200. Why Should We Love to Explore Fantastical Stories for God’s Glory?

Today is Fantastical Truth episode 200! This gives a great occasion for us to consider not just how we find the best Christian-made fantasy, but why we must explore fantastical stories for God’s glory. Episode sponsors Oasis Audio: “1232” epic audio podcast Return of the Lost Ones by David Liberto Realm Makers: 2024 writers conference Mission update Article: What If I Find Sexual Identity Notions in My Child’s New Book? Subscribe free to get updates and join the Lorehaven Guild Quotes and notes This foundational episode fits into our series called Fiction’s Chief End. Previous episodes explore what we mean by the phrase “Christian story.” We’ve also explored we need genres like fiction, fantasy, and sci-fi. Also, what’s our one job in reading stories? And what about horror? 1. ‘Lorehaven helps Christian fans …’ Here’s our mission statement from the About page at Lorehaven.com: Lorehaven helps Christian fans explore fantastical stories for Christ’s glory: fantasy, science fiction, and beyond. Stephen briefly recaps the Lorehaven origin story. Lorehaven isn’t like ministries that teach Bible study or church work. We’re also not focused on “Christians engaging the popular culture.” Nor are we an evangelistic enterprise. We’re an outreach to Christians. And we’re meant for Christians who already like these stories, or want to. 2. ‘… Explore fantastical stories …’ Christian readers already want fantastical stories (and/or for their kids). But they often return to secular markets and expecting Moral Values. We don’t oppose this, but why ignore great Christian-made stories? We talked about this in our recent article about Sexual Identity Notions. Implicit in our phrase is our focus on Christian-made fantastical stories. After all, only these stories are made with the goal of glorifying God. Secular-made stories, even the best ones, glory Him by accident. See the Exodus phrase that God will “get glory over” Pharaoh. God will “get glory over” anything, but get glory through His people. 3. ‘… for God’s glory’ What we don’t mean by God’s glory: only obviously spiritual tasks Christians still assume that “ministry” is only churchy or charity work (Even one recent big game ad repeated this very traditional myth!) But when we say “God’s glory,” we mean all that’s wonderful in God. John Piper often teaches about God’s glory, and he wrote this: Here is an attempt at a definition: the glory of God is the infinite beauty and greatness of God’s manifold perfections. I am focusing on the manifestation of his character and his worth and his attributes. All of his perfections and greatness are beautiful as they are seen, and there are many of them. That is why I use the word manifold. Here it is in another sentence: the glory of God is the infinite beauty and greatness of his manifold perfections. ‘What is God’s Glory?’, Ask Pastor John podcast, July 22, 2014 From there we apply the phrase for God’s glory to what we do as fans. We believe that exploring stories must be an act of worshiping God. Nonfiction often can’t do this as well. We are not “brains in tanks.” Even before the Incarnation, God was acting narratively in the world. He reveals Himself not just as propositional truths, but as Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit gives His truth in the Bible, yet makes it live in our lives. So also we see ourselves reflected in fictional heroes with journeys. Com station How do you glorify God specifically by enjoying fantastical stories? Next on Fantastical Truth Nobody claims to like “hatred.” That’s bad. Everybody claims they want to “love their neighbor.” That’s good. But what does this mean? Should Christian-made stories repeat these messages so that readers know Christians are good and not bad? And do stories made with this goal actually help or hurt our neighbors?