Christian Fiction
KENNETH R. MOREFIELD (LAURA K. SCHUBERT CONTRIBUTED RESEARCH FOR THIS ENTRY.)
Definition.
Christian Fiction is a term used to designate works of fiction specifically intended for or marketed to Christian readers. Unlike most literary genres, Christian Fiction is delineated primarily in marketing terms. While particular authors are associated with and prominent in the production of Christian Fiction, the primary factors in whether or not a work is designated as such are more often its publisher and consumer identification. Rather than thinking of Christian Fiction as a unique genre, it may be helpful to think of it as a compilation of subsets of other genres. Some of the most popular genres within Christian Fiction include: Historical Fiction, Romance Novels, Fantasy Literature, Supernatural Fiction, and Children’s Literature. Christian Fiction addresses itself predominantly to Protestant readers. A broad definition of the term can be used to allow the inclusion of Roman Catholic authors and commercially successful or historically significant works that deal with religious themes or characters. As the term is currently most widely used, however, Christian Fiction generally refers to works specifically tailored to meet the specifications and guidelines of its publishers in order to create a fictional work that is deemed appropriate for the target audience.
Because the definition of Christian Fiction depends upon extrinsic factors as well as intrinsic qualities to distinguish it from mainstream works by Christian authors, the categorizing of works within the genre can appear somewhat arbitrary. This qualification is especially true of works old enough to be in the public domain. John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress has all the intrinsic features of Christian Fiction but is readily available in over a dozen editions, many by commercial publishers not
marketing directly to Christian audiences. Edmund Spenser’s
The Faerie Queen, like Bunyan’s work, is widely anthologized. Despite these works’ obvious Christian themes and historical influence, they do not lend themselves to the designation of Christian Fiction since interest in them extends beyond exclusively Christian readers.
History.
If Christian Fiction is thought of as a marketing term, then its history is that of a series of canonical authors and more that of its publishers. The major publishers of Christian Fiction are Zondervan, Tyndale House, Thomas Nelson/Westbow Press, Bethany House Publishers, and Harvest House Publishers. Christian Fiction is usually a product line or division within a company and not an exclusive focus. Alternately, it may be the central focus of the subsidiary of a larger company that has a diverse range of publishing or media related products.
Defining Christian Fiction by market also means that authors who achieve success both within and outside of Christian reading circles will be difficult to classify. The two most prominent examples of this difficulty are C.S. (Clive Staples) Lewis and George MacDonald. Lewis’s renown for writing Christian apologetics combined with the explicitly Christian themes of his allegorical and fantasy fiction helped make his works fixtures at Christian bookstores even before Christian Fiction was thought of as a separate genre. Lewis would be a notable figure for his literary criticism (A Preface to Paradise Lost, Studies in Words, and An Experiment in Criticism, English Literature in the Sixteenth Century: Excluding Drama) and apologetics (Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Great Divorce) even if he had not written fiction. It could be argued that Lewis wrote for a Christian audience, but that this audience was viewed as a subset of the general reading audience and not totally divorced from it.
George MacDonald was a Scottish minister and author of fiction in the nineteenth century. Although he was widely known and read during his lifetime, many of MacDonald’s works fell out of print during the twentieth century. C.S. Lewis edited an influential anthology of excerpts from MacDonald’s works and famously credited MacDonald’s fantasy work, Phantastes, for influencing his own thought. G.K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton similarly praised MacDonald’s The Princess and the Goblin. In addition to his fantasy works and compilations of sermons, MacDonald also wrote novels revolving around the lives of Christian characters beginning with David Elginbrod (1862). These works, sometimes referred to as the Scottish Novels, helped the genre of Christian Fiction to take shape when they were reissued in edited and abridged form by Michael Phillips beginning in the 1980s.
