New!
Author resources • Lorehaven Guild
Podcast sponsors • Subscribe for free
Crew manifest Faith statement FAQs
All author resources Lorehaven Guild Subscribe for free

Into the Darkness
Reviews, Feb 3, 2023

The Chosen Succeeds Where ‘Woke’ Stories Fail
Jenneth Dyck in Articles, Feb 2, 2023

Rose Petals and Snowflakes
Book Quests, Feb 1, 2023

Library

Find fantastical Christian novels

fantasy · sci-fi · and beyond
middle grade · young adult · grown-ups
All novels Search Add a novel
Silver Bounty, Victoria McCombs
A Sword for the Immerland King, F. W. Faller
Calor, J. J. Fisher
Once Upon A Ren Faire, A. C. Castillo
The Genesis 6 Project, Michael Ferguson
Exile, Loren G. Warnemuende
Aberration, Cathy McCrumb
The Truth Beyond the Lies, Kathleen Bird
Frost, Winter's Lonely Guardian, E. E. Rawls
Dream of Kings, Sharon Hinck
The Change, Bradley Caffee
Quest of Fire: Desperation, Brett Armstrong
Wishtress, Nadine Brandes
Flight, Kristen Young
Podcast

Get the Fantastical Truth podcast

Podcast sponsors | Subscribe links
Archives Feedback

147. Why Can Christians Celebrate Stories about Merlin and King Arthur? | with Robert Treskillard
Fantastical Truth, Jan 31, 2023

146. How Did Animators Adapt The Wingfeather Saga For Streaming TV? | with Keith Lango
Fantastical Truth, Jan 24, 2023

145. How Did Edmund Spenser’s ‘The Faerie Queene’ Shape Christian Fantasy? | with Rebecca K. Reynolds
Fantastical Truth, Jan 17, 2023

144. Which Top Six Fantasy Franchises Gave Fans Grief in 2022?
Fantastical Truth, Jan 10, 2023

143. Which Top Ten Lorehaven Stories Proved Most Popular in 2022?
Fantastical Truth, Jan 6, 2023

142. What Christmas Gift ‘Tools, Not Toys’ Helped You Grow As a Person?
Fantastical Truth, Dec 20, 2022

Quests

Join our monthly digital book quests.

Lorehaven Guild Faith statement FAQs

Rose Petals and Snowflakes
Book Quests, February 2023

Prince Caspian
Book Quests, January 2023

Dream of Kings
Book Quests, December 2022

On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness
Book Quests, November 2022

Reviews

Find fantastical Christian reviews

All reviews Request review

Into the Darkness
“Charles Hack’s Into the Darkness summons a close-range science fiction story, focusing on the personal challenges of space warfare among alien cultures with a steady pace and serious tone.”
—Lorehaven on Feb 3, 2023

A Crown of Chains
“A Crown of Chains creatively retells a biblical tale to explore themes of providence, racism, faith, and fidelity.”
—Lorehaven on Jan 27, 2023

Lander’s Legacy
“Lander’s Legacy stacks modern thrills and complex characters on a foundation of biblical what-ifs.”
—Lorehaven on Jan 20, 2023

Prince Caspian
“Pacing starts slow but creature lore grows in C. S. Lewis’s sequel, introducing practical tyrants and talking-beast politics into a Narnian resistance.”
—Lorehaven on Jan 13, 2023

Gifts

Find new gifts for Christian fans

Archives

The original SpecFaith: est. 2006

Speculative Faith | archives

Lorehaven issues (2018–2020)

Order back issues online!
New
Library
Podcast
Quests
Reviews
Gifts
Archives
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.
Subscribe free to Lorehaven
/ Podcast
    Podcast sponsors • Previous sponsors • Subscribe links • Sponsor the show

    1. Sky Turtle Press

    2. The Katrosi Revolution series by Jamie Foley

    3. The Pop Culture Parent

69. How Can Faithful Stories Best Show Backslidden Heroes?

Realistic backsliders recover faith not by shallow isolated sentiment, but by serious biblical restoration to Christ’s people.
Fantastical Truth on Jul 6, 2021 · 5 comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 54:37 — 51.3MB) | Embed

Christians talk a lot about “backsliding,” that is, doubts or struggles with our faith. Often the stories we share reflect characters who do the same. But how can Christian-made stories best explore this challenge, moving past cliches and shallow pictures of “backsliders” and showing more realistic images of people who fall back from faith but find restoration in Jesus?

