Why Read Fantasy?

Because I spent much of my time this last week reading a fantasy series, I thought I'd take a moment to express some of the reasons why an adult Christian might spend some of their recreation time reading fantasy, rather than, say, theology. Many in our day still look down on the genre of fantasy as innately childish and without much to make it worth reading. After all, it's all so unrealistic, none of the events actually happened and it doesn't relate to real life at all. These assumptions may be literally true, but those who hold them are sadly mistaken. To that end I have enumerated here four reasons why reading fantasy can be soul food for the Christian.

1. Fantasy renews in us a sense of wonder and awe concerning the world around us. Fantasy is actually truer about the nature of our world than more adult literature in this aspect at least because the world around us is amazing. There are mysteries in the tree and the flower in our backyard that would strike us dumb if we could only see them. There are adventures to be undertaken, there are battles to be fought, and there glories to be pursued, the likes of which only the genre of fantasy can duly represent.

2. Fantasy is able to embody the cosmic fight between good and evil in a way that is more true to the spiritual nature of the world in which we live than most other genres. Few types of literature can express how much may hang upon a single decision as well as fantasy. So-called realistic fiction does not often address the real world of demonic principalities and powers against the angels. As Hamlet said, "There are more things in heaven and on earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy, Horatio."

3. Even, if fantasy is non-Christian or even atheistic, by its very nature it cannot help but point to both God's grace and God's sovereignty. Let me explain what I mean. One of the major conventions of fantasy adventures is the seemingly insurmountable forces of evil, which a strangely graced character (without expectation of greatness) is miraculously able to overcome against all the odds. Aid comes to the character just in the nick of time, the character suffers several near defeats, but through really no full competence of his own he conquers by just the right alignment of (providentially) arranged events. If there is no God ensuring that the good underdog win, why does it always happen this way in fantasy?

4. Fantasy sanctifies the ordinary with the grandiosity of the cosmic struggle. Despite accusations that fantasy is just too good to be true or that it doesn't relate to real life, there is always a tension held between the epic moments of conflict and how the epic characters wait and endure through the lulls along the way. The time of the hero's preparation is attached the same magnitude as the moments of great conflict and victory. This is exactly how the Christian faith addresses the ordinariness of our lives, by recognizing it and then investing it with the weight of the extraordinary. In contrast I would say that much of modern literature recognizes the seeming dullness of life, but does not rise above it to the truer level of attaching it to the broader epic that can imbue life with meaning.