It must be conceded that Phillips has been successful in reviving interest in MacDonald’s novels, which can be found increasingly in unedited, reissued form in addition to the edited forms more widely sold in Christian Fiction venues. Whether this renewed interest has come at the cost of marginalizing MacDonald as a literary figure is an open question. One of Phillips’s biographical sketches states that his purpose in editing MacDonald’s fiction was to attract a publisher and “to make MacDonald’s stories and spiritual wisdom attractive and compelling to a new and less literarily patient reading audience” (Macdonaldphillips.com Web site 2006, Online). This quote implies a tailoring of the material to the tastes and requirements of the market audience, which is a primary feature of Christian Fiction, but it also helps clarify the distinction between MacDonald’s work and Phillips’s use of it. Ultimately, it could be argued that it is Phillips (as an editor and author) who is producing Christian Fiction and not MacDonald, even if variants of MacDonald’s work are currently more widely read than the originals.
The literary work from the past that most closely resembles the description, effect, and cultural work of the Christian Fiction of today may be Charles M. Sheldon’s In His Steps. Sheldon’s novel, originally published in 1896, is best known for popularizing the slogan “What would Jesus do?” It was published serially by a weekly religious magazine, The Advance, and proved immensely popular among Christian readers (Neighbors 1998, Online). The novel focuses on the Reverend Henry Maxwell and his parishioners, who experience spiritual growth and insight as they respond to a stranger’s call to help the poor and powerless by vowing to act in their respective professions as they believe Jesus would have acted were he in their place.
Like George MacDonald, Sheldon was also a Christian minister, but he wrote while still heading a congregation. Perhaps for that reason, In His Steps is generally more positive in its depiction of institutional religion, an attitude that is more typical of Christian Fiction since it is directed toward a religiously orthodox and socially conservative audience. In addition to its generally positive portrayal of institutional religion, In His Steps shares several other stylistic features with later Christian Fiction. The style is plain in order to attract the broadest possible audience. Chuck Neighbors points out that Sheldon developed In His Steps as one of a series of sermon stories designed to increase church attendance. The context in and purpose for which the narrative was created required an episodic and thematic repetitiveness, features that make it easy to pick up or put down at any point within the narrative, but which can lead to criticisms that it lacks narrative or moral complexity. This style is not without historical antecedents or parallels, but it differs widely from the movement toward psychological depth, ambiguity, and narrative complexity privileged throughout most of the twentieth century.
The late 1970s and the 1980s began to see the emergence of Christian Fiction as a genre with Christian publishers marketing contemporary authors producing new works and not simply disseminating classic literature deemed appropriate for Christian audiences. Paul C. Gutjahr has argued persuasively that the growth of Christian Fiction in general, and the Christian Novel in particular, can be tied to the emergence of the Internet company, Amazon.com, which provided a means of word-of-mouth advertising (in the form of customer reviews), distribution, and marketing previously lacking for product lines geared toward a niche audience (Gutjahr 2002, 218). The Internet provided an alternate means of distribution for products not carried by more traditional or conservative independent Christian booksellers. Two writers whose success at this time helped define the nature and future direction of Christian Fiction were Janette Oke and Frank Peretti.
Trends and Themes.
The Left Behind series, conceived by Tim LaHaye and written primarily by Jerry B. Jenkins, had an unquestionable influence in the development and direction of Christian Fiction as a literary genre. Published by Tyndale House, a publishing company of Christian books and other media, its popularity coincided with (and could reasonably said to have helped prompt) a greater interest in publishing companies to produce works of fiction directly targeted at Christian readers.
The seminal novel in the franchise, initially published in 1995, was entitled Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth’s Last Days. Set during and immediately after the rapture (instantaneous ascent into heaven of true Christians), the novel is roughly structured around the responses to world events of four characters that are left behind on earth after the rapture: Rayford Steele, a pilot; Chloe Steele, Rayford’s daughter; Buck Williams, a journalist; and Bruce Barnes, an assistant pastor.
Although garnering mixed reviews, Left Behind achieved a commercial success that is indisputable. It prompted twelve sequels and another three prequels as well as a series of books for adolescents that mirror the events in the novel but center around youthful protagonists. At least three of the novels have been made into motion pictures, although these have been primarily disseminated through church showings and direct to video sales rather than theatrical runs. The series was also the subject of at least one computer video game, Left Behind: Eternal Forces, in which players assume the role of characters in the novel and attempt to evangelize and recruit onlookers to fight the propaganda and attacks of the Global Community Peackeepers. The first two novels, Left Behind and Tribulation Force have also been reproduced as graphic novels, each in five volumes.
