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When The English Fall
Reviews, May 20, 2022

Realm Makers Bookstore Returns to Orlando for FPEA Conference, May 26–28
News, May 19, 2022

112. How Does Fiction Help Us Love Our Enemies Even If We Must Defeat Them?
Fantastical Truth Podcast, May 17, 2022

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Vivid, Ashley Bustamante
My Soul to Take, Bryan Davis
Into Shadow's Fire, Mark Castleberry
Deceived, Madisyn Carlin
Arena (2022 edition), Karen Hancock
Kurt Nickle-Dickle of Whiskers, N. J. McLagan
"In a city where debts are paid in blood, one young man will learn that everyone needs help sometimes if they want to survive." New in the Lorehaven library: A Matter of Blood, Lauren H Salisbury
Son of the Shield, Mary Schlegel
Maxine Justice, Galactic Attorney, Daniel Schwabauer
Mordizan, Alyssa Roat
Prentice Ash, Matt Barron
Etania's Calling, M. H. Elrich
The Choice, Bradley Caffee
The Obsidian Butterfly, Lani Forbes
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When The English Fall
“When The English Fall tells a bittersweet tale of community and commitment that plunges fearlessly into hard questions about the end of the world.”
—Lorehaven on May 20, 2022

Clawing Free
“Clawing Free is an absorbing tale that seamlessly joins modernity and myth.”
—Lorehaven on May 13, 2022

Vivid
“Ashley Bustamante’s Vivid paints a world built on secrets and carefully controlled color palettes.”
—Lorehaven on May 6, 2022

Prophet
“If great fiction dares explore culture wars, it must show more than perfect people smiling before a flat backdrop. Frank E. Peretti’s 1992 novel Prophet reflects this reality.”
—Lorehaven on May 4, 2022

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Maxine Justice: Galactic Attorney
Book Quests, May 2022

The Green Ember
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112. How Does Fiction Help Us Love Our Enemies Even If We Must Defeat Them?
Fantastical Truth, May 17, 2022

111. Why Do Your Kids Need Fantastical Stories for God’s Glory?
Fantastical Truth, May 10, 2022

110. Could We Enter a ‘Golden Age’ of Christian-Made Fantastical Fiction?
Fantastical Truth, May 3, 2022

109. How Should Local Churches Support Christian-Made Fantasy?
Fantastical Truth, Apr 26, 2022

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Yes, Speculative Faith Is Closed, At Least For Now
E. Stephen Burnett, Dec 30

Last Stands, Custer, General Gordon, and Being a Christian Warrior
Travis Perry, Jul 2

How Christian Must Christian Fiction Be?
Rebecca LuElla Miller, May 24

Gender In Fiction: The Implication Of Failure
Rebecca LuElla Miller, May 10

Making a Story Visual UPDATE: Behind the Scenes of the Animal Eye Comic
Travis Perry, May 9

What Does “Woke” Culture Have To Do With Christian Fiction?
Rebecca LuElla Miller, Apr 26

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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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84. How Did Bestselling Christian Novels Build Evangelical Culture? | Reading Evangelicals with Daniel Silliman

Christianity Today news editor Daniel Silliman explores why fans loved top Christian fiction, including This Present Darkness, Left Behind, and The Shack.
Fantastical Truth on Oct 19, 2021 · 3 comments

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“Christian fiction is so cringe and cheesy, so let’s ignore it.” Some critics talk like this. But today’s guest challenges this line: Daniel Silliman, Christianity Today news editor and author of the new nonfiction book Reading Evangelicals. He surveys five bestselling titles, including Frank Peretti’s This Present Darkness, Tim LaHaye’s and Jerry B. Jenkins’s Left Behind, and Wm. Paul Young’s The Shack. Why did Christian readers love these books? How did these novels define their fans’ imaginations and help build our evangelical communities?

Concession stand

  • Here, we can define “Christian fiction” as “a Christian wrote the fiction.”
  • Yet we also speak about fiction by Christians, for Christians, a subculture.
  • We don’t condemn this subculture. In fact, we think the idea is necessary.
  • Christians often formed this subculture in response to being marginalized.
  • See The Christian Publishing Show, Thomas Umstattd Jr. with Leslie Stobbe.
  • Today’s guest wants to understand the definitions/culture of evangelicals.
  • Even if you are one, it’s good to see ourselves academically from outside.
  • We also need to confront how political cultures replace fandom cultures.
  • Stephen wrote How Political Punditry Has Taken Over Christian Popular Subcultures.
  • This isn’t a class. Or fiction book club. Instead, we’re asking questions after class!

