Forum - View topicHey, Answerman! [2006-02-17]
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Sam-I-Am
Posts: 121 Location: Midwest US |
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Sci-fi author Orson Scott Card (Ender's Game) is a devout Mormon who often incorporates religious themes into his work. In one of his forewords/afterwords he points out that much of what is available as Christian writing is most accurately classified as 'inspirational', rather than 'religious', since most of it hews closely to the dogmatic line (One of the reasons that he got into sci-fi to begin with is that if you're writing a story that casts doubt on some tenet or other, there's less outcry if you set it five hundred years in the future on the planet Gemini, instead of 20th century Earth. Thus, sci-fi allowed him to concentrate on how religious thoughts might really affect each character, instead of forcing the characters to act in accordance with the reader's prior assumptions.).
Thus, most 'Christian' fictional literature out there, if 'inspiration' is the intention, is going to be all about the head-beating. The authors tend to be preaching to the choir, or actively trying to convert the unconverted. Very few Christian publishers seem interested in publishing work that shows opposing viewpoints as (gasp) arguments with merit, as their regular audience tends to reject such things rather vocally. Without something important to discuss, plots tend to get lame fast. Thus, a lot of 'Christian' fiction doesn't even make to the level of conflict found in a Brady Bunch episode. If you're looking for non-confrontational christianity in anime, you're probably best off looking for shows that seem to display the values and level of writing that you're looking for, and then searching for more by that author/director. The show may not need to be about characters who are christian per se, as most of the major world religions tend to have the same core values, ie: be honest, be nice to each other, etc. (I remember running across an NGE fansite a while back that claimed Hideaki Anno must know a fair bit about Indian religions, since the webmaster was able to draw parallels between all the major Brahmin gods and the major Eva characters) As for Tolkien and Lewis, Tolkien had converted to Catholicsm by the time he wrote LOTR, and possibly before he wrote The Hobbit (memory does not serve on this point), and he referred to LOTR in some correspondence as 'one of the most religious things I have written'. It's all pretty subtle, but it is there - the fall of Melchior in the Sillmarillion, and the revolt of Lucifer have a resemblence that I doubt is coincidental. Lewis's Narnia series is a more thinnly veiled christian allegory that has been accused of belonging in the head-beating camp, but the books are a good read, and the allegory is not made in-your-face obvious until the end. Tolkien, Lewis, and Card's work all share one common thread that makes them both great writing and great religious meditation - it's the choices that the characters make that drive the story, not the author's ability to deus-ex-machina the plot to arrive at a preordained conclusion. |
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Jerseymilk
 Posts: 157 Location: Wouldn't YOU like to know. |
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Tolkien converted to Catholicism at the age of ten. As a matter of fact, it was Tolkien who often debated with C.S. Lewis, a staunch atheist at first, about theological matters and had a part in eventually leading him to convert to Christianity. Though Tolkien was a little miffed that Lewis didn't convert to Roman Catholicism. 
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HitokiriShadow
 Posts: 6251 |
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I knew they debated and where friends or at least acquaintances. I just wasn't sure when Tolkien converted. Then was it C.S. Lewis that converted later in life?
As for Orson Scott Card, I had never heard anything about his religion before. |
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shadow_guyver
 Posts: 307 Location: Tokyo, Japan |
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I do believe you mean Melkor, as Melchior was one of the three wise men of the Bible, along with Casper and Balthazar. |
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6867 Location: Kazune City |
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Hmm, the odds that there will be a Christianity-themed manga from a country that has about 1% of the population Christian? Probably not that good.
I was thinking about submitting something to the clichéd anime contest, but I don't think that I can compete with the multimedia efforts that I'm hearing about. When this contest is over, there needs to be a special feature "Contest Archive" page so that we can read the entries, and see this fanart/listen to the recorded theme songs. And on a final note, I'm jealous...I wish my mom bought me every anime "video" (technology has evolved, but the language of the older generations has not) that comes out. If that were the case, on March 28th I'd be saying, "Mom, the first volume of Mai Hime, the last volume of Madlax, the first volume of Naruto, and all this other stuff is coming out...you can drop it by my house after 4."  
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Pop-Art Samurai
Posts: 62 |
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Yes, Lewis first became a theist in 1929 and then a Christian in 1931, he was 33.