Critical responses to Left Behind have been sparse. While some Christian readers and critics have used the series popularity to promote or question theological interpretations of its source material, most secular reviews have tended to engage in cultural criticism, opting to conjecture about the causes and meaning of the work’s popularity rather than engaging in any sort of formal analysis. Some of the more notable critical responses are mentioned in the “Context and Issues” section below.
One of the most significant effects of the Left Behind franchise may have been that its success instigated a broader and more sustained effort within Christian and secular publishing to service the market of Christian readers. Before the success of Left Behind, the prevalent attitude appears to have been that for a Christian artist (writer, musician, or performer) to be successful, he or she would have to produce a “cross-over” work—one that appealed to audiences outside of the target demographic of his or her genre. Left Behind demonstrated in the publishing industry what Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ would illustrate a decade later in the film industry: niche marketing could, in some circumstances, result in commercial profits that could be comparable to those generated by mass market works of fiction or film. Since the publication and success of Left Behind in the mid-1990s, no other single work or series of Christian Fiction has emerged to rival its popularity and impact. What has emerged is an awareness of the Christian consumer as a marketing force. Niche marketing as a trend is not unique to Christian publishing. However, it has had an especially marked effect in changing the face of that industry as indicated by the growing diversity of product lines within Christian Fiction and the increasing participation in major publishing corporations in servicing the Christian market, either through the creation of subsidiaries, or through business partnerships with traditional Christian publishers.
Founded in 1931 as a bookselling company, Zondervan is one of the oldest and most widely recognized publishers of Christian books, in large part because of its partnership with the International Bible Society in producing the New International Version of the Bible in the 1970s and its chain of bookstores bearing its name (Zondervan Web site 2006, Online). Gutjahr has classified Zondervan as the publishing house “most committed to producing Christian novels in the mid-twentieth century” but points out that its success in doing so was hindered by independent Christian bookstore owners (Gutjahr 2002, 213–214). Its visibility has risen more recently due to the success of Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life in 2002. Although Zondervan is prominent among Christian publishers, its production of Christian Fiction has not been as extensive as its production of other types of Christian publications. Authors of Christian Fiction who have published with Zondervan include Karen Kingsbury and Cindy Kenney.
Karen Kingsbury’s biography identifies her as an inspirational novelist, and she has trademarked the label Life-Changing Fiction to describe her work. This definition is used to characterize the desired effect of the fiction on the audience as opposed to the intrinsic qualities of it. These desired effects include “improved marriages, spiritual awakening and new-found hope” (Karen Kingsbury: Life Changing Fiction Web site 2006, Online). Kingsbury has had at least one novel, Deadly Pretender, adapted into a made for television film, Every Woman’s Dream. Her work also includes two titles, One Tuesday Morning and Beyond Tuesday Morning in the “911 Series,” which focuses on fictional characters responding to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001.
Cindy Kenney has written over twenty children’s books featuring the characters from VeggieTales. These characters were developed in a line of home videos by Big Idea, Inc., in which simply animated vegetables reenact Biblical stories or other stories designed to reinforce moral lessons. Kenney is identified as a senior managing editor for Big Idea, which owns the VeggieTales name. The VeggieTales books, which bear her name as author, are published by Zonderkidz, the children’s group of Zondervan, and carry the series label Big Idea Books.
Established in 1962, Tyndale House Publishers was founded by Kenneth N. Taylor. Primarily known for publishing The Living Bible, a paraphrase of the Christian Bible in contemporary English, Tyndale House also published works from prominent Christian authors of non-fiction, including Josh McDowell and James Dobson. In addition to the Left Behind franchise, Tyndale also publishes works by Karen Kingsbury, Frank Peretti, Catherine Palmer, Francine Rivers, Dee Henderson, and Brock and Bodie Thoene.
Brock and Bodie Thoene have written over forty novels in various series of Historical Fiction. Much of their work centers on the nation of Israel, much with a pro-Zionist flavor. Bodie Thoene is the primary writer of the team, with Brock providing historical research necessary for the genre (Bodie and Brock Thoene Official Web site 2007, Online).