Concession stand

  • We’ve already talked about “deconstructing” (episode 10). This isn’t that.
  • We’ll also tread lightly on the challenge of whether Christians can “fall away.”
  • Some of this overlaps with tropey fiction evangelism, worth its own episode.
  • We’ll critique some shallow backsliding narratives, hopefully in good faith.
  • Our purpose is positive: to point to better fictional examples of backsliding.

1. How to backslide badly in a Christian(?) book

The Shack, William P. YoungFirst, we’ll consider a fictional example Stephen wrote in this older article.

Charis wanted to cry. Did Michael really mean it? Was he really saying there was a good God who loved everyone in the world — everyone, including her? But he could not mean that, she thought. After all, she was not important, beautiful, wealthy, or special. No one could love her after all the bad things she had done. Not even God.

  • “Blind faith” is a safe trope, an evangelical version of “just believe in yourself.”
  • It’s a pre-cleaned, saccharine version of the sufferings Christians do have.
  • Not all backsliders have simple stories. “God loves you” doesn’t fix things.

Second, we’ll consider Mack from the preachy, kinda-Christian novel The Shack.

  • The story tries to present tragedy honestly, but keeps Nerfing the horror.
  • Three authors, one confusion: The Shack‘s fictional “trinity” is tropey.
  • The shtick only works with bad assumptions about The Church Back Home.

2. If you’re going to become a backsliding book hero, do it right

Assassins, Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. JenkinsRayford Steele in the Left Behind series is actually a great example.

  • Left Behind book 6, Assassins, brought Rayford to a crisis point.
  • The story asked: Is it righteous to seek vengeance against the Antichrist?
  • Book 7 then explored Rayford’s repentance and restoration by the Church.

Mary Magdalene’s character in The Chosen is another example.

Matthew: What if you were cut off from Jesus by something in your past?

Mary: He already fixed me once. I can’t face him.

Matthew: I’m a bad person, Mary. My whole life, all about me. No faith.

Mary: I do have faith in him, just not in me.

3. How can we grow in Christ thanks to backsliding characters?

  • Scripture gives examples of struggling saints. Fiction gives us backup for this.
  • If the backsliding is realistic, it can help cultivate our hearts _and_ heads.
  • Even tropes can help us head off some of the sillier backsliding excuses.

Episode sponsors

Seed: Judgment, Joshua DavidSponsor 1: Joshua David’s novel Seed: Judgment

Seed: Judgment, a science fantasy tale of biblical proportions from Joshua David is available now, exclusively on Amazon.

Seed falls from the heavens and judges humanity. One foretells of the coming calamity, but the words are heeded too late.

Few remain after the war against the cosmic demon. Long confined to one of the few outposts left on Earth, Sal accepts an unauthorized mission to find a survivor lost in the Vegas wastes.

He believes his target is special, imbued with a spirit that might finally turn the tide against the darkness. But to save her from the risen still haunting humanity, he’ll have to fight alone and outgunned against enemies that have already conquered the world.

“Joshua David’s Seed: Judgment marries The Thing, Resident Evil, and Mad Max to generate a post-apocalyptic tale of frenetic intensity. … There’s a beauty to the brutality, a dance in the destruction.”

—Lorehaven (sponsored review)

Urban Angel, A. J. Chamberlain

Sponsor 2: A. J. Chamberlain’s novel Urban Angel

Urban Angel is a story of courage, redemption, and spiritual warfare, set in contemporary London.

One day the church will be made perfect, but for now she bears the scars of war. Alex Masters knows all about that war. For her the journey to faith has been marked by grief and loneliness, but still she chooses to believe.

Daisy is a child of the social media generation, lost in every belief and none. When tragedy strikes, she seeks out her cousin Alex because she knows that Alex understands what it is to face the darkness.

They come together, believer and unbeliever, hunted by an enemy that will do whatever it takes to achieve its goal. Alone, Alex and Daisy would be defenseless, but this is not a struggle against flesh and blood, and not every weapon is visible.

Urban Angel launches in ebook and paperback format on July 1 and is available from all the major ebook platforms and your local bookshop. Urban Angel is the first book in the Masters Series.

