Posted by Holly Ordway in Literary Apologetics, Podcasts | 4 Comments
The Importance of Excellence in Christian Writing
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 47:18 — 43.3MB)
Stories and poetry can be powerful ways to show the truth of the Christian faith — if they are truly good stories and good poetry. Too often, Christian writers settle for less than the best, wrapping a mediocre story around a Bible lesson or apologetics argument and thinking that’s “good enough.” However, Christians should have the highest standards of excellence for Christian literature, to give glory to God and to have the greatest power to draw people to the faith.
In this talk, I challenge Christians, as writers and readers, to recognize that good intentions are not enough. We need excellence in craftsmanship, in storytelling, in art — doing our very best work to the glory of God.
These are some of the books and poems that I discuss in the talk:
CS Lewis: “Sometimes Fairy Stories May Say Best What’s to Be Said.” On Stories and Other Essays on Literature
Michael Ward: The Narnia Code and a podcast series on The Narnia Code.
Michael Ward: Planet Narnia
Gerard Manley Hopkins: poems
Malcolm Guite: “O Clavis”
You can listen to the talk by using the player at the top of the post, or if that does not appear, by clicking on this link.
Thank you for putting this lecture on your site. It was very encouraging to hear you argue for excellence in Christian writing. I agree that many of the books on the Christian fiction book shelves in bookstores don’t reflect the creativity of God. Thank you for the important work you do.
I totally agree with you in your defense of excellence in Christian writing. As one who will hopefully write stories someday, I’m encouraged all the more to get better at the craft, since there is a great need of Christian truths in today’s culture. Whenever I watch Lord of the Rings, I wonder if we will ever see such profound tales in our era, if there is a revolution of Christian storytellers waiting to reveal God in powerful ways.
Hopkins’ poem struck me as incredibly similar to a song that I’ve personally found helpful to me many times in deepening my trust in God, in that I could come to Him completely honestly. The song is “Lament” by “Tim Be Told”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5ri6PdmVT8. It’s both beautiful and raw in its honesty, and I think you would appreciate this song and the way it turns at the end with a plea to God.
Thanks, Steven. As a teacher of writing, as well as a writer myself, I can’t over-state the importance of what you said: writing is a craft. Too many people think that inspiration is all that matters, but the truth is that writing is hard work that requires a particular skill set to do well. Persistent, mindful practice is needed for excellence in writing as it is in other things! But that is an encouragement, I think: one doesn’t have to be great at the beginning, if one is willing to work. As GK Chesterton said, “Anything worth doing is worth doing badly.” He meant that in order to achieve excellence, one must be willing to work through the awkward early stages of trying, and doing badly, in order to learn how to get better.
I only discovered this post recently and listened to it a few days ago. The next day, I read about the suicide of Rick Warren’s son. This touched me deeply because I also have struggled with depression. I write poetry, but I’ve never shown any of my poems about depression to others, mostly because they weren’t well-written. But partly because of your comments on the need for Christians to face dark truths in our art, I decided to channel those feelings into poetry. I’m writing this to let you know that people are listening, and acting on what you say and write. By the way, here’s the poem: http://logosandlove.blogspot.tw/2013/04/to-my-fallen-comrade.html