Francine Rivers wrote Romance Novels before becoming a “born-again” Christian, at which time she began writing works with Christian themes (Francine Rivers Web site 2007, Online). Her best known title is probably The Last Sin Eater, which was adapted into a feature film by FoxFaith in 2007.
Thomas Nelson is one of the oldest and longest established Christian publishers. Named after its founder, Thomas Nelson’s original mission was to provide Christian works and literary classics to the general public. Thomas Nelson was acquired by Sam Moore and the National Book Company in the 1960s (Thomas Nelson Web site, Online). Spurred by sales of the New King James Version of the Christian Bible, Thomas Nelson was also an active participant in the renaissance of Christian Fiction, publishing works by Frank Peretti, Stephen R. Lawhead, and Ted Dekker.
Stephen R. Lawhead has written novels in the genre of mythic history as well as imaginative fiction. He was an editor and staff writer for Campus Life magazine before writing The Dragon King Trilogy and The Pendragon Cycle. The latter consisted of five novels set against the backdrop of Arthurian Romance: Taliesen, Merlin, Arthur, Pendragon, and Grail (Stephen R. Lawhead Web site 2007, Online). He has also published a novel, Hood, using the Robin Hood legend as inspiration.
Ted Dekker is part of the second wave of Christian Fiction authors, writing full-time since 1997. Dekker writes Horror Fiction and, as mentioned above, collaborated with Frank Peretti to write House. His best known title is probably Thr3e, which was made into a feature film in 2006.
Context and Issues.
The genre and its authors have not escaped criticism. It is perhaps not a coincidence that Christian Fiction’s rise paralleled the success of political and religious conservatism in the United States symbolized by the popularity and political success of Ronald Reagan. Because the targeted readers of Christian Fiction are part of an evangelical tradition that is in general suspicious of the purported demoralizing power of art and hostile to the ideologies and philosophies informing most of the prominent literary movements of the twentieth century, it may not be surprising that work directed toward them is often accused of lacking rhetorical sophistication, imagination, ambiguity, or complexity.
Jay R. Howard has described Peretti’s work as part of what Donald Heinz called the New Christian Right’s attempt to create a “counter-mythology” against that of “secular humanism” (Howard 1993, 195). Kenneth R. Morefield has gone so far as to label LaHaye’s and Jenkins’s Left Behind franchise “evangelical pornography.” Implicit in both critiques is the observation that the moral belief system informing the producers and consumers of Christian Fiction support an “oversimplified picture of social reality” (Howard 1993, 195) that distorts or caricaturizes antagonists to Christian characters and, by implication, the readers who share their beliefs.
A less dramatic but still substantial criticism of Christian Fiction is that by promoting the production of fiction tailored to the beliefs of a particular audience, it obscures the value of moral or spiritual insight into the human condition that may be embedded or found in traditional genre works directed toward a general audience. Scott Derrickson argues that the production of great art consistent with any ideological perspective is to some degree dependant upon familiarity with the historical movements and masterpieces of its medium. He also states that “nothing is more easily resisted than subcultural religious language” (Derrickson 2002, 23). The creation of a separate genre in which Christian themes can be unilaterally addressed and advocated without serious resistance from readers or opposition from other works can potentially create a marginalized ghetto that retards not only Christian interaction with secular art, but secular culture’s interaction with Christian ideas. Compartmentalizing art from different ideological or theological perspectives could be argued to mitigate whatever latent power art has to engender dialogue which might retard the increasing polarization over religious and social issues currently so prevalent in the United States.
Reception.
The commercial success of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ in 2004 was large enough to make studios and publishing companies take note of the economic potential in marketing to evangelical Christians. Twentieth-Century Fox has since launched FoxFaith, a distribution label for “morally driven” films with “overt Christian Content.” As is typical in the industry in general, the publishing of Christian Fiction is increasingly one part of a company’s diverse product line that spans several media forms. There have been theatrical, television, and direct-tovideo adaptations of works by LaHaye, Dekker, and Oke within the last decade, and Walden Media has begun producing film adaptations of C.S. Lewis’s Narnia series. While Fox created its own distribution line to target the Christian audience, it is likely that there will continue to be cooperative efforts between larger studios with production resources and smaller, faith-based companies that hold the rights to titles of possible interest to the Christian market. Zondervan, for example, became a subsidiary of HarperCollins in 1988.
