Any Christian literature that's actually, you know, good?

[SpartanDC]

My best friend's birthday is coming up and I want to continue my streak of getting her really good, incredibly personal gifts. She's pretty religious (though far short of being a right-wing zealot) and I'd like to give her some quality Christian literature/poetry that rises above the dreck ("Left Behind" books, etc.) I saw while strolling through a Christian book store one day.

So far my list is....
C.S. Lewis' "Mere Christianity"
Um, that's it so far. Basically, I need some stuff that has withstood the test of time and is regarded as good literature, period, regardless of its Christian themes or messages.

And just to stop all the wiseasses in their tracks: Yes, she already owns The Bible ;)

[Ukulele Ike]

I like G.K. Chesterton a lot.

THE COMPLETE FATHER BROWN might be a good choice. The Father Brown stories are considered second only to the Sherlock Holmes stories as great classic detective fiction. And his THE MAN WHO WAS THURSDAY is an amusing metaphysical thriller.

I'm assuming she doesn't have any problem with them Pope-kissin' Catlicks?

[SpartanDC]

Originally posted by Ukulele Ike
I'm assuming she doesn't have any problem with them Pope-kissin' Catlicks? Um... actually...

She doesn't hate Catholic people, mind you, but she does have some pretty big philosophical beefs about Catholic theology and dogma, to the point where she's told me she couldn't marry one because of the child-rearing problems it would cause.

I'm not really looking for stories about people who just so happen to be religious (like a mystery-solving priest, for example). I'm more looking for things that actually deal with spritual issues or spiritual reflection. This can include books of essays, not just fiction or poetry.

[Nocturne]

Along the lines of C.S. Lewis, I'd recommend "The Screwtape Letters."

If you want quality poets who write well both secularly and Christianically (I made a word!), here's a few:

Milton
Donne (as long as she's okay with reading Catholic literature!)
T. S. Eliot
Emily Dickinson

I think Tolkien might've written theological things too but I'm afraid I'm not well-versed in that.

You might also look for books that deal with the Bible in an interesting manner, for instance books that deal with the history behind the Bible or something such as that. The only word of warning is to find a book with a viewpoint that won't be terribly offensive to her (unless she likes to be offended, like me).

[Neidhart]

C.S. Lewis' "Mere Christianity"

Do you perhaps mean "The Screwtape Letters"? "Mere Christianity" is neither literature nor poetry; it's a series of essays setting forth the basic principles of Christianity.

[Siege]

Actually, I found one a few months ago. Try Desire of the Everlasting Hills; The World Before and After Jesus by Thomas Cahill (IIRC he also wrote How the Irish Saved Civilization. It is not treacly but very thought provoking. I've also lent it to a few thinking Christians in my church who also enjoyed it. I bought my copy at a conventional, large bookstore (I'm not comfortable in the Christian ones).

CJ

[amarinth]

George MacDonald
G.K. Chesterton
C.S. Lewis

There are a lot of authors in the "ok, but not brilliant" range (Left Behind is simply awful, so better than that is not very hard.)

[stargazer]

there's a wonderful book by Kathleen Norris called The Cloister Walk. I highly recommend it. Ms. Norris is a poet who was raised Lutheran (I think), then went away from it as a teenager (in the 60's/70's). This book is about her journey back to faith, and it's amazing. I'm a fast reader, and I read this book slowly, because I didn't ever want it to end. It's very rich -- her being a poet and all -- and just a spectacular book. I'd put it at the top of your list.

Frederick Buechner also writes some good stuff (some fiction, some not), as do Philip Yancey and Eugene Peterson. I haven't read much of their stuff, but they're very well regarded at my (Christian) university.

Good luck -- and let us know what you settle on and how she likes it!

[KinSaba]

To all of the above I would add The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris.

[KinSaba]

Stargazer, you beat me!

[Katisha]

Originally posted by Nocturne
Donne (as long as she's okay with reading Catholic literature!)


Donne came from a Catholic family, but he converted to the Church of England -- around the turn of the seventeenth century, I believe -- and his great religious poetry is written from this perspective.