It's actually kind of funny, I don't usually think of Tolkien "converting", since it happened when he was 10. It should also be noted that The Hobbit preceded LotR. |
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ACDragonMaster
 Posts: 405 |
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Out of curiosity, how would classify Frank Peretti's works, if you've read them? Particular This Present Darkness/Piercing the Darkness and The Oath, but even just in general. I seem to recall them having a Christian message but without being as preachy as some, and besides that they tended to be full of the supernatural, like demons and such, that a lot of people just avoid addressing... |
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Wyvern
 Posts: 1555 |
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Tolkein and Lewis were very close friends-it was Lewis who really encouraged Tolkein to do "a second Hobbit story" which eventually became LOTR. And Lewis was the very first person other than Tolkein himself to read LOTR, too-Tolkein sent each chapter to him as soon as he finished it. As for Card, depending on which of his books you read, his religion is either really obvious or completly hidden. Ender's is pretty devoid of overt religious subtext, but try reading his book The Folk of the Fringe, which is about a group of Mormons trying to survive after World War III. It's basically Card going "You guys, MORMONS ARE AWESOME," for 200 pages. Nothing wrong with Mormons, of course, but it's a good thing Card's usually more subtle than that. Anyway, Zac did a fine job of pinpointing exactly what my problem is with religous recruitment stories-who wants to read a story that's basically a commerical? |
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AkiraKaneda
Posts: 61 |
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Quick point -- none of these names are actually Biblical. The account of the wise men in Matthew 2 does not list the number of wise men nor their names. |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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Lord of the Rings is not a Christian story. Tolkien was trying to create a 'mythology' for Europe. In fact, he openly disapproved of the strong Christian themes in Narnia and thought Lewis was going too far.
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AkiraKaneda
Posts: 61 |
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Frank Peretti's work falls into "Christian fiction" with some significantly faulty theology. Peretti has a habit of putting demons into characters whose theology he does not personally espouce. I'm a pretty conservative Christian, and I find his tendency to attack all views other than his own as demonic pretty preachy. Peretti's background comes from a form of dispensational thought, if I remember correctly, that sees the world as a gigantic battleground between God and Satan, pretty much, and humans as essentially pawns. It's fine for entertainment purposes in a limited sense, I suppose, but one would be hard pressed to support his theology biblically. Doesn't stop him from being a best-seller, of course. I have thrown around the idea of writing a book on Christian themes in secular anime and a moral/ethical viewpoint on watching anime from a Christian perspective. It would hopefully be a guide for Christians and the spiritually sensitive not in terms of saying "this anime is good, this anime is bad" but providing a Christian framework for critically watching and analyzing media (anime in particular) and providing examples of how a Christian could both enjoy anime as an artistic form while appreciating the spiritual truths within some shows. I'd be curious as to anyone's thoughts if this might be useful or not. I think it would be more useful than proposing to make "Christian" anime, at any rate... |
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AkiraKaneda
Posts: 61 |
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Tolkien called it a "Catholic work" in that it reflected Christian thought in its creation and telling, but you're absolutely right. It wasn't so much that he disliked the themes within Narnia so much as his dislike of allegory. Tolkien believed that he was involved, within the creation of MiddleEarth, of a creative work not unlike God's work in creation, though on a very different level, obviously. |
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HitokiriShadow
Posts: 6251 |
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I've always failed to see exactly what was Christian about LotR aside from absolute good and evil and the battle between them (which isn't really a Christian theme). Although, I am sure there ARE Christian themes in them, it certianly isn't an allegory as far as I can see. And I think Christian stories are better that way. Have some Christian themes (without beating the viewer/reader over the head with it) but don't go for some recreation of Christ's life or some allegory.
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Dune
Posts: 223 |
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Quite right. For example, if one takes the time to check the appendix in The Return of the King, they will notice that the Fellowship is dated to begin its journey on December 25; The destruction of the Ring is on March 25: Good Friday, the day Christ was crucified. Small, but crucial, details.
There are many, many parallels rather than out-right allegories within Lord of the Rings which correspond to Christianity. Lembas bread is akin to manna and the Eucharist; all the villains are corrupted forms of what was once good (ie, the goblins used to be elfs, the likes of Sauron and the Balrog are literally fallen angels); a King returns to the throne at the end of time, when the dead are awakened; the hero of the piece is uncharacteristically small and humble yet takes on a heavy burden... Etc. etc.
It's often scarce, but for those looking for this, copies can be found here, albeit on VHS. EWTN also shows 'In the Beginning' from time to time for Saturday mornings. That's anyone's best bet for Biblically-based anime, atleast for now. Fortunately the episodes are well-made, as one would expect from one of Tezuka's shows, even if he didn't live through its production phase. |
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odango
Posts: 20 Location: Canada |
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The only "christian" manga I could think of would be Amakusa 1637, it's about the christian uprising lead by Amakusa Shirou in response to the treatment of Christians in Japan, though I don't if it would qualify as a "christian" manga if by "christian" you mean a manga that vehiculates "christian" values.
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