If you’re in Chicago, come see this band this evening. They’re good and stuff.

The other day I was talking about Christians and videogames, and I postulated (have you noticed that I use that word a lot? I like it) that not only can Christians not make good videogames, they also don’t write science fiction very well.

In a shocking turn of events, my friend Ben sent me an email arguing against me. Me! Seriously. I know!

Orson Scott Card(Ender’s Game and it’s sequels, which are all excellent) is an example of a good Christian SciFi writer. Given, he’s Mormon, but it’s still a form of Christianity whether the rest of the Christianity wants to admit it or not.

Later
Ben

OK, those are actually both good points.

I should have made my point a little clearer. It wasn’t really that Christians can’t make good videogames and sci fi– they can, and, as Ben says, they do.

My point was that they can’t make good Christian videogames and Sci Fi. Ender’s Game is a great book, but you don’t come away from it with a deeper respect for God. Sure, if someone explains the messianic implications to you, you might be able to draw some conclusions about the way OSC felt about religion and Ender, but it’s not a Christian book in that it doesn’t attempt to encourage you towards Christ.

I talked about the reasons for this last time. Sci Fi as a genre is dependent on creating fantastical worlds, all the more fantastical because they end up being eerily similar to ours. If you create a fantastical version of God, it’s called idolatry, and it’s not something that Christians do to sell their religions. More likely, it’s what good authors do to try to knock it down. In a “progress and justice” good way, of course.

But I digress. The Chronicles of Narnia is a great series of books, and C.S. Lewis was much more Christian than your average author. Have you ever read The Screwtape Letters? There’s some hardcore fundamentalism in there. If anyone was going to write a Christian fantasy, it would be C.S. Lewis.

Here’s the rub, though: The Chronicles of Narnia is allegory. Allegory changes everything. Sci Fi works on the fact that you know that this world is a strange representation of our world. If you read about flying cars in a book, all you have to do is look out the window to know that you’re reading Sci Fi. But in allegory, not only do imperfect imitations represent other things, but the story itself has to stand on its own. Sure, the symbolism can work on one level, but one rule of allegory is that the story you’re telling (it’s been a while since I read it, but CoN is about a lion who fights a witch inside a wardrobe) about the things that symbolize the things you’re telling the story about (C.S. Lewis is really talking about God and his relation to Creation) have to work as two seperate things. They both have to work on both levels.

Which means that you can read Chronicles of Narnia, not realizing it’s about God, and still get something out of the story. Which makes it, since you don’t HAVE to think about God, not necessarily a Christian book. Does it work as Christian allegory? Yes. Unless you switch around the symbols, which, since C.S. Lewis is long gone, might be possible.

As for Lord of the Rings, I haven’t studied the Christian aspects of that much. If you know more than I do, email me about it.

Finally, I should add one more thing. I mentioned this the other day, but probably not as clearly as I should have. Just because I don’t believe that Christians can make good videogames doesn’t mean it can’t happen. A great programmer can make a great videogame about anything, just as a really great writer can make you see any point of view with any story. I just don’t think it’s happened yet, in videogames or Sci Fi.

Fortunately for Christians, the religion’s been around for centuries, and videogames and Sci Fi are almost totally new. So there’s time. Just like almost everything else having to do with God, I guess we’ll have to wait and see.