I love Donne, though, and I wholeheartedly second the recommendation.

[Meatros]

Originally posted by Neidhart


Do you perhaps mean "The Screwtape Letters"? "Mere Christianity" is neither literature nor poetry; it's a series of essays setting forth the basic principles of Christianity.

You know, I was actually going to suggest the Screwtape Letters. It's a great book and a good read...Ok actually I listened to them on CD with John Clease narrating them-that still counts I feel- and I thought the screwtape letters were really thought provoking.

[Boyo Jim]

A Canticle for Leibowitz, by xxxx? Miller, is excellent Christian sci-fi.

[Katisha]

Walter M. Miller, Jr. Another recommendation I wholeheartedly recommend. :)

[SpartanDC]

These all sound like exactly the kind of things I was looking for.

Actually, my friend has read those dreadful "Left Behind" books. Yet she's really smart; I just think she's just never been exposed to anything beyond the overly-sentimental, completely-lacking-in-subtlety-and-nuance crap that Christian book stores are polluted with. She's told me she's getting sick of them, but just keeps reading them because she blew so much money on the first however-many books. As for me, I cracked one open once, and it took me only one or two pages to be absolutely repulsed. They're almost a parody of themselves.

I doubt any of these books are very expensive, so I may just get her a whole bunch of them, from several different periods. I may also get The Screwtape Letters for myself, since I've always wanted to read it. :)

Keep suggestions coming if you think of anything else!

[Katisha]

Originally posted by Katisha
Walter M. Miller, Jr. Another recommendation I wholeheartedly recommend. :)

Argh, I did not just phrase it that way... :eek:

[Orual]

To start getting excessive about the C.S. Lewis; The Chronicles of Narnia are great Christian literature disguised as great children's fantasy.

[ResIpsaLoquitor]

Kingdom Come from DC Comics.

OK, ok, so it incorporates the Superman mythos into the book of Revelation...it's still a good read. Although if you're looking for LITERATURE, there's a novelized edition by Elliot S. Maggin which is even more Biblical than the comics.

[Johanna]

I keep seeing and hearing how the Screwtape Letters are hugely popular, but somehow I never saw the appeal in them. I read some and thought "so what?"

But I really, really like Lewis's Space Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength). I thought he did a bang-up job with that. Even though I'm not Christian, I thoroughly enjoyed it. He gets a little heavy with the dogma in a few places, but that didn't prevent him from writing some exciting, thoughtful adventures. Perelandra has some extremely deep private personal meaning for me.

I still like Tolkien better, because his writing is so well crafted. All of Tolkien's work is suffused with Christian depth, although he never proselytizes the way Lewis did.

Lewis thought his last novel, Till We Have Faces, was by far his best. Doesn't anyone read that any more? I still have to get to it.

I still have to read The Man Who Was Thursday, it really sounds interesting. I just started MacDonald's Lilith, on the basis that Lewis saw MacDonald as the forerunner and inspiration for his fantastic fiction.

Canticle for Leibowitz??? That's very much post-Christian, I would say.

John Donne ROCKS! The 17th century is perhaps the greatest period in English poetry, and Donne is the champ of it. No other English poet has combined Sex and Religion so well.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Charles Williams. If you want really seriously thought-provoking Christian fiction and poetry, you really have to check out Charles Williams. Especially The Place of the Lion (which inspired "Aslan"), Descent into Hell, and All Hallow's Eve. Williams was a one-of-a-kind author. For him poetry had occult incantatory power, and he was a master of several schools of poetry. He was one of the few people to combine Anglican Christianity with occult Magick. His concept of love, which he found in Dante's treatment of Beatrice, was that human love leads to divine love, a belief he shared with Sufis and Tantrics as well as Dante. Williams was one of the three major members of the Inklings, the little coterie that formed around C. S. Lewis and included Tolkien as its other major luminary. I just got done re-reading Humphrey Carpenter's The Inklings and learned more from it than the first time I read it. You all should definitely read The Inklings for an in-depth discussion of what the craft of writing Christian literature meant to Lewis, Tolkien, and Williams and friends.

