At Lorehaven Magazine, we love excellent fantastic stories!

Especially if we find these stories made by biblical Christian creators.

Stories are created by humans who reflect God’s image and use his gifts, whether they know it or not. They can show beauty, goodness, and truth about our world.

But let’s not be sentimental. Stories aren’t just wonderful or even “neutral.”

Stories can be poisonous to our souls.

An epic story can reflect our epic God or tempt us to idolize “epicness” itself. A great science-fiction tale can lead us to ponder human nature and the wonders of technology and exploration or tempt us to worship man (or alien creatures).

And, as we discuss in this issue’s Roundtable feature, a fantasy can use fictional magic to awaken in us a sense of self-forgetting awe. Or a fantasy can inflame our sinful desires to use anything, even technology or “magic,” for our own ends.

That’s why, as Christians, we don’t ever call stories “harmless entertainment.” Such a phrase devalues the God-glorifying purpose of human stories, reducing them to the hollow level of, say, snack cakes, or cute kitten pictures on social media. It also ignores the real threat of stories that humans in our sin can twist for great evil.

What’s the Christian’s response to good/evil stories? The same as our response to any good/evil person. We practice biblical discernment with people and their stories.

Using discernment, we sort out a story’s grace and its idols, while being especially careful to avoid our own temptations to idolatry. This takes lifelong practice!

In each issue of Lorehaven, we will seek to glorify God. This mission also means we will acknowledge the reality of sin. We won’t just explore darker stories, creatures, or folklore. We will also consider stories’ real dangers that are often mixed right alongside their benefits.

In every issue, we’ll strive to help you, the fan, discern not just the best stories, but stories that are best for you. That way, these fantastic stories can help you worship not yourself, or stories themselves, but the great Author of reality.