What if you had to survive in a futuristic East Asian world, ruled by a social credit system, by pretending you were genetically altered? Let’s break from our ongoing series about present-day Fantastical Foes. Instead we’ll jump into the sci-fi cyberpunk world of Enhanced, Candace Kade’s newly released novel. Today, she rides into the studios to share her own social credit points!

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Candace is a recovering over-achiever who spends her time dreaming up stories typically involving tech, psychology, culture, and/or swords. She’s a certified Krav Maga assistant instructor and loves writing action-packed martial art scenes. A third culture kid, she considers Chengdu and Austin to be her homes. When she’s not exploring new countries, she enjoys hiking in national parks, moving, teaching her husband Mandarin, and keeping a baby human alive. She can be bribed with boba tea, fluffy puppies, and breakfast tacos.

Yikes, do you guys have my whole life bugged! Wow, may have to listen to this one again. Great discussion. Thanks for sharing.

I’ve read Jesus and John Wayne and I believe Michael is entirely incorrect on his assessment about the book and deconstructionism in general.

There are no professional deconstructors. There’s no leftist agenda in Dr. DeMuse book, unless the message that “power and influence corrupt and having super megachurch pastors be held up as leaders in evangelical circles was a terrible idea” doesn’t translate for you.

I thought this was a podcast about storytellers, not a political punditry soapbox.

Our next Fantastical Foe doesn’t look that villainous. Instead she dresses up as whimsical kittens, cozy cottages, or “easily” spied good guys and bad guys. He will approach you in pleasant platitudes, from a church, or even from that smiling popular fantasy author. Shining like an angel of light, she will give you beautiful lies such as, “Everyone is basically good, and you only need to fear the System of obvious villains… like The Powerful. Or doctrine. Or that bad Church Back Home.” Should we follow these messiahs from the deserts of social media? Beware this second Fantastical Foe: Sentimentalism.

If a church or group of Christians hurt you, that is part of your origin story.[1. Photo by Karl Fredrickson on Unsplash.] True heroes, on their journey to victory, often face many temptations to the dark side. One of those temptations is to a fantastical foe we’re calling deconstructionism. How can we show sympathy to victims who need to tear out bad structures, while refusing to let professional demolition crews reduce the gospel itself to ruin? Michael Young, known on the Twitterverse as “Wokal Distance,” shares wisdom from outside the Christian-fantastical community about Fantastical Foe number one.

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Michael Young, known on Twitter as “Wokal Distance,” teaches about the roots of wokeness. He decodes, deciphers, and explains the postmodern world in a way which is accessible to the average person. For those who feel the breaking apart of the social world, he helps them find their bearings. Follow him on Twitter @‌Wokal_Distance.

What if you had to survive in a futuristic East Asian world ruled by a social credit system, you had to pretend you were genetically altered? We’ll break from this series about present-day Fantastical Foes. Instead we’ll jump into the sci-fi cyberpunk world of Enhanced, Candace Kade’s newly released novel. She’ll join us for an interview in our next episode.

The time has come to explore the wild lands. From legalism to worse attacks on God’s image in us, many Christian fantastical fiction fans have suffered what can only be described as church trauma. How can we show Christ’s love to these enemies while more importantly healing from these attacks that may come from relatives, the church back home, or other bullies who might slander us because of our faith or even because of the fantastical stories we enjoy? Today we begin our new four-part series: Fantastical Foes.

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Marian Jacobs writes about Jesus, monsters, and spaceships. Her work has featured at Desiring God as well as Stage and Story, and she has written many articles for Lorehaven.

L. G. McCary, author of That Pale Host, writes supernatural and dark science fiction on many diverse topics. She has written articles and coordinates social media for Lorehaven.

Along with “There once was a boy named Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it,” (Voyage of the Dawn Treader, by C. S. Lewis) and “The building was on fire, but it wasn’t my fault,” (Summer Knight, I think, by Jim Butcher), Charles Williams’ opening line in War in Heaven is among literature’s best.

“The telephone was ringing frantically, but nobody was there to answer it but the corpse.” Or something like that. Sure beats “It is a truth universally acknowledged, …” by Jane Austin (P&P) or Lewis’ own “Marriage was ordained, thirdly, …” in [That Hideous Strength].

If a church or group of Christians hurt you, that is part of your origin story. True heroes, on their journey to victory, often face many temptations to the dark side. One of those temptations is to a fantastical foe we’re calling deconstructionism. Everyone needs to test your faith. And if the church back home had rotten construction, you may need some remodeling. How can we do this, showing sympathy to ourselves and other victims who need to tear out bad structures, while refusing to let professional demolition crews destroy the gospel? Let’s explore a first Fantastical Foe: deconstructionism.

What if you were stuck in a burdensome power armor and had to flee from the wrath to come? If this sounds familiar, it’s because you know the classic story of Pilgrim’s Progress. But this version has giant mechs. Plus robots, space marines, and talking platypuses. John Bunyan didn’t write those parts, but author David Umstattd did. Today he stomps into the studio to share his narrative podcast and forthcoming novel The Pilgrim’s Progress Reloaded.