[foolsguinea]

If you want to shoot really good Jack Lewis into your mainline, read The Horse & His Boy (the fifth or third Narnia book, depending on how you count), The Case for Christianity (which is, I think, included in Mere Christianity), and The Great Divorce ("All Hell is smaller than one pebble of your earthly world: but it is smaller than one atom of this world, the Real World.") I love that.)

But I refuse to turn this into a Jack Lewis appreciation thread, so I'll say, um.... Well, there's all that classic literature from previous centuries, but is Milton the sort of thing you really want to read? Or Dante?

I'd get as much out of Oscar Wilde. Or Koyannisqatsi. OK, maybe not Koyannisqatsi. But, you know, does it have to be explicitly Xtian? Will she only read "Christian" stuff?

Hmm, what are we looking for? There's quite a gulf between, say, the Cotton Patch Bible, and Thomas Aquinas, neither of which is what I imagine you want. I think G. K. Chesterton is a pretty good idea. Also that Lewis guy (sheesh!).

[Ukulele Ike]

Originally posted by SNenc
I'm not really looking for stories about people who just so happen to be religious (like a mystery-solving priest, for example).


If you've ever read a Father Brown story, especially the ones in the first collection, THE INNOCENCE OF FATHER BROWN, you've noticed that this ain't some priest who hangs up his cassock at the church door and goes out to gumshoe around with a roscoe in his hand.

Chesterton was a bear for using theology and Xian philosophy in his fiction, which is one reason these tales are still in print...nobody else did it nearly as well. Or spun such a good story with such clever language.

However, if your friend is leery of the Roman variants on her religion, perhaps it's not the best choice.

But don't dis da Padre, see?

[auRa]

I'm not sure these count, but I really enjoyed The Sparrow and its sequel Children of God, by Mary Doria Russell.. Sci-fi, but it deals with some religious themes as well.

[Sunspace]

"Operation Chaos" by Poul Anderson. Science fiction; it's one of my all-time favourite books. The story takes place in a universe where Heaven and Hell, God and Devil--and magic--are real.

The politics make the Cold War look like two kids in a sandbox. :D

[Jabba]

John Milton: Paradise Lost
Another vote for John Donne
William Blake
Another vote for G K Chesterton. He always denied that The Man Who Was Thrsday had any religious subtext, but every reader I know of has detected one. As further recommendation, from John Carey's Pure Pleasure:
It is a divine comedy by a man who still believes in valour, fair play, happiness and the triumph of good. Usually we feel superior to innocence, associating it with stupidity.But in Chesterton's case that will not work. If you think yourself cleverer than him the odds are about ten million to one that you are wrong.

Graham Greene: Suffers ( from the point of view of your earlier posts) from the fact that it's Catholic, but Greene was only really a Catholic for the intellectual cachet and had a low opinion of those Catholics who were so foolish as to actually to believe in God. Brighton Rock is probably the best introduction to his work.

William Golding: Pincher Martin is about what happens when man tries to do without God ( from Golding's perspective, anyway).

[king of spain]

Don't feel restricted to Mere Christianity[/b] - Lewis has lots and lots of other essay collections that are all well worth reading. In addition, anyone who reads [i]Left Behind should be force-fed Lewis' fiction as an antidote. I only ever got around to reading the beginning of Till We Have Faces, but it seemed quite good, and of course I adore the Narnia Chronicles and the Space Trilogy. (I'm not sure I'd go with foolsguinea's suggestion of The Horse and His Boy, though; while it's one of my favorites, a lot of other people think it's the weakest of the Narnia books. I'd suggest one of the first four, from the classic numbering system.)

Besides his fiction, Chesterton also has Orthodoxy - an explanation of his faith and philosophy, sort of similar to Mere Christianity. I don't remember it being too specifically Catholic, but it's been a while; has anyone else read it more recently?

And while I haven't read The Cloister Walk, Kathleen Norris also has Amazing Grace, a wonderful essay collection - a series of reflection on important words and concepts in Christianity.

