# Any Christian literature that's actually, you know, good? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 9, 2002, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-christian-literature-thats-actually-you-know-good/102727 "2002-04-09T21:48:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SpartanDC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b2d939/32.png) [@SpartanDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpartanDC)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-christian-literature-thats-actually-you-know-good/102727/1 "2002-04-09T21:48:11Z")
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…[ul] [li]C.S. Lewis’ “Mere Christianity”[/li][/ul] 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 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-christian-literature-thats-actually-you-know-good/102727/2 "2002-04-09T22:03:48Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![SpartanDC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b2d939/32.png) [@SpartanDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpartanDC)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-christian-literature-thats-actually-you-know-good/102727/3 "2002-04-09T22:15:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*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. ---
**Author:** ![Nocturne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9fc348/32.png) [@Nocturne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nocturne)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-christian-literature-thats-actually-you-know-good/102727/4 "2002-04-09T22:32:29Z")
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). ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-christian-literature-thats-actually-you-know-good/102727/5 "2002-04-09T22:35:40Z")
> [@](#): > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![Siege](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@Siege](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siege)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-christian-literature-thats-actually-you-know-good/102727/6 "2002-04-09T22:36:46Z")
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 ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-christian-literature-thats-actually-you-know-good/102727/7 "2002-04-10T00:05:55Z")
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.) ---
**Author:** ![stargazer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb8c5e/32.png) [@stargazer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stargazer)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-christian-literature-thats-actually-you-know-good/102727/8 "2002-04-10T00:21:23Z")
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! ---
**Author:** ![KinSaba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7bcc69/32.png) [@KinSaba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KinSaba)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-christian-literature-thats-actually-you-know-good/102727/9 "2002-04-10T00:21:47Z")
To all of the above I would add _The Cloister Walk_ by Kathleen Norris. ---
**Author:** ![KinSaba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7bcc69/32.png) [@KinSaba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KinSaba)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-christian-literature-thats-actually-you-know-good/102727/10 "2002-04-10T00:22:59Z")
Stargazer, you beat me! ---
**Author:** ![Katisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bcef8e/32.png) [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-christian-literature-thats-actually-you-know-good/102727/11 "2002-04-10T00:32:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*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. ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-christian-literature-thats-actually-you-know-good/102727/12 "2002-04-10T00:48:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*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. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-christian-literature-thats-actually-you-know-good/102727/13 "2002-04-10T01:04:26Z")
_A Canticle for Leibowitz_, by xxxx? Miller, is excellent Christian sci-fi. ---
**Author:** ![Katisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bcef8e/32.png) [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-christian-literature-thats-actually-you-know-good/102727/14 "2002-04-10T01:28:25Z")
Walter M. Miller, Jr. Another recommendation I wholeheartedly recommend. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![SpartanDC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b2d939/32.png) [@SpartanDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpartanDC)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-christian-literature-thats-actually-you-know-good/102727/15 "2002-04-10T01:29:44Z")
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! ---
**Author:** ![Katisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bcef8e/32.png) [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-christian-literature-thats-actually-you-know-good/102727/16 "2002-04-10T01:45:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Katisha \* > \*\*Walter M. Miller, Jr. Another recommendation I wholeheartedly recommend. 🙂 \*\* Argh, I did not just phrase it that way… :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Orual](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/779978/32.png) [@Orual](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orual)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-christian-literature-thats-actually-you-know-good/102727/17 "2002-04-10T01:46:10Z")
To start getting excessive about the C.S. Lewis; _The Chronicles of Narnia_ are great Christian literature disguised as great children’s fantasy. ---
**Author:** ![ResIpsaLoquitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b3f665/32.png) [@ResIpsaLoquitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ResIpsaLoquitor)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-christian-literature-thats-actually-you-know-good/102727/18 "2002-04-10T02:20:48Z")
**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. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-christian-literature-thats-actually-you-know-good/102727/19 "2002-04-10T02:48:42Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-christian-literature-thats-actually-you-know-good/102727/20 "2002-04-10T03:24:20Z")
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!). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-christian-literature-thats-actually-you-know-good/102727.md?page=2)