Posted by Holly Ordway in Literary Apologetics, Podcasts | 3 Comments
Finding God in Fairy Tales
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 36:33 — 33.5MB)
Do stories with ogres, witches, evil stepmothers, and enchantments have any redeeming qualities for Christians? The answer is a firm yes. In this talk, which I did for the 2012 Athanatos Christian Ministries Online Apologetics Conference, I discuss the way in which fairy tales are an important and valuable form of literature for Christians.
In the talk, I briefly discuss common objections to fairy tales (that they are bad because they are not ‘true’ or because they depict un-Christian things like witches), and then discuss the ways in which fairy tales are valuable.
One of the key concepts in this talk is the way that the fairy-tale world, which is not realistic in detail, actually depicts the reality of human life much more clearly and accurately than many ‘realistic’ stories, by showing clearly that we live in a broken, sinful world that needs a Savior – and has one! As JRR Tolkien points out, the Gospel is the ultimate fairy tale, the story with a happy ending — and it is true!
In this talk, I discuss the general ideas and specifically reference two classic fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm, “Cinderella” and “Hansel and Gretel.”
Here are links to some resources I recommend on this topic:
The Owl, the Raven, and the Dove: The Religious Meaning of the Grimm’s Magic Fairy Tales, by G. Ronald Murphy
“The Red Angel” from Tremendous Trifles by GK Chesterton
“On Fairy-Stories” from The Tolkien Reader by JRR Tolkien
This lecture is 36 minutes long; you can listen by using the player at the top of the page, or by clicking here to open the audio player in a new window.
Thanks, Holly! This is very useful given my current series on Children’s lit+faith, and I will be sure to recommend it widely. I continue to greatly enjoy and appreciate your ideas here. God bless!
Thank you, Carolyn! I was very glad to look up your blog and see the interesting things you are doing there — and you’ve gotten a good many of my favorites in the “Chapter Books for Children” piece:
http://www.pressingsave.com/chapter-books-for-children-suggested-reading-list#more-2180
I don’t have children myself, but I enjoy re-reading many of these simply for the pleasure of lovely prose and a good story — I just re-read The Wind in the Willows this spring, for instance.
Thank you, Holly! This podcast has been a tremendous help in allowing me to see the value in fairytale. I have been integrating more literature into my teaching at my youth group, as a means of convey Christian truths. The approach has been met with really good success and it has had students asking for more!
I had found it a challenge to share deep and meaningful Christian theology and Scriptural insights, but literary apologetics has been really helpful in getting students to engage the topics thoughtfully. Also, I have been discovering that many students share an interest in book reading and writing too. It led me to work on nurturing this gifting and help them see how what they write conveys truth about the reality we live in. Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is also more compelling. So I am interested in taking some courses in literary apologetics to help enrich the life of our youth within our church. Thank you for your work in this area!!