[istara]

We used to love end-of-project or end-of-term time in Divinity Class, where we'd just get to read books from the Christian Union library during lesson time.

The reason for this was that these books were generally true-life accounts packed with sex, crime and dirty things ;) with the "wrongdoer" finding God and welcoming Jesus into their life, but not usually until the last page.

There was one in particular about a woman who worked as a stripper calling "Daring Diana" as well as being a prostitute, and chief witch of some black coven that made themselves invisible on Dartmoor. Highly juicy material for repressed 11/12/13-year-olds at a very strictly evangelical school.

[KinSaba]

Hinds Foot in High Places. The name of the author escapes me at the moment and my copy has been lent out ... apparently forever.

[Thudlow Boink]

I second (or third, or nth--whatever we're up to) pretty much anything by C.S. Lewis or G.K. Chesterton.

What about Madeleine L'Engle? She's best known for her children's books (A Wrinkle In Time et al) but has also written novels for adults, and she may be at her best in her memoir-type non-fiction.

Dostoyevsky?

[Humble Servant]

Yeah, Dostoyevsky--how about The Idiot? Oh wait, he's Russian orthodox/mystic.

How about Thomas Merton's The Seven Storey Mountain? Oh wait, he's a papist.

How about St. Augustine's Confessions? Might work--a papist but pre-Reformation so eveyone can claim him.

[Steve Wright]

As a thoroughly Protestant type - I'm inclined to recommend Chesterton anyway. The "Father Brown" stories are wonderfully well-written, and have a solid underpinning of Christian thinking, not just Catholic/Protestant.

I'll also add a vote for Dante's Divine Comedy - in a suitably accessible translation, of course (unless your friend reads mediaeval Italian). I've always had a soft spot for the copiously annotated translation by Dorothy Sayers (herself no mean lay Christian thinker). Great poem - and, while Dante (being pre_Lutheran) is an RC, he had a few ideas on the proper treatment of Popes who abused the office.

[stargazer]

I read Till We Have Faces in high school; it was very good, but somewhat over my head at the time. I should try it again. Lewis' The Great Divorce is also wonderful -- hell, pretty much anything he wrote is good! (well, except maybe his poetry. It's not his strong point, I can tell you that.)

Another book I really enjoyed is Through the Shadowlands, a biography of Lewis' life, by Brian Sibley. My copy was never returned by a friend, so it's been quite a while since I've read it. I seem to remember, though, that it was fascinating (much better than the movie!)

A book that I end up reading about once a year is Ben Hur. Surprising, I know, and more historical fiction than Christian, per se, but I still get a lot out of it, and it makes the Christmas and Easter stories mean so much more. It might be worth looking into.

[CalMeacham]

There's a lot more to C.S. Lewis than Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters. Try his science fiction trilogy Perelandra, Out of the Silent Planet, and That Hideous Strength. Not to mention his fantasy series starting with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. And try his Heaven-and-Hell story The Great Divorce.

You can't beat the classics. I liked Sir Thomas More's Utopia and Desiderius Erasmus' In Praise of Folly, both available from Penguin Classics.

I'll second Ben Hur. At times it gets hard going, but Wallace came up with the idea of writing about (and researched) chariot races and Roman naval battles. Impressive stuff. But having Balthasar as a main character seems too off the wall, and some of his side-plots fo on for too long.

Some of the medieval Mystery Plays are fun. PBS did a great adaptation of them about 15 years ago.

[astorian]

The OP has a dilemma. There's LOTS of brilliant Christian literature I could recommend, just as there's LOTS of brilliant Christian music I could recommend. But... you're not going to find any of it in a standard American strip-mall "Christian" book store!

In terms of poetry, there's John Donne, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and John Milton. Among novelists, there's Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Victor Hugo, Graham Greene... the list is endless.

As for Christian music, well, Christian faith inspired much of the best of Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Vivaldi. Again, it's a long list.
But as I said, you're not likely to find THAT kind of Christian music at standard Christian book stores.

