www.litpick.com/books/revelation-gabriel-adam
Gabriel Adam and
his adopted dad, an Episcopalian minister, have moved around a lot,
but he shares the normal high school student's aspirations until events
reveal that he is one of the four archangels meant to save the world.
S. L. Duncan: The
Revelation of Gabriel Adam. (2013, February 20). One Four Kid Lit.
Word Press. Retrieved from
http://onefourkidlit.wordpress.com/2013/02/20/s-l-duncan-the-revelation-of-gabriel-adam/
Recent law-school graduate
S. L. Duncan reveals that he pitched his novel as Raiders
of the Lost Ark meets Harry Potter. The Alabama
native likes to travel to exotic locations and play soccer.
Kingsbury, Karen. (2013). The Chance. New York: Howard Books.
Published only in English; available in Large Print edition, but no e-book edition is available. Literary genre: Christian Fiction, Young Adult fiction, and Chick Lit.
Published only in English; available in Large Print edition, but no e-book edition is available. Literary genre: Christian Fiction, Young Adult fiction, and Chick Lit.
 |
When Ellie Tucker's dad, a Marine drill
sergeant, throws her mother out of the house after he discovers her
affair and subsequent pregnancy, the fifteen-year-old's life spirals
out of control since she feels that both her mom and dad don't love her.
After Ellie's dad announces that they are moving from Savannah, Georgia, to San Diego, California, her one chance at happiness remains the pledge that she and her high school sweetheart have made to each other to meet again to unearth a time capsule filled with their letters eleven years in the future. While Ellie has become an unwed mother, her childhood sweetheart is now a professional basketball player whose fame and skill rests upon his faith and character. Spoiler alert: Both Ellie's mom and dad and Ellie and her squeaky-clean, long-lost love eventually live happily-ever-after in this Cinderella tale.
After Ellie's dad announces that they are moving from Savannah, Georgia, to San Diego, California, her one chance at happiness remains the pledge that she and her high school sweetheart have made to each other to meet again to unearth a time capsule filled with their letters eleven years in the future. While Ellie has become an unwed mother, her childhood sweetheart is now a professional basketball player whose fame and skill rests upon his faith and character. Spoiler alert: Both Ellie's mom and dad and Ellie and her squeaky-clean, long-lost love eventually live happily-ever-after in this Cinderella tale.
The Chance.
(2014). Christian Book. Retrieved from
http://christianbook.com/the-chance-karen-kingsbury/9781451647037/pd/647037
Editorial reviews
peg The Chance as “another weeper from Christian-fiction
diva Kingsbury”. They also note that readers who like Nicholas
Sparks' The Notebook and Richard Paul Evan's The Walk
will also enjoy this “gentle Christian romance”.
The Chance. (2014). Goodreads.
Retrieved from
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15802385-the-chance
Goodreads readers give
Kingsbury's The Chance a 4.14 rating, although the plot of
this contemporary Christian romance rests on an improbable premise:
An unwed mother reconnects with a high school boyfriend, who has become the Tim Tybow
of professional basketball.
Parsons, Golden Keyes. (2008). In the Shadow of the Sun King. Nashville: Thomas Nelson. English and Slovenian language editions available; e-book edition also available. Literary genre: Christian fiction, historical fiction, Young Adult Lit, and Chick Lit.
Parsons, Golden Keyes. (2008). In the Shadow of the Sun King. Nashville: Thomas Nelson. English and Slovenian language editions available; e-book edition also available. Literary genre: Christian fiction, historical fiction, Young Adult Lit, and Chick Lit.
Golden Parsons' historical tale
furnishes readers with a fictional overview of Louis XIV's
extermination and banishment of the Huguenots after he abolishes the
Edict of Nantes in 1685. Those readers interested in the Protestant
Reformation will
appreciate the author's attention to historical detail: Like the
fictional Clavell clan, many Huguenots came from the nobility or the
educated, merchant class. French troops were billeted in the homes of
Protestants whereupon they seized or destroyed personal property.
Representatives of the Crown forcibly took Protestant children away from their parents, closed Protestant schools and colleges, forbid Protestant church services, gave Protestants the choice of either converting to Roman Catholicism or dying a martyr's death, and prohibited Protestant immigration to other countries, so many Huguenots fled France in secret.
Representatives of the Crown forcibly took Protestant children away from their parents, closed Protestant schools and colleges, forbid Protestant church services, gave Protestants the choice of either converting to Roman Catholicism or dying a martyr's death, and prohibited Protestant immigration to other countries, so many Huguenots fled France in secret.
See:
Huguenot. (2013). Encyclopaedia
Britannica. Retrieved from
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/275000/Huguenot
Huguenot history. (n. d.). The
Huguenot Society of America. Retrieved from
Carrie. (2009). In the Shadow of
the Sun King. 5 Minutes for Books. Retrieved from
http://books.5minutesformom.com/967/in-the-shadow-of-the-sun-king/
Carrie notes that if the reader doesn't
mind historical fiction “resting on the romantic side of things”,
he or she will probably love Parsons' first novel.
In the Shadow of the Sun King.
(2014). Darkness to Light Series. Goodreads. Retrieved from
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4484156-in-the-shadow-of-the-sun-king
Readers give this debut novel a four
out of five rating, applauding its historical accuracy, but they
also note that the characters come across as one-dimensional. Nevertheless, the plot has a believable premise: In
17th-century France, under a monarch who believed in the Divine Right
of Kings, Separation of Church and State didn't exist. After Louis
XIV's troops pillage the Protestant Clavell family's estate and
kidnap their young daughter, Madeleine Clavell petitions Louis XIV
for help since she and the king were once childhood friends. This
meeting has disastrous results, so the rest of the novel is spent
reuniting the family.
In the Shadow of the Sun King.
(2014). Historical Novel Society. Retrieved from
http://historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/in-the-shadow-of-the-sun-king/
Parsons' simple prose makes In the
Shadow of the Sun King read like a Young Adult novel since she
usually tells what is happening rather than actually showing the
action. However, the Clavell family's resolute faith makes this
depiction of the persecution of French Protestants an inspirational
tale.
Pawdrey, Audrey. (2008, December). In
the Shadow of the Sun King. Audrey Pawdrey Reads.
Retrieved from
http://audreypawdreyreads.blogspot.com/2008/12/in-shadow-of-sun-king.html
Pawdrey enjoys this “quick-paced” novel that is “rich in historical detail”.
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P. S.--By the way, readers can
discover if nearby library catalogs have these and other works of Christian fiction by going to
WorldCat: http://www.worldcat.org/
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