Daniel SillimanIntroducing Daniel Silliman

Daniel Silliman is a journalist and a historian. He is the news editor for _Christianity Today_, the author of a history of bestselling evangelical fiction, and teaches humanities at Milligan University.

Daniel spent several years as a crime reporter outside Atlanta before pursuing higher education in Germany, earning a MA from Tübingen University and a doctoral degree from Heidelberg University. He was a Teaching Fellow at the University of Notre Dame from 2016-2017 and a Lilly Postdoctoral Fellow at Valparaiso University from 2017-19. He has reported and edited news coverage for CT since 2019.

  • DanielSilliman.org
  • @DanielSilliman on Twitter
  • Explore more of Reading Evangelicals on Amazon
  • “New Book ‘Reading Evangelicals’ Will Focus on Famous Christian Fiction,” Lorehaven news, Jan. 27, 2021
  • “What’s True About Christian Fiction,” Daniel Silliman, Christianity Today cover story (members only), Sept. 20, 2021

Left Behind, Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins

Exploring Reading Evangelicals

1. How did you discover biblical truth and Christian-made fiction?

2. What questions do you hope to answer by exploring top Christian fiction?

  • From chapter 2 (page 78), about Frank Peretti’s This Present Darkness:

The Shack, William P. Young

… Conspiracies depend on keeping secret meetings from becoming public.

The novel is not just staging cultural conflicts, it is inviting readers to see how the staging itself is part of the cultural conflict. The first political fight is always about the rules of political fights. This Present Darkness returns again and again to the conflict of what is allowed in meetings, and who is allowed in meetings. The first pragmatic principle of the public sphere, its publicness, is shown to be suspect.

  • From chapter 3 (page 98), about Tim LaHaye’s and Jerry Jenkins’s Left Behind:

Apocalypse-minded Christians have been motivated by their expectations of rapture, the tribulation, and the antichrist to pay close attention to world events and take an active interest in American politics, both foreign and domestic. There is a myth that fundamentalists disengaged from cultural conflicts because of their theology.

3. How do you think Christian-made fiction could (or should) grow from here?

Next on Fantastical Truth

Dragons. Light. Raiders. Lightraiders! One shepherd boy with four companions, plus a talking silver wolf, begin their quest to restore the Lightraider Order, destroy a portal, and stop an invasion. So begins novelist James R. Hannibal’s Lightraider Academy series book 1, Wolf Soldier. It’s releasing Tuesday, Oct. 26, and we’re hosting James again to explore this new young-adult fantasy.

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    Fantastical Truth
    In the Fantastical Truth podcast from Lorehaven, hosts E. Stephen Burnett and Zackary Russell find the best Christian fantasy, and apply the wonders of these imaginary worlds to the real world our Creator has called us to serve. Join the best Christian fantastical authors and other creative friends on this joyful journey, to find the happiness and holiness of Jesus through his gift of truthful imagination.
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    1. notleia says:
      October 19, 2021 at 6:12 pm

      But DO Charismatics count as Evangelicals? Do other evangelicals think so, too?

      My analysis: Subcultural pop fiction is about the only non-political way to achieve some form of theological coherence within the low-church end of Protestantism. Lots easier to update than Elizabethan English prayer books, too.

      PS All you dweebs who are trying to hobby-farm your way into self-fulfillment: I mean, I get it. I should know better than to romanticize farming, but it still has a sentimental pull on my heartstrings, but fortunately most of the cool parts you can still do in your suburban backyard or gardenshare plot. There are heaploads of books about sub/urban farming. Tho canning still sucks. (Pro-tip: Do your boiling on a hot plate OUTSIDE. Your a/c will thank you.) Butchering sucks. Chickens are cannibals.
      Any perks of rural life IMO are pretty much outweighed by the horrible inconvenience and emotionally crippling isolation.

      Reply
    2. E. Stephen Burnett says:
      October 19, 2021 at 9:19 pm

      But DO Charismatics count as Evangelicals? Do other evangelicals think so, too?

      I’m not charismatic. And yes, they do count. Many are not just evangelicals but biblical Christians.

      Reply
      • notleia says:
        October 20, 2021 at 2:03 pm

        Extra Thought: CS Lewis reintroduced all this (Neo) Platonism (or at least insofar as the real being a reflection of the Ideal), but besides from some massaged verses from Thessalonians or whatever, there’s not much biblical about the idea. But then we’ve been scavenging from Greek philosophies for about as long as Christianity was invented, like Stoicism.

        But my monkey wrench in the thought experiment is that the Ideal is a social construct, like money or social class. So do you still want to retain the Neo Platonism and why?

        Reply

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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.