The increased attention paid to Christian consumers of media entertainment has generally been looked upon favorably by those consumers. There have, however, been some cultural critics who have raised questions about the rising commercialization of Christian art and media entertainment. E.J. Park has suggested that “commercialized forms make a mockery of serious things without even intending to do so, because they exist to serve the logic of commercialism” (Park 2006, 70). He further reminds Christian readers that form matters and, echoing Marshall McLuhan, that the medium as well as the content carries with it messages, some of which may ironically or deliberately undermine that of the content.
M. Leary has further commented that commercial concerns have not only affected Christian art but the criticism surrounding and evaluating it as well. Leary claims that there is a “theoretical vacuum” in which “Christian film criticism” operates. According to Leary, unless critics of Christian media “respond to this vacuum with a set of focal points, identity markers, and theologically-based critical strategies,” (Leary 2007, Online) then critical inquiry into Christian film and fiction will continue to be dominated by the marketers, rather than by consumers or critics. The blurred line between marketing and criticism is neither new nor unique to fiction or film directed toward Christians. Because Christian Fiction has garnered very little academic interest or inquiry, the bulk of criticism of individual titles has been in commercial venues that are, perhaps, more susceptible to the influence of the marketing efforts of studios and publishers.
Selected Authors.
If there is a single title or work that marks the beginning of Christian Fiction in its current form, it is probably Janette Oke’s Love Comes Softly. Published in 1979 by Bethany House, Love Comes Softly eventually sold over eight million copies and spawned a made-for-television film adaptation. Oke would eventually pen seven additional novels in the series, which eventually grew to comprise over seventy novels. Love Comes Softly is an historical romance, combining the genres of Historical Fiction and Romance Novel as is common in Christian Fiction.
The protagonist of the novel is Marty Clarige, a pregnant 19-year-old who suddenly finds herself a widow while traveling West during the 1800s and, in desperation, accepts a marriage of convenience.
The predominance of the Romance Novel within the genre of Christian Fiction, both in its emergent and current form, is testament to the preponderance of women readers in the Christian Fiction market (Fisher 2000, 6). While it may initially seem odd that the Romance Novel would be such a popular genre within Christian Fiction, Oke’s success demonstrated that there was a market for work that conformed to the conventions of the Romance Novel but which did not endorse nor portray sexual encounters that would be inconsistent with conservative religious or social values. It is not uncommon for publishers of Christian Fiction to provide publishing guidelines that specifically address the depiction of human sexuality in such a way that helps clearly delineate examples of Christian Fiction from other Romance Novels or from Historical Fiction. Tyndale House Publishers, for example, instructs prospective authors that:
“While many Christian stories have characters that are romantically attracted to each other, they must at the same time uphold the principles of Biblical sexual purity. Along with physical attraction, healthy Christian dating relationships should also involve spiritual, intellectual and emotional attractions.” (Tyndale House Publishers 2006, Online)
Tyndale was not Oke’s publisher, nor is Christian Romance one of its major product lines, but its publishing standards are not unique. As with secular Romance Novels, there can be variations between publishers and series in what sorts of content is permitted. The foundation of such restrictions upon current, orthodox interpretations of Biblical guidelines for sexual relationships is, of course, the major demarcating line between Romance Novels that are Christian Fiction and those that are not.
Frank Peretti published his first novel, This Present Darkness in 1986. It deals with the denizens of a small town, Ashton, whose conflicts are paralleled by a battle between angelic and demonic forces. It was followed by a sequel, Piercing the Darkness, in 1989. The two novels have sold over 3.5 million copies (Frank Peretti Web site 2006, Online), helping expand the parameters of Christian Fiction beyond the Romance Novel and demonstrating that new works could be commercially successful. Peretti’s other works include Tilly (1988), a prose retelling of a radio drama that deals with the issue of abortion, Prophet (1992), a thriller set in the world of media journalism, The Oath (1995), a murder mystery/horror story, and The Visitation (1999), about a self-proclaimed messiah who appears in a small town in Washington. He has also written youth fiction, including an eight book series called The Cooper Kids Adventure Series and an additional two book series called The Veritas Project, about a family of investigators that alternately evokes The X-Files and The Hardy Boys. More recently, he has teamed with Ted Dekker to produce House (2006), a supernatural thriller.
