We had a bunch of Arch Books in my house, too, but I figured that they fell under the OP’s “no scripture” restriction.
One of the earliest books I recall reading and my second science fiction one is Roger Zelazny’s Creatures of Light and Darkness, in which several of the characters are gods. Of a sort. I’m not quite sure if that counts, though.
But I did read his Lord of Light fairly shortly afterwards, which is a book permeated with religious issues. I also read the Narnia books around then, but most of the religious allusions flew over my head until decades later.
I didn’t read about Narnia until I was an adult. I wish I had read it earlier, to see if I would have spotted the allegory.
OTOH, he does not doubt he is putting his soul in peril of Hell by helping Jim run away.
Funny thing about Narnia – most Narnians willingly follow Aslan when he shows up in person, but they don’t pay him much attention the rest of the time. There is no Church of Aslan, no temples, no commandments, no priesthood. In Calormen, OTOH, they take Tash seriously at all times.
I sometimes wonder, what is Harry Potter’s religion? He has a “godfather,” which implies Christian baptism, and Hogwarts observes Christian (and otherwise muggle-popular) holidays, but it has no Christian chapel. OTOH, wizards do not appear to have any pagan religion of their own. Gods are never mentioned.
AIUI, Hannukah was never a very important Jewish holiday, until American Jews decided they wanted their own Christmas.
OK, I guess I get it. I am a little surprised that any adult would not know that Lewis, being perhaps the best-known Christian apologist in the English-speaking world, had written *The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe *as a Christian allegory.
I don’t know how old you were when you were given this book, but in my opinion the adult who gave it to you was either ignorant or trying to proselytize to an unsuspecting child, which (speaking as a believing Christian) I find incredibly distasteful (at best) and just plain wrong.
Yes. I’m lukewarm at best about the Father Brown stories, and every other piece of fiction and non-fiction that Chesterton ever wrote.
I know us Catholics are supposed to think Chesterton is the best thing since sliced bread, but he’s, well, not.
Anyone whose style is that easy to parody probably isn’t that great.
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe can be, and has been, read as fantasy by kids oblivious to the Christian parallels.
The Narnia books are neither mere proselytization nor allegory in the strict sense—at least, so it seems to me, and to Lewis himself.
Heidi, which I would have read around kindergarten age, contains many references to the comfort of prayer and hymns and God’s creation.
I’m so pleased to hear from others who read the All of a Kind Family books! They are so sweet. I learned so much about Judaism from those books.
Chesterton’s good at what he’s good at, but he’s not for everybody. His shtick—the way his mind apparently worked—often involved paradoxes and looking at things from new angles. In his stories, he’s good at showing us a mysterious or bizarre or seemingly impossible situation and then revealing the trick. But that style of story construction, not to mention his prose style, are going to appeal to some more than others.
Jews weren’t the only ones the Nazis targeted.
The chaplain in Catch-22 is a Methodist – that’s why he protests when one of the colonels calls him “Father.”
sigh You completely ruined the joke. You were supposed to say “actually, he’s an Anabaptist,” then I was supposed to launch into a tirade about how Anabaptist means “not a Baptist,” and that therefore, through a logical absurdity, he was a Catholic because Catholics are “not Baptists” too, aren’t they?
At least I’m pretty sure that’s how the exchange went down in the novel.
Oh well, good effort.
Im aware of that. Besides six million Jews, five million Rom, ‘mental defectives’, people in the wrong political party, and others died in the camps. But the writers kept hinting but not explicitlys saying that Magneto was Jewish. Ben Grimm, the ever lovin’ blue eyed Thing, was also intended to be Jewish. Jack Kirby even kept a drawing of the Thing wearing a yarmulke, tallis, and tefilin on his wall. The Thing didn’t confirm his Judaism til the nineties either.
I guess I’m one of those guys that Chesterton appeals to, then. I read the Father Brown stories starting at age twelve and through adolescence, when I was speed-balling through Golden Age (and pre-Golden Age) mystery fiction.
Brown never appeared much of a Catholic to me…he was just another variation on the “wise man/sage” whose worldly knowledge could be admired by a kid like me, and his pronouncements lacked much connection to holy writ. As a snot-nosed little atheist, I was comfortable with him.
“Father Brown, how did you know the tall priest was really Flambeau, the master criminal?”
“He attacked reason. It’s bad theology.” — The Blue Cross
Paradox, as you say. What the hell does that even MEAN? …but it sounds wise, right?
If you’ve not read him, try The Queer Feet.. One of the got-damnedest mystery stories ever composed.
I went to Catholic elementary school, so I’m sure there were a bunch. The first one I remember…The Secret Cave, also known as Twenty and Ten by Claire Huchet Bishop. It was about a Catholic orphanage with twenty charges in WWII France, and they suddenly had to hide ten Jewish refugee children. They don’t get on at first, and they bicker a lot about stuff like chocolate rations, but when the Nazis come around everybody hides in a secret cave they just discovered.
Also, Treasure Chest comics.
Just got to jump in and say that as a kid, I read nothing but short stories. Bradbury, Asimov, Poe, Saki, and Chesterton. And still do.
And I just love The Blue Cross. Reread it often, and just recently (in my 60s). That *“He attacked reason” *is brilliant, precisely because Flambeau thinks he’s being so modern and deep, and fooling everyone with his philosopher/priest persona. And he can’t resist trying to out-philosophize the simple country bumpkin. But Father Brown sees that Flambeau has stepped over the line from classic logic to new age woo, which an authentic Old School OG Priest would never do.
But, if you want to see how Fr. B made sure the mastermind of European crime was apprehended, “you’ll just have to read the story”…