I happen to think that, if you're looking for great Christian literature, you don't start with Christian authors and weed out the ones who aren't great. Rather, you start with great authors and weed out the ones who aren't Christian. That is, when a great author turns his attention to Christianity, the result is likely to be brilliant. But when a mediocre author writes esxclusively about Christianity, the results are likely to be awful. And it's precisely THAT kind of literature that fills the shelves of most Christian book stores.

Similarly, when a composer as brilliant as Haydn writes a piece about the Creation, the results are splendid. But when an untalented composer writes music with exclusively Christian themes, the results are usually awful. But you'll find THAT kind of music in a Christian bookstore far more often than you'll find Haydn's "Creation."

Unfortunately, I get the feeling the person the OP wants to buy for is ONLY interested in the kind of books/music you'd see at a mainstream Christian bookstore- stuff that's unoriginal, unchallenging, and simplistic.

[Tygr]

Throw her a curve ball - give her Flatland.

A story of a citizen of a two-dimensional world who has an encounter with a citizen of a three-dimensional world.

Can you see the allegorical possibilities? This book has ideas that can be applied to physics (dimensional perception), relationships (personality perception), religion (spiritual perception), and probably other areas I've not considered yet.

A truly fascinating read. I read it once about 15 years ago and still ponder its ideas to this day.

IMHO, a 180º polar opposite to the LB series, who's authors, I suspect, might have a bit in common with the 0-dimensional citizen... ;)

[JThunder]

Originally posted by Neidhart
"Mere Christianity" is neither literature nor poetry; it's a series of essays setting forth the basic principles of Christianity.
Essays are a form of literature.

[amarinth]

Originally posted by Humble Servant
Yeah, Dostoyevsky--how about The Idiot? Oh wait, he's Russian orthodox/mystic.Along this line, I've also heard (but not read yet) that Solzhenitsyn is very good.

[The_Peyote_Coyote]

I can only second the recommendations of G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, and Walter M. Miller, Jr. If she likes horror novels, I recommend Frank Peretti's This Present Darkness, Piercing the Darkness, and The Oath
To the list of poets I would add Gerald Manley Hopkins (surprised no one hasn't mentioned him).
Have her check out some Ray Bradbury. He sometimes used Christian themes very well. Buy her S is for Space just for "The Man." I'll bet she'll enjoy many of the other stories as well.

[king of spain]

Originally posted by Thudlow Boink

What about Madeleine L'Engle? She's best known for her children's books (A Wrinkle In Time et al) but has also written novels for adults, and she may be at her best in her memoir-type non-fiction.


*slaps forehead* How could I possibly forget L'Engle? Great suggestion. Besides her adult novels and nonfiction, I think a lot of her children's books are the kind that would still make great reading for adults - plus, they're pretty much mandatory if you haven't read them yet. Probably the most explicitly Christian are A Wind in the Door (has a cherubim as a main character - yes, I mean a cherubim) and Many Waters (retelling of the Noah's ark story).

[Lissla Lissar]

Yay! I have found other Lewis-and-Chesterton fans! (happy dance). As I mentioned in another thread, I own two copies of Chesterton's Orthodoxy. One for me, one for all the other people who keep borrowing it. Honestly.
I practically memorised it- we read it for school and I fell in love with his writing. He was Anglican when he wrote it- it was before his conversion to Catholicism. The Everlasting Man is probably his best book, and his essays are great.
C.S. Lewis has already been thoroughly recommended. So has Kathleen Norris... I second Madeleine L'Engle, especially her Crosswicks diaries, and Icons And Idols.
Richard John Neuhaus has written some excellent stuff, but he's Catholic... Yancey's pretty good... Annie Dillard? Particularly For The Time Being and Holy The Firm. Esther De Waal has written some good stuff about the Benedictines, and there are some wonderful collections of Desert Fathers sayings. Check out Ignatius Press- it's where I got my finace his copy of Ignatius Loyola's Spiritual Exercises. They do reprintings of classic Christian books.
One of my favorite Christian novels is by Michael O'Brien, titled Father Elijah: An Apocalypse. For the record, "apocalypse" doesn't mean, "paranoid warnings" it means, "unveiling". It's a pretty broad term, theologically. Wendell Berry, novels and poetry. The Penses, Blaise Pascal.

