What Does “Christian Fiction” Mean to You?

Apparently there’s a far reaching debate going on in the world out there about labeling something “Christian Fiction.” I have to admit, I wasn’t really aware of the debate until my uncle (also a writer) posted something on his blog a while back. But even then, I wasn’t convinced it was something people really cared overly much about. I mean, in the overall scheme of things, there just seems to be so many more important things to worry about than how we label what we write.

Then I started reading a few of the articles that are out there. Christianity Today wrote an article in February that, at least for me, left the take away as “Christian fiction is sub-par and we should be ashamed of it.” They said more than that, but the last paragraph basically can be summarized as I’ve said above. Then they wrote a follow up article. Frankly, I’m not sure what the point of it was other than to say, effectively, more of what they said in the first article.

This isn’t to say they didn’t make a few good points – but I think before you can really enter into this discussion, you have to be clear on a few things, primary among them: Who is your audience?

I would imagine that most people who write something labeled “Christian Fiction” are writing it as “Fiction for Christians.” This means that it’s not designed as an evangelistic tool. It’s not likely to be something a non-believer picks up, reads, and thinks “Aha!” (Obviously, if they’re searching, God can and will use fiction of any variety to make His word known. Just in general, writers in the Christian market aren’t expecting people who cling to a world view contrary to the Bible to be interested in their work.) Just as “science fiction” is for folks who love science and technology in a fictional setting, Christian fiction is for folks who love a Christian worldview in a fictional setting. And so Christian Fiction blends that Christian worldview into the other genres.

This is where my uncle chimed in – because he doesn’t feel you can–or should–use Christian as an adjective. I disagree with that theory, myself (after all, the dictionary comes up with a definition as an adjective right off the bat when you look it up — “of, relating to, or professing Christianity or its teachings”) but I understand his point to a degree. I think his broader point was that there are genres already – why do we need to tack “Christian” onto them?

In a perfect world, we wouldn’t have to add that label – but we don’t live in a perfect world. Browse through Amazon reviews for Christian books (or even books that just happen to have a strong Christian in the lead character role without the clear label “Christian”) and you’ll see flame after flame of “I bought this book and had to throw it away half way through when the God-talk got to be too much. This is a Christian novel – be warned!” (Or something along those lines.) So the label is useful from a marketing perspective because reviews matter. The number of stars on something matter. And just as you wouldn’t want an unsuspecting teenager picking up 50 Shades of Grey only to find out that, woah, they need to bleach their eyeballs, the Christian label is useful in helping readers who don’t want God and the Bible in their stories – as well as those who do.

I don’t have a problem with the label myself. I’m a big fan of knowing what’s in things – whether that’s at the bookstore or the supermarket. And since books don’t have a list of ingredients (8 swear words, 2 gratuitous bedroom scenes, 1 risky situation of mild terror), we’re stuck with genre labels.

As for quality – one of the initial arguments in the Christianity Today articles – I don’t buy it. There’s good Christian fiction out there, there’s awesome Christian Fiction out there, and there’s some downright terrible stuff as well. But there’s good secular fiction, awesome secular fiction and boy howdy is there some downright terrible stuff out there, too. One label isn’t indicative of quality – that’s what the Amazon “Look Inside!” feature is for.