Peretti’s role in expanding the borders of Christian Fiction cannot be understated. While maintaining themes and techniques similar to earlier, didactic fiction such as Sheldon’s In His Steps, Peretti’s work skirted the fringes of genres previously rejected by Christian readers: Horror, Suspense Novels, and Political Thrillers. While his early work might be called derivative—This Present Darkness sometimes reads like C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters in narrative form—Peretti’s ability to put a Christian spin on hot button issues or popular genres helped create diversity within Christian Fiction that a slavish adherence to formula or historical tastes would not. Rather than simply repeat the success of This Present Darkness with further allegorical works about spiritual warfare, Peretti’s subsequent work used different genres to explore contemporary issues from an evangelical Christian perspective. He describes that progression this way:
In This Present Darkness, it was spiritual warfare and intercessory prayer. In Piercing the Darkness, it had to do with the encroachment of neo-paganism into the educational and legal system. And in Prophet, it dealt with the Truth and really living by the Truth. In The Oath, it was sin depicted as this monster waiting to devour us that we just kind of ignore. In The Visitation, it was the false Christ that so many of us are serving. We have our own idea of what Jesus ought to be like. And in Monster—whoooh!—there’s a whole lot of different messages. My first idea was evolution. One of evolution’s best-kept secrets is that mutations don’t work. They’re not beneficial. I believe that if I can just create a story that somehow addresses that one leg of evolution, I can get people thinking. I can’t make a big scientific argument. I can just tell the story. One of the best ways to really combat the fortress of Darwinism is to allow people to wonder about it, to acquaint them with the controversy so that they know there is one. (Frank Peretti Web site 2006, Online)
Peretti’s influence on the formation of Christian Fiction is undeniable. Peretti created a template for the integration of overtly Christian content into genre work that has been utilized by subsequent authors of Christian Fiction such as Ted Dekker and Terri Blackstock. Peretti also illustrated that Christian Fiction could perform the cultural work of reinforcing the theological, cultural, and political positions of its audience by embodying the perceived consequences of those positions in narrative form. Unlike its antecedents, Peretti’s Christian Fiction—most notably Piercing the Darkness and The Prophet—did not limit itself to depicting the individual lives of Christians and their immediate environment but also depicted those individuals and their subculture interacting with the largely secular cultural and political world from with which they are enmeshed. This latter trait was picked up on and extended by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins in their Left Behind franchise, and Peretti’s literary (if not theological) influence on the series is evident. In fact, LaHaye reportedly approached Peretti about writing Left Behind before settling on Jenkins as his partner (Gutjahr 2002, 216).
With the emergence of a Christian market of readers and a group of authors following in Peretti’s wake who were willing to tailor their fiction to it, Christian Fiction became a staple of Christian publishers and not merely an afterthought.
Bibliography
Dekker, Ted. Thr3e. Nashville, TN: Word Publications, 2003.
Kingsbury, Karen. Beyond Tuesday Morning. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2004.
———. Deadly Pretender. New York: Dell, 1994.
———. One Tuesday Morning. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003.
LaHaye, Tim, and Jerry B. Jenkins. Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth’s Last Days. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1995.
Lawhead, Stephen R. Arthur. Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1989.
———. Grail. New York: Avon, 1996.
———. Hood. Nashville, TN: WestBow, 2006.
———. Merlin. Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1988.
———. Pendragon. New York: W. Morrow, 1994.
———. Taliesen. Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1987.
Oke, Janette. Love Comes Softly. Minneapolis, MN: Bethany Fellowship, 1979.
Peretti, Frank. The Oath. Dallas, TX: Word Publications, 1995.
———. This Present Darkness. Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1986.
———. Piercing the Darkness. Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1989.
———. Prophet. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1992.
———. Tilly. Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1988.