Urban Angel is distinctly different [from] standard Christian fiction; it doesn’t shy away from the tough issues faced by Christians, it’s gutsy, frank, and relevant.

—reviewer

Come Back to Me, Jody HedlundSponsor 3: Revell Books, Jody Hedlund’s Come Back to Me

The ultimate cure that could heal any disease? Crazy.

That’s exactly what research scientist Marian Creighton has always believed about her father’s quest, even if it does stem from a desire to save her sister from the genetic disease that stole their mother from them. But when her father falls into a coma after drinking a vial of holy water believed to contain traces of residue from the Tree of Life, Marian must question all of her assumptions. He’s left behind tantalizing clues that suggest he’s crossed back in time. Insane. Until Marian tests his theories and finds herself in the Middle Ages during a dangerous peasant uprising.

William Durham, a valiant knight, comes to Marian’s rescue and offers her protection . . . as his wife. The longer Marian stays in the past, the more she cares about William. Can she ever find her father and make it back to the present to heal her sister? And when the time comes to leave, will she want to?

“Brimming with wonder, Come Back to Me will keep you riveted until the last page, captivated by the possibilities.”

—Melanie Dobson, award-winning author

Com station

Stephany A. wrote about episode 67, with guest L. G. McCary:

I just finished listening to your podcast episode How Do Fantastic Stories Avoid Preachiness… I had to write immediately because it felt like listening to myself. I grew up on Frank Peretti, C. S. Lewis, Ted Dekker, the speculative greats.

The Visitation is a great book. I was a big fan of The Oath and The Cooper Kids series. I very much love speculative fiction. The fantastical element. But I agree wholeheartedly, we need to tell stories without preachiness and campiness. We have the ultimate storyteller inside of us so our stories should be compelling and full of truth without beating people over the head.

Next on Fantastical Truth

What if you grew up learning Scripture memory and biblical virtue from a Christian-made tabletop game system? Then you discovered that game had been “cancelled” by an irritated televangelist in the 1980s? That’s a decent setup for a fan-friendly contemporary novel, but in fact, it’s a true story, and now suspense and fantasy novelist James R. Hannibal, owner of the game known as DragonRaid, will share the story of dice-rolling, death, and rebirth.

Fantastical Truth
Fantastical Truth
Lorehaven

Explore the best Christian-made fantasy, sci-fi, and beyond, and apply these stories' meanings in the real world Jesus calls us to serve.

Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsSpotifyAndroidPandoraiHeartRadioStitcherBlubrryby EmailTuneInRSS

Share your thoughts with Fantastical Truth!

    Okay to quote from your comment in a future episode?

    YesNo

    Fantastical Truth
    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.
    Website · Facebook · Twitter
    1. notleia says:
      July 7, 2021 at 8:11 pm

      Wait, why not do some deconstruction? I guess not everyone ate and breathed it for two years of upper coursework, but I think of it as akin to examining your assumptions, which is a good thing for everyone to do.

      Reply
      • E. Stephen Burnett says:
        July 8, 2021 at 7:50 pm

        In short: Because we already deconstructed deconstruction (the Jesus-rejecting kind) back in episode 10.

        Reply
        • notleia says:
          July 9, 2021 at 11:53 am

          O ye of small ambitions, that doesn’t mean we can’t still deconstruct some more!

          Reply
        • notleia says:
          July 9, 2021 at 7:16 pm

          I went back and listened here and there, and it doesn’t seem like you do much deconstruction, just picking at other people’s arguments. Which is also a favorite hobby of mine, but not quite deconstruction. You did question the other people’s assumptions, but you didn’t question the assumptions made by society/culture/subculture (or reflect on how that influences your own assumptions).

          Reply
    2. E. Stephen Burnett says:
      July 10, 2021 at 2:00 pm

      Fair enough. Our point was not to deconstruct deconstruction, but to challenge this notion in a way we haven’t heard done before: asking what imaginative assumptions the “deconstruction” folks are making, to which they seem completely un-self-aware.

      Reply

    Share your fantastical feedback. Cancel reply

    Lorehaven magazine, spring 2020

    Wear the wonder:
    Get exclusive shirts and beyond

    Listen to Lorehaven’s podcast

    Authors and publishers:
    Reach new fans with Lorehaven

    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.
    Website · Facebook · Instagram · Twitter