I'll stop. Whew.
:D

[Ukulele Ike]

Originally posted by Lissla Lissar
The Everlasting Man is probably his best book


Exxxxxxxcellent. I bought a copy of this at the used bookshop last year sometime, and haven't gotten around to it yet. I will get around to it sooner, now.

[rowrrbazzle]

I agree with the recommendations for C.S. Lewis, among others.

I have one concern about A Canticle for Leibowitz. It's an excellent novel, but I'd say the viewpoint is Catholic. In fact, the Pope even puts in an appearance. You might thing twice about this if your friend has issues with Catholic doctrine.

James Blish's A Case of Conscience is another good SF/religious novel. Again, however, I'd say its viewpoint is Catholic.

[Wendell Wagner]

Jomo Mojo writes:

> Lewis thought his last novel, Till We Have Faces, was by far his
> best. Doesn't anyone read that any more? I still have to get to
> it.

I think that it's his best novel too. Indeed, a lot of Lewis fans think so. One other Lewis book I don't think was mentioned yet is _Surprised by Joy_, a memoir of his life up to the point it was written, mostly about his spiritual journey.

> Canticle for Leibowitz??? That's very much post-Christian, I
> would say.

Walter Miller was a sincere Catholic at the time he wrote _A Canticle for Leibowitz_, but he left the church several years afterwards, and at the end of his life he was expousing something like a anti-rationalist nihilism.

> I'm surprised no one has mentioned Charles Williams. If you
> want really seriously thought-provoking Christian fiction and
> poetry, you really have to check out Charles Williams. Especially
> The Place of the Lion (which inspired "Aslan"), Descent into Hell,
> and All Hallow's Eve. Williams was a one-of-a-kind author. For
> him poetry had occult incantatory power, and he was a master
> of several schools of poetry. He was one of the few people to
> combine Anglican Christianity with occult Magick. His concept of
> love, which he found in Dante's treatment of Beatrice, was that
> human love leads to divine love, a belief he shared with Sufis
> and Tantrics as well as Dante. Williams was one of the three
> major members of the Inklings, the little coterie that formed
> around C. S. Lewis and included Tolkien as its other major
> luminary.

Do you know about the Mythopoeic Society? See here:

http://www.mythsoc.com/

stargazer writes:

> Another book I really enjoyed is Through the Shadowlands, a
> biography of Lewis' life, by Brian Sibley. My copy was never
> returned by a friend, so it's been quite a while since I've read
> it. I seem to remember, though, that it was fascinating (much
> better than the movie!)

There are better biographies of Lewis than Sibley's (which in any case is very short and doesn't even cover his whole life). I recommend George Sayer's biography of Lewis, _Jack_. I don't recommend A. N. Wilson's biography of Lewis.

[Neidhart]

Walter Miller was a sincere Catholic at the time he wrote _A Canticle for Leibowitz_, but he left the church several years afterwards, and at the end of his life he was expousing something like a anti-rationalist nihilism.

A-HA!! So that's why Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman was unreadable rubbish!

Such a disappointment, after I'd looked forward to it for years.

There's plenty of room for more novels (good ones!) in that universe. What I'd really like to see is a translation into English of Boedullus.

That and a history textbook from 1800 years after the nuclear war - that is, the setting of the last segment of ACfL.

[RTFirefly]

A second on Dostoyevsky, though I'd recommend The Brothers Karamazov ahead of The Idiot.

But read him yourself to decide whether it's the sort of thing she'd like. It's not all plot and action, so it's not everyone's cup of tea.

With Madeleine L'Engle, I'd particularly recommend A Wrinkle in Time, which is one of my all-time favorites, as well as A Ring of Endless Light and Many Waters.

And C.S. Lewis could be a bit too rational, at times, to be a good writer. But by the time he wrote Till We Have Faces, life had taught him a few things, and he'd moved past that. Which is why it's easily his best work of fiction. Second-best, I'd say, is The Great Divorce, which is a fun book, but it's a distant second.

