God in Fantasy Fiction - To Be or Not to Be?

A Forward

About five weeks ago, while slogging through edits on The Brightest Thread, I hit a substantial snag. A capital G snag--God. In the novella version of the story, there was no mention of a deity at all, and I was quite all right with that. (More on that later.) But now that I was fleshing out the storyworld, I was finding it increasingly difficult to deal with


a) magic with no explained source,
b) a vaguely referenced act of creation,
and c) the existence of false gods but no True God.


I avoided the issue for as long as I could. When I was forced to face it head on, I hemmed and hawed, I complained to my family, and then I dumped the contents of my brain into a fresh document, which I promptly sent as an S.O.S.: DESPERATE HELP NEEDED to a writing buddy.


Turns out the brain dump and the following conversation were rather insightful, and probably a topic of interest to both writers and readers.

To Be or Not to Be?

Christian writers get hung up on a lot of things. One of the biggest? God in fiction. Should we include Him or omit Him? If we include Him, how do we keep from being preachy or trite? Will "religion" (for lack of a better term) feature heavily in the story, or will it be a light dose? If we omit God, does that run contrary to our faith, or can it be done in a way that still glorifies Him? Should we even be having this dilemma? Shouldn't it be a question of incorporating our fiction into God, not the other way around?


As you can see, many of us are bound up in fear over getting it right. How can we possibly fit all of God into a finite story? But that’s the thing. We can’t.


Even when writing a human character that literally exists only in your brain, you can't fit everything about them onto the page. Whether you're the kind of writer who keeps pages of details on your characters' personalities, appearances, and histories, or the kind of writer who keeps their characters as a cast of imaginary friends in your head, the fact remains. You know more about your character than what appears in the story. (And if you don't, you don't know them well enough yet.)


Now try writing yourself as a character—you can't fit even half of your personality on the page, and the bits you do write, you may struggle to portray accurately. (I suppose authors of memoirs and autobiographies have room for more of themselves, but even reading a book entirely about a single individual is still vastly different from sitting down and getting to know them face to face. There is always—always—more in person.)


So try writing everything about God's nature into a book. The only book that succeeded in that is the Bible, and I'm pretty sure there's even more we'll learn about Him in heaven! He is infinite, after all. Therefore . . .

Point #1: You can't fit all of God into your book. Instead, try to convey one or two aspects about Him, something that can be grasped or explored throughout the story.

And here's another:

Point #2: God can show up in fiction in two ways: as a theme or as a character.

Truth, love, and light show up anytime I write. That's just who I am. God is love, and He is the source of truth and light. So whether He is directly named or not, stories containing truth, love, and light bring Him honor because they are aspects of His nature. This is where God can be woven into a story's theme.

But sometimes a fantasy story calls for an allegorical representation of God. This is where He shows up as a character, and this is possibly the hardest thing to get right. (But remember point #1!) He may be visible to other characters and may interact with them face to face. Or He may be invisible, referenced only as other characters pray, worship, or think about Him.

Or there's a third option where God may show up as a character and as part of the theme.

So which is right for your story?

I can't answer that for you. That's something for you to think about, pray about, and experiment with. But I can offer a few thoughts and questions to get you going!

Pros and cons of God as a character

Pros

• We've all wished God was physically here in front of us (at least I have!). Living vicariously through the characters, we get to imagine what it will be like to talk to Him face to face, touch Him, and hear Him speak. If written well, this can be very powerful for you, the characters, and the readers.
• If you're writing an allegory, particularly if it's an allegory of Jesus's life on earth, you'll likely need a God-figure walking around.
• It brings across an immediacy, a tangible presence.
• It can breathe fresh life into our perception of God, especially when you shake up the uber religious picture of God as a stern, old man with a beard who zaps people from heaven. Let's see Him laughing, enjoying life and people! Let's see Him cry. Let's see the real Jesus of the Bible, but with different skin on.

Cons

• You have to put words into God's mouth. That leaves you with two options: quoting directly from Scripture (which can feel shoehorned into the story), or penning your own words (and running the risk of portraying God inaccurately).
• Therefore you may not feel comfortable writing Him as a character.
• It takes a great deal of skill to write a God-figure that feels authentic and true to His nature. If your character falls short, well . . . Let's just say that chances are high He's quite important to your story, so a lot of it may crumble with Him.
• Limiting an infinite being to a finite body can make Him come across as too small.

Examples that shone

• Aslan (Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis) - Warm, mighty, mysterious, faithful, sacrificial. It's hard to even begin to sum him up! Perhaps the most succinct description is, "He's not a tame lion, you know." There's something wild, something awe-inspiring, about him. In this case, putting God in the finite body of a lion was not a disadvantage at all--as a reader, I always felt there was something more to him than what I could see. Something otherworldly.
• Prince Aethelbald (Tales of Goldstone Wood, Anne Elisabeth Stengl) - As a picture of Jesus as the Lover of our souls, he persistently woos Una though she rejects him time and time again. Aethelbald is nothing remarkable to look at. Even his name is the furthest thing from romantic. But his heart beats truer and stronger than any of her other suitors, and by the time I finished reading Heartless, I was stunned by the incredible allegory. Again, presenting God as a flesh-and-blood character could have come across badly, but Anne Elisabeth Stengl gave him the same "something more" element that Aslan has. (Coincidentally, both characters hail from across the sea. Interesting.)

