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How to Disciple Your Kids With Dangerous Books
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155. How Might Sentimentalism Threaten Christian Fiction?
Fantastical Truth Podcast, Mar 28, 2023

Please Return to the Lands of Luxury
Reviews, Mar 24, 2023

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Enhanced, Candace Kade
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155. How Might Sentimentalism Threaten Christian Fiction?
Fantastical Truth, Mar 28, 2023

154. What If You Had to Fake Being Genetically Modified? | Enhanced with Candace Kade
Fantastical Truth, Mar 21, 2023

153. When Can Deconstructionism Threaten Christian Fiction? | with Michael Young aka ‘Wokal Distance’
Fantastical Truth, Mar 14, 2023

152. How Can Christian Fantasy Fans Heal from Church Trauma? | with Marian Jacobs and L. G. McCary
Fantastical Truth, Mar 7, 2023

151. How Can Fantastical Satire Sharpen Our Theology? | The Pilgrim’s Progress Reloaded with David Umstattd
Fantastical Truth, Feb 28, 2023

150. Is the U.S. Government Covering Up Spy Balloons or Alien Spaceships? | with James R. Hannibal
Fantastical Truth, Feb 21, 2023

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Please Return to the Lands of Luxury
“Jon Tilton explores complex topics like memory loss, personal and societal responsibility in this light sci-fi story.”
—Lorehaven on Mar 24, 2023

Exile
“This gentle fantasy from Loren G. Warnemuende shows little magic or strange creatures, focusing on complex emotions and relationships.”
—Lorehaven on Mar 17, 2023

Illusion
“Frank Peretti’s last novel creates a romantic world with sci-fi flourishes where likeable heroes, villain twists, and familiar places sell a dramatic performance.”
—Lorehaven on Mar 10, 2023

War in Heaven
“Charles Williams’s classic supernatural thriller pairs a deeply spiritual worldview with perceptive examinations of human nature.”
—Lorehaven on Mar 3, 2023

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Lorehaven helps Christian fans explore fantastical stories for Christ’s glory: fantasy, science fiction, and beyond. Articles, the library, reviews, podcasts, gifts, and the Lorehaven Guild community help fans discern and enjoy the best Christian-made fantastical stories, applying their meanings to the real world Jesus Christ calls us to serve. Subscribe free to get any updates you choose and to access the Lorehaven Guild.
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149. Why Do Christian Fiction Fans Love So Much Romance?

Our hosts enjoy sweet concessions and ask why many Christian-made novels, including fantasy, celebrate Valentine’s Day every day.
Fantastical Truth on Feb 14, 2023 · Series: Fantastical Love · No comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:19:55 — 74.5MB) | Embed

This episode releases on Valentine’s Day. But we’ve noticed that for a lot of fantastical fiction, and especially traditional Christian-made fiction, every day is Valentine’s Day. You get fantasy romance. Fairy tale romance. Fairy-tale retelling romance. YA superhero romance. And so much more. So, why all the romance? And will we spend a whole episode making fun? No way. It’s Valentine’s Day! Instead, let’s explore why Christian readers fall in love with fictional romance.

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1. Which romantic fiction have we read or seen?

2. Why do many Christian novels feature romance?

3. Will Christian fans move beyond romance genres?

Stephen’s article: Why Does Christian Romance Outsell Christian Fantasy?

  1. A reader’s ideal of Paradise influences his or her story preferences.
  2. If your ideal Paradise is love and family, you’ll likely prefer romance.
  3. If your ideal Paradise is a fantastical world, you’ll likely prefer fantasy.

One wouldn’t end here with anything like a condemnation of Christian romance or its fans. That would be sick legalism. Again, romance is God’s creation! It points back to the union of Adam and Eve (Genesis 2), and forward to the union of Christ and His Church (Ephesians 5).

However, Christians believe romantic relationships will not always continue as they are now. Some believe this means a total abolition of even good human marriages, based on Jesus’s words in Matthew 22:23-33. Even if this isn’t what He meant, we can be confident that Jesus refers to some adjustment to human marriage, which may be fulfilled in eternity.

In either case, romantic relationships are a subset, not the sum total, of that future world.

Whereas the Bible’s literal and ideal image of paradise—a made-new world of wonder, of good conquering evil, and  miracles—is closer to the themes explored in fantastical stories.

Why, then, don’t more Christians at least enjoy romance fiction and fantasy fiction equally?

Maybe it’s because most readers haven’t yet enjoyed this more biblical picture of paradise.

Com station

Andrew Trauger wrote in reply to Josiah’s article:

The #1 complaint I’ve heard about “The Chosen” regards the response of so many people who use it as an aid to worship. Clearly, idolizing a character depicted by Jonathan Roumie is every bit as sinful as idolizing St. Peter, the Virgin Mary, or a painting of Jesus on the chapel ceiling. Idolatry is idolatry, and people are as prone to break the 2nd Commandment today as ever–just with pixels instead of gold.

For this reason, a lot of Christians have taken the hard line, with a few subpoints and addendums to the Law. “Thou shalt not depict Christ in any way, shape, or fashion. Thou shalt not put words into His mouth that have not already been written, nor shalt thou presume Him as saying anything not recorded for you in Scripture. Thou shalt not imagine.” …

If someone watching “The Chosen” is a weak brother and supplants his daily Bible reading with binge watching, then that brother needs to throw his TV (and phone) in the garbage. He needs to pluck out his eye. This show is not a replacement for Scripture, as its director has stated multiple times. Viewing the show sinfully–that is, with an idolatrous heart–is sin. But Dallas Jenkins no more causes people to commit idolatry than Glock causes people to commit murder.

Lorehaven mission update

  • Last week’s review of Jack Zulu and the Waylander’s Key
  • This week’s Friday review, probably for a new release
  • If you like romance, our Guild is exploring Rose Petals and Snowflakes
  • We’re working on more timely articles to help with these missions

Next on Fantastical Truth

Aliens! Now that we have your attention—if it’s not that infamous and not-at-all-seasonally-colored balloon the People’s Republic of China sent America early for Valentine’s Day, it’s some kind of floating silver craft that was also just shot down, over Alaska this time, that might could just be more Armies of the Aliens. So we’re showing our love a different way, this time for urban legends about sci-fi and spaceships. These often seem creepily plausible, but cause a lot of questions for Christians. What can we learn from this war of the worldviews?

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    In the Fantastical Truth podcast from Lorehaven, hosts E. Stephen Burnett and Zackary Russell explore fantastical stories for God's glory and apply their wonders to the real world Jesus calls us to serve.
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