RC Gale

I was dissatisfied, however, with Lott’s assessment of Christian fiction. In the introduction he says that the:

“…clash between the Christian worldview that says there is a supernatural God and the world of contemporary literature that preaches relentlessly, the world is what we make it, and we are our own, the mantra by which it seems most all contemporary art lives, eats, and breathes. For this is the difference between literary art: the face of hope the writer has not in the world to save itself, but in a God who has already saved us.”

I don’t believe an artist must be a Christian to create a work that glorifies God. Take Pietá by Michelangelo for example. If Pietá was a short story I don’t think Michelangelo would even have submitted it to a “Christian” Review and Lott probably wouldn’t have thought of accepting it.

I feel like this so called “clash” is imagined, a call out for an unnecessary crusade that stems from evangelical’s fear of the secular. And it’s frustrating to me that an anthology like this looks for art in small (Christian) circles. OK, I’ve made my spiel.  For more on the subject Madeleine L’Engle’s Walking On Water is a great exploration into the intersection of art and faith.

The Best Christian Short Stories are good stories but they aren’t “radical” as Lott proposes in the intro.  Some of the stories, like Bret Lott’s, ended too happily ever after for me, (isn’t that a typical Christian motif?) but Larry Woiwode’s “Firtsborn”, which was featured in the New Yorker in 1982, was a knock out.

The book was also published as Not Safe But Good Vol. 1 and 2.   I hope to review the second one soon.

Update: An interesting blog here by Lucas Kwong entitled “Good Art, Good Grief”.