Pros and cons of God as a theme

Pros

• This approach is more subtle.
• It leaves the spotlight on human beings exemplifying Christ-like attributes, rather than putting them all into one character who represents God. These humans don't have to be perfect (in fact, please don't make them that way!), but they serve as examples for us to reach toward.
• This can make your story more accessible to readers who don't consider themselves to be Christians, while still reflecting God in a beautiful way.
• Not every story needs a Savior or Creator. Some are actually better off without it. It's all about the story's scope and purpose.

Cons

• On the other hand, some stories do need a Savior/Creator character. In the case of The Brightest Thread, I had written in some false gods to give the storyworld more depth and texture. But by doing so, I created an imbalance, and then had to invent a God-like figure. If I had left God solely as the immaterial theme of the story, it wouldn't have sat well with me.
• Without a God to rely on, your heroes' journeys may feel like they fall flat. Depending on what kind of story you're writing, your characters may need a higher power to bring about true transformation.
•  Again, depending on the scope of your story, the themes you've so carefully woven into your story may be misconstrued as new age or a Disney-fied "follow your heart" sort of message.

Examples that shone

• Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien)- Okay, okay, I know there technically is a God-figure (Ilúvatar), but to my knowledge he isn't really mentioned in LotR. However, we can all agree that numerous characters exemplify godly attributes like courage, love, kindness, wisdom, justice, grace, etc. Watching Frodo suffer as he carried the ring to Mordor, seeing Sam remain faithful to his friend the whole way, witnessing Gandalf face the Balrog . . . these examples impacted me more than some fictional God-figures have.
• Reapers (Bryan Davis) - Technically this isn't fantasy, it's dystopian. (And God may come up later in the trilogy, I don't know.) But despite the fact that God isn't talked about, Phoenix embarks on a journey that will position him as a hero. A person who rescues the oppressed, who speaks for the voiceless, who defends the defenseless. All qualities that inspire us to do the same.

A note: these lists are in no way exhaustive, and they're not meant to sow doubt in your mind, dear writer! There are so many combinations of writing God as a character and/or as a theme (because you can definitely do both in the same story), and so many degrees therein. This whole post is meant simply to inspire careful consideration and deeper thought.

This isn't a salvation story

That's what I said when wrestling with the God question for The Brightest Thread. And even after deciding to incorporate a fictional God, the fact remained. This novel is not about a character "getting saved" or "finding Jesus." Some novels are, and that's great! But this particular novel is about two people sharing a love strong enough that they would each risk everything for the sake of the other; and about being willing to receive that kind of sacrificial love. That's it.

Characters briefly question God (who goes by another name in the novel), and they briefly reach out for His help. But these protagonists' journeys are not about faith.

I was discussing this with my writing buddy, and brought up the topic of evangelism. In leadership college last year, my leader said something that revolutionized the way I look at evangelizing. To paraphrase:

If a 0 is not knowing Christ, and a 10 is giving your life to Him, we often think that we have to bring someone from 0 to 10 all at once. But maybe all you're supposed to do in that encounter is bring someone from, say, a 3 to a 4. Just one step closer to knowing Jesus. You don't need to force a conversion on the spot. The next Christian to come along may bump that person up to a 5. Or you might be the person to meet someone at 9, and you get the chance to pray with them and see them become a 10.

"I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow." 1 Corinthians 3:6

[via Pinterest]

Maybe it's the same in fiction. We don't have to bring every character to a 10, nor do we have to do that for every reader. Maybe we just plant a seed. Or maybe the story is the water making it grow. What's important is that we are discipling.

Playing matchmaker

My writing buddy subconsciously uses a really cool method of figuring out how to portray God in her stories. She looks at what her story's theme is about--aka, what her main characters need to learn--and she traces that back to an aspect of God.


For example, one of her characters needed to learn about the importance of mercy over justice. So in that particular story, the God-figure's mercy and love are highlighted. She doesn't spend a lot of time on other topics, like God's wisdom or power or holiness. Just what's central to the theme. The result is a beautifully woven tapestry that doesn't bonk the reader over the head with an ill-written sermon.

However . . .

Please, please, PLEASE don't preach.


All of this stuff about figuring out how to portray God and tie in themes and character arcs may be better left as something to study after you've written your story! Especially if you're prone to write from a soapbox.


More and more, I'm learning that the process of writing a transformative story is supposed to transform me first, otherwise it's not authentic.


Writing themes that spring organically from the soil of character conflict and worldbuilding takes practice. A lot of it. But don't let that discourage you from trying, because that's how we all grow.


My friend told me, "Most of the time my characters teach ME things, instead of me trying to teach readers things." Couldn't have said it better myself! So when you're writing God into your stories, let Him surprise you. Let go of what you think you know, and see what happens.

"He who has ears, let him hear."

How and if you choose to convey God in fiction depends largely on your intended audience. But regardless of whether you're writing mainstream or for the Christian community, regardless of whether it's YA or middle grade or adult, resist the urge to explain yourself.


Jesus didn't. In the parables He told to the masses, His Father sometimes appeared as a landowner, a farmer sowing seed, a shepherd, a literal father, a master, a groom, and more. But most of the time, Jesus didn't explain the metaphor to His listeners. He left that up to them. Because when a person puzzles out the hidden meaning of a story themselves, the meaning sticks.

I think Jesus knew that those who were ready to know Him would find Him.