Christian Novels

April 11th, 2010 by Dr. Pauline

Taylor Caldwell - Christian Novel Author

Christian novels provide a look at life using the genre of fiction. Creating stories about life’s ups and downs set in a fictionalized mode allows the author the freedom to manipulate the outcome at will. Contrariwise, the reader is free to let his imagination soar and roam over the sky for height and finally to descend to the bottom of a fathomless ocean for depth. Christian novels are unique in that the author, as with other fiction writers, has the unusual privilege to take the reader into created perils and on the brink of near disaster of the characters at will. The only limit is the author’s imagination. However, there is the opportunity for the writer of Christian novels to get into the message of showing that good indeed does win over evil.

Christian novels are by no means a substitute for daily, systematic, bible reading and meditation. However, we must face the sad fact that not everyone sits and read the bible everyday. In light of that knowledge, Christian novels can act as a catalyst toward stirring a desire in the reader to seek the words of life. Readers looking at life through the eyes of the Christian novelist can temporarily escape the harsh realities of their own world. The Christian novels from the twentieth century to the present twenty first century offers much more than an easy ride into the dreamy never, never land of ghosts, headless demons, and snow white angels that disappear at the first sign of the sun’s revealing brilliance.

In my repertoire of Christian novels, I can say that some have left an indelible mark on my psyche. To name a few are the writings of Taylor Caldwell’s Dear and Glorious Physician; Thomas B. Costain’s The Silver Chalice; and probably casting me into much critical thinking is, Frank Yerby’s Judas, My Brother. The above Christian novels gave me historical facts with a more humanized view. Sometimes the purely historical books are unadorned facts (as they should be) therefore the everyday sweat and “nitty gritty” of real life is missing.

Christian novels can weave a story with characters that face real problems just as we do. Often we find ourselves charmed to walk with them through the highs and lows of their fictional escapades similar to the magic of the Pied Piper as he charmed the children to follow him. The author’s skill at narration can have the reader on the edge of the seat, with bated breath anxious to see if the protagonist wins. Finally, in the end the perpetrator is caught in a web of his own weaving where he receives a much deserved punishment. Seeing the good, the bad, and the ugly all coming to a deserved end gives the reader a feeling of exhilaration. Even though it is just fiction, or make-believe, it gives one hope in mankind. Maybe there is a chance that the fiction found in Christian novels could become truth and good actually wins over evil.

Christian novels have the potential to pique the non-reader’s mind in a way that the purely fictional books cannot. It would seem that the reluctant reader can become attached to reading through Christian novels and eventually enjoy reading. Christian novels are not the dripping, sugary, sweet senseless, writing of someone looking at the world through rose-colored glasses. Many Christian novels are fast paced, action-packed, tales of life and of the future with a story line worth our time and attention.