———. The Visitation. Nashville, TN: Word Publications, 1999.
Rivers, Francine. The Last Sin Eater. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1998.
Further Reading
About Fox Faith [Online, 2007]. FoxFaith Web site. <http://www.foxfaith.com/>;
About the Author [Online, 2006]. Frank Peretti Web site. <http://frankperetti.com/biography-119>;
About the Author [Online, 2007]. Stephen R. Lawhead Web site. <http://www.stephenlawhead. com/author/>;
About the Authors [Online, 2007]. Bodie and Brock Thoene Official Web site <http://www.thoenebooks.com/about.asp>;
Become an Author. [Online, 2006]. Tyndale House Publishers Web site. <http://www.tyndale.com/authors/details.asp?id=10>;
Biography. [Online, 2007]. Francine Rivers Web site. <http://www.francinerivers.com/about.asp>;
Carpenter, Humphrey. The Inklings: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, and Their Friends. London: Allen & Unwin, 1978;
Christopher, Joe R., and Joan K. Ostling. C.S. Lewis: An Annotated Checklist of Writings about Him and His Works. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1973;
Derrickson, Scott. “Behind the Lens: A Christian Filmmaker in Hollywood” The Christian Century 30 Jan. 2002: 20–24;
Duriez, Colin. The C.S. Lewis Encyclopedia : A Complete Guide to His Life, Thought, and Writings. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2000;
Fisher, Allan. “Evangelical-Christian Publishing: Where It’s Been and Where It’s Going.” Publishing Resource Quarterly 14.3 (Fall 1998): 3–11;
Frequently Asked Questions. [Online, December 2006]. Frank Peretti Web site. <http://www.frankperetti.com/frequentlyaskedquestio
ns.htm>;
Full Biography [Online, December 2006]. Karen Kingsbury: Life Changing Fiction Web site <http://www.karenkingsbury.com/aboutKaren/biography
/>;
Gutjahr, Paul C. “No Longer Left Behind: Amazon.com, Reader-Response, and the Changing Fortunes of the Christian Novel in America.” Book History 5 (2002): 209–236;
Hein, Rolland. George MacDonald: Victorian Mythmaker. Nashville: StarSong, 1993;
Howard, Jay R. “Vilifying the Enemy: The Christian Right and the Novels of Frank Peretti.” Journal of Popular Culture 28.3 (1994): 193–206;
Leary, M. How Should We Then Review? [Online, 2007]. The Matthew’s House Project Web site. <http://www.thematthewshouseproject.com/criticism/c
olumns/mleary/jan07.htm>;
MacDonald, Greville. George MacDonald and His Wife. 1924. With an Introduction by G.K. Chesteron. Whitehorn, CA: Johannesesn, 1998;
Miller, Timothy. Following In His Steps: A Biography of Charles M. Sheldon. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1988;
Morefield, Kenneth R. Left Behind as Evangelical Pornography. [Online, 2007]. The Matthew’s House Project Web site. <http://web.mac.com/zkincaid/iWeb/MHP/culture/68059
FA6-2AAC-4601-A2D8-FD17B780E6CF.html>;
More-field, Kenneth R. “Why Christian Fiction?: Expressing Universal Truth in a Relative World.” PhD dissertation, Northern Illinois University, 1998;
Neighbors, Chuck. The Story of In His Steps. [Online, December 2006]. <http://www.mastersimage.com/articles/ihs.htm>;
Our History [Online, December 2006]. Zondervan Web site <http://www.zondervan.com/Cultures/ en-US/Company/H
istory.htm?QueryStringSite=Zondervan>;
Park, E. J. “A Tale of Two Kitties.” Christianity Today 50.2 (2006): 68–70;
Raeper, William, ed. The Gold Thread: Essays on George MacDonald. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1990;
The Future: Who is Michael Phillips? [Online, December 2006]. Macdonaldphillips.com Web site. <http://www.macdonaldphillips.com/future.html>;
Thomas Nelson History [Online, July 2007]. Thomas Nelson Web site. <http://www.thomasnelson.com/consumer/dept.asp?dept
_id=1118916& TopLevel_id=100000>.