Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Creative Liberty

How much creative liberty should be granted to Christian authors? Or more particularly to the genre of Christian fiction?

"The Shack" by William P. Young has been making the rounds among Christians for several months now. Depending on who you talk to, people either love it or hate it. Those that love it claim that the book helped strengthen their faith. Or it opened their eyes/mind to see God in a different way. Those that hate it see the heretical theology in the story. But should one hate a book because it is not necessarily theologically correct? After all, it is a fictional book. So, doesn't the author have the right to take liberty with his/her portrayal of God? Of the Church? Of the Atonement?

It is my opinion that Christian authors have creative liberty in so far as they do not meddle with the tenants of the Christian faith as prescribed by the Christian creeds (i.e. Nicene, Chalcedon, etc). Therefore, Young is free to write a murder mystery. However, he is not free to redifine the Trinity. Take liberty in the setting, plot, and characters, but leave the Christian tenants of faith alone. Once, one starts to meddle with the tenants, they leave the reader and themselves open to heresy. And Lord knows, we've got enough of that going around already.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Precisely. Very well stated, Mike.