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David Umstattd was called to be a writer in 2006. He graduated from Baylor University in 2013 and is the author of Pilgrim’s Progress: Reloaded. He lives in North Austin where his family has lived for seven generations.

Next month, we plan to explore some perilous territory, starting with one challenge afflicting many Christian fantastical fans. From legalism to worse attacks on God’s image in us, many Christians have suffered what can only be described as church trauma. How can we show Christ’s love to churches that have hurt us while, more importantly, healing from these attacks that may come from relatives, the church back home, or other bullies who might slander us because of our faith or even because of the fantastical stories we enjoy? Today we begin our new four-part serious series: Fantastical Foes.

Aliens! Now that we have your attention, here’s a plot twist: the aliens just want to show their love. But they’re also nationalistic, because they’re only sending America all their cute little balloons for Valentine’s Day, yet they’re too early, and don’t match the pink and red decor. This is no fantasy: fighter pilots have been shooting down floating objects, over Alaska, Montana, and Lake Huron. So it’s time to beam back aboard our Armies of the Aliens craft series. A special guest joins us on today’s Fantastical Truth to explore what all these rumors might expose about human nature and gospel solutions.

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Former stealth pilot James R. Hannibal is no stranger to secrets and adventure. He has been shot at, locked up by surface to air missiles, has hunted insurgents with drones, and was once chased by an armed terrorist down a winding German road. James is the Carol Award–winning author of the Clandestine Service series and a three-time winner of the Silver Falchion Award for Juvenile Fiction for his Section 13 series. He also stewards the discipleship learning adventure game Lightraiders (previously called DragonRaid). His newest novel, Bear Knight, released Feb. 14, 2023 as book 2 in the Lightraider Academy series.

With “types” and “shadows”, these things that give similar shapes and forms, are not the “thing” itself that casts the shadow. As long as the series points back to the Truth, this should not be so harshly judged because it is not the “thing” itself. …

For “The Chosen” series, we must admit that even though, it may have fictional elements, it is at least an attempt to look through the glass back towards the object that IS worth taking a closer look at.

Thank you, Marian, for a well-thought out and much-needed article. The imagination is a powerful gift (therefore a target for the enemy of all that is good and true) and is engaged in sexual matters as well as the arts. I too am really concerned about Christians normalizing lust in the arts. Romance elements can fuel addiction for women, offering narratives that portray unrealistic depictions of men, just as men can be addicted to images of unrealistic depictions of women. Our sexuality and the arts need to be subjected to God, for our protection and to fully reflect his goodness. Please keep speaking out.

What if you were stuck in a burdensome mech suit and had to flee from the wrath to come? If this sounds familiar, it’s because you know the classic story of Pilgrim’s Progress. But this version has a mech suit. Plus robots, space marines, and talking platypuses. John Bunyan didn’t write those parts, but author David Umstattd did. Next week he’ll stomp into the studio to share his narrative podcast and novel Pilgrim’s Progress Reloaded.

This episode releases on Valentine’s Day. But we’ve noticed that for a lot of fantastical fiction, and especially traditional Christian-made fiction, every day is Valentine’s Day. You get fantasy romance. Fairy tale romance. Fairy-tale retelling romance. YA superhero romance. And so much more. So, why all the romance? And will we spend a whole episode making fun? No way. It’s Valentine’s Day! Instead, let’s explore why Christian readers fall in love with fictional romance.

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One wouldn’t end here with anything like a condemnation of Christian romance or its fans. That would be sick legalism. Again, romance is God’s creation! It points back to the union of Adam and Eve (Genesis 2), and forward to the union of Christ and His Church (Ephesians 5).

However, Christians believe romantic relationships will not always continue as they are now. Some believe this means a total abolition of even good human marriages, based on Jesus’s words in Matthew 22:23-33. Even if this isn’t what He meant, we can be confident that Jesus refers to some adjustment to human marriage, which may be fulfilled in eternity.

In either case, romantic relationships are a subset, not the sum total, of that future world.

Whereas the Bible’s literal and ideal image of paradise—a made-new world of wonder, of good conquering evil, and  miracles—is closer to the themes explored in fantastical stories.

Why, then, don’t more Christians at least enjoy romance fiction and fantasy fiction equally?

Maybe it’s because most readers haven’t yet enjoyed this more biblical picture of paradise.

The #1 complaint I’ve heard about “The Chosen” regards the response of so many people who use it as an aid to worship. Clearly, idolizing a character depicted by Jonathan Roumie is every bit as sinful as idolizing St. Peter, the Virgin Mary, or a painting of Jesus on the chapel ceiling. Idolatry is idolatry, and people are as prone to break the 2nd Commandment today as ever–just with pixels instead of gold.

For this reason, a lot of Christians have taken the hard line, with a few subpoints and addendums to the Law. “Thou shalt not depict Christ in any way, shape, or fashion. Thou shalt not put words into His mouth that have not already been written, nor shalt thou presume Him as saying anything not recorded for you in Scripture. Thou shalt not imagine.” …

If someone watching “The Chosen” is a weak brother and supplants his daily Bible reading with binge watching, then that brother needs to throw his TV (and phone) in the