What is Christian Literature?

Recently I was approached by a friend who asked me if my writing was Christian. I didn’t know quite how to respond, but I thought I’d dedicate a few blog posts to the issue. So this will be the first of probably several blogs to come on the issue.

Before I get to the issue of whether or not my writing is Christian, I thought it worthwhile to deliberate a bit more about literature in general.

It used to be the case that the church was the center for culture and the arts. This was a very long time ago before the printing press when the general population was not literate, so society relied on the church to keep record of literature. It wasn’t until various reformations, which I don’t have all the exact names for, that the church started differentiating between what they considered worldly or Christian literature. The point being that this is an archaic debate, but nevertheless one worth engaging in.

To start with I’ll pose a series of questions that are by no means exhaustive on the issue, but are just some questions that came to my mind after my conversation. Here are some of them.
One question I have with the term “Christian literature” is, if there is such a thing, is it a genre? If it is a genre then it must have some sort of generic conventions that would make it readily identifiable. What then would those be? Would it have to have a redemptive theme? Must it always have Christian characters in it or characters who turn out to be Christian by the end? Would part of its generic features be that there could be no representations of sexuality, violence, and bad language? In other words, should it be suitable for all first graders to read should they want to? Does it need to have a Christian setting? Tone? Mood? And if so what constitute such?

Other questions I have are does “Christian literature” have to be written by Christians? Does it have to be published by Christian publishers? Edited by Christians? Illustrated (if applicable) by Christians? Does it have to be marketed by Christians? Should it only be read by Christians? Sold only in Christian bookstores? Should it seek to convert non-Christians (worded differently, should it be propaganda)?

These are a lot of difficult questions to answer without having even answered a more basic question of what we mean by “Christian.” By Christian are we referring to people who read, study and try to imitate the words of Jesus Christ as reported in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John? Can we include people who do the previously mentioned and come to the conclusion that God the Father is an utterly sovereign being completely in control and determining everything? Can we also include people who do the same and come to the conclusion that the future is open and that God the Father does not pre-determine everything? What of people who speak in tongues? Or believe tongues are dead? People who think it’s okay to smoke? Drink? Gamble? Dance? Play cards? Read John Grishom?

The point I’m getting at here is that in order to say something is Christian and something isn’t requires that we start to draw lines around “us” and “them.” While certain items may seem simple enough (we read the Bible and follow Christ’s teaching). Other things (just about any specific point of theology or practice) are not quite as simple—which is why there are an infinite array of denominations, church splits, plants, etc.

What I’ll try to do over the coming days, weeks, months, years (heck, for the rest of my life) is try to answer some of these questions. If anyone has any thoughts or guidance, feel free to chime in. I’m just doing my best to figure it all out.