And Tolkien...The Lord of the Rings is one of the most remarkable works of Christian fiction ever, without ever mentioning a deity.

[SpartanDC]

Wow, picking out books for her went from hard to really easy... and now back to really hard because I have so many things to choose from!

I'm definitely getting a couple of Lewis books, probably "Mere Christianity" and "Till We Have Faces" based on what I've read here. Then maybe I'll throw on a little bit of Chesterton (probably "Orthodoxy" and a Father Brown book.. or maybe The Everlasting Man), since it doesn't seem too steeped in Catholicism. And I think the Norris stuff would be right up her alley.

Also, this thread has now added many things to my own personal reading list, so everyone benefits. :)

Keep 'em coming!

[Lissla Lissar]

Right. I forgot to mention The Great Divorce and Surpised By Joy, so I'm glad someone else did. Jean Vanier's Becoming Human is very good, too... am I the only Annie Dillard fan here, folks?

Ha ha! From Holy The Firm...
] I know only enough of God to want to worship him, by any means ready to hand. There is an anomalous specificity to all our experience in space, a scandal of particularity, by which God burgeons up or showers down into the shabbiest of occasions, and leaves his creation's dealing s with him in the hands of purblind and clumsy amateurs…

(After buying Communion wine) [I]Here is a bottle of wine with a label, Christ with a cork. I bear holiness splintered into a vessel, very God of very God, the sempiternal silence personal and brooding, bright on the back of my ribs... Through all my clothing, through the pack on my back and through the bottle's glass I feel the wine. Walking faster and faster, weightless, I feel the wine. It sheds light in slats through my rib cage, and fills the buttressed vaults of my ribs with light pooled and buoyant. I am moth; I am light. I am prayer and I can hardly see...[/I

[kaiju]

Any women posting to this thread? Because, no offense, but you're answering like a bunch of guys.

I go along with most of the recomendations so far, but my Christian women friends are all reading the Mitford books by Jan Karon and The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. The first is a series of novels about life of priest and parishoners in a small Episcopal church (I think, didn't read 'em) The second is a retelling of one of the old testement books (Ruth, I think gave it as a gift, but didn't read it either). They're all a little to mild and feminine for me (I'm a tough old broad) but go over big with my mother in law, women's fiction, religious and miles ahead of the Left Behind junk in quality.

[Orual]

The Red Tent is a very good book, a female-oriented retelling of the Genesis stories of Jacob and Joseph. However I wouldn't call it Christian literature. The overall theme is rather anti-patriarchal monotheism, and many of the characters are quite vehemently bitter about the worship of the God of Abraham.

[kaiju]

Womwn recognizing that the church is patriarchal? :eek:

But so far none of the Christian women I know that's read it have been offended by it. And my MIL is a pretty frosty church lady. She liked it so much she loaned it back to me and insisted I should read it. A lot of church women's reading groups have picked up on it, too. I'm a librarian. I know these things.

If the female friend of the OP is born again, it might not wash, but if she's mainstream I'd still recommend it.

[kaiju]

I mean women. That was me typing while eating lunch, not inventing new feminist words.

[lel]

One Christian-themed book I have enjoyed is The Christian Agnostic, by Leslie Weatherhead. (However, it's primarily an exposition on Christianity - not literature or poetry.)

Please take any of my ideas with a grain of salt, however, as I am frequently a fan of unimaginative and simplistic books.

[CrankyAsAnOldMan]

You know, one of my Christian friends was bothered a bit by The Red Tent because she felt it took liberties with the bible. I don't care to start that debate here, but I add it as another cautionary note for that choice.

Since others also seem to be interested in Christian literature, I'd like to recommend "The Samurai" by Shusaku Endo. It provides an interesting view of Christianity from another culture, as it is an historical novel about a Franciscan monk in 17th-century Japanese culture.

A little more light-hearted is the classic book "Christy," the one that was made into a TV series. Stop retching, it's not a bad read, really, for all its sappiness.

Other fiction that I've liked included books by Morris West, especially "Lazarus." It's about a pope who undergoes serious heart surgery and has to recover by living quietly among people in the country rather than in the midst of Vatican politics. He undergoes a huge change as he rexamines his faith. It's Catholic-intensive, for sure, but worth a look.

[stargazer]

oh yeah -- Silence by Shusaku Endo is also great.

As for Shadowlands, Wendell Wagner is prob'ly right: it's not the best biography of Lewis' life. But it's still a good read, if one isn't looking for a biography. That's why I recommended it (Jack is definitely a much better bio, if she's interested in bios).

Some good fiction I just remembered: Frank Peretti's This Present Darkness and [/i]Piercing the Darkness[/i]. Very good novels about spiritual warfare and stuff -- well written, too, unlike the Left Behind nonsense. I really enjoyed them (and I was an English major, so I'm supposedly "trained" in what's good and what's not! :) ) -- they're vivid and gripping, even if one doesn't agree with every bit of theology they espouse. (That's kind of par for the course in Christian writing)

And Cranky -- I enjoyed Christy, too. :)

[Manach]

Nth vote for Chesterton.
+ Brother Cadfael series of detective novels set in Norman England by Ellis Peters
+ Inferno, a scifi take on Dante's Classic by Niven and Pornelle

[Wendell Wagner]

KinSaba writes:

> Hinds Foot in High Places. The name of the author escapes me
> at the moment and my copy has been lent out ... apparently
> forever.

I see no one has answered this yet. It's by Hannah Hurnard.

[foolsguinea]

The Mythopoeic Society is at
http://www.mythsoc.org/ org, not com.

[Nenya_Elizabeth]

Yes, J. R. R. Tolkien! Absolutely great stuff, actually based in Christian ideas, without being obvious about it. He was actually a Catholic (converted from Church of England as a child or young man I believe), and a few of the particulars of the stories, especially the Valar, who can be seen as analogous to the Catholic saints, bother some Protestants. Most of the appearances of the Valar are in The Silmarillion, though. If you friend hasn't read LotR yet, and doesn't mind a huge long 3-volume read, force feed...er, I mean gently introduce her to....The Lord of the Rings. (Side benefit: movies comin' out now on the book! :) )

Frank Peretti is good writing, I think, if by that you mean it scares the pants off you!! Heh. :) Very enjoyable, just don't read them at 2 a.m.

Hinds' Feet on High Places (Hannah Hurnard) is pretty allegorical, kind of like Pilgrim's Progress. I enjoyed Hind's Feet more than Pilgrim's Progress, though. There's a sequel called Mountains of Spices. I would have to agree with Tolkien, though, who said he liked history, "real or feigned," better than allegory.

I would also recommend Dorothy Sayers, A Man Born to Be King. Plays read on the radio in England during WW II, available in book form but I don't know where from (may be fairly rare??) The life of Jesus of Nazareth, told from the viewpoint of the people around him, who didn't know that he was the Son of God and going to save everybody. Great stuff, I've gotta finish reading it.

I think it was Dorothy Sayers who said that in order for drama/art to be good religion, it must first be good art.

Now *I* gotta go get some stuff by G. K. Chesterton...I've heard he was good but haven't got around to reading him yet.

[Lissla Lissar]

Read Chesterton, and fall in love. ;) What's not to like about a 400-lb cape-wearing, swordstick-carrying English journalist who wrote essays about lying in bed and staring at the ceiling? Whee!

[Lsura]

One of my favorite Christian novels is by Michael O'Brien, titled Father Elijah: An Apocalypse. For the record, "apocalypse" doesn't mean, "paranoid warnings" it means, "unveiling". It's a pretty broad term, theologically.

I recently started reading O'Brien's books - there are several out. I really enjoyed them, but the focus is on Catholicism. If the OP's friend disagrees with some Catholic theology, that may distract from their enjoyment.

[The Great Zamboni]

Dietrich Bonhoeffer The Cost of Discipleship.
I've never read, but I intend to. The description on my reading list makes it look good.

Left Behind is crap, but I'm addicted. I can't wait to see how it ends.

[HoldenCaulfield]

I can't say from personal experience, but my parents love Emmet Fox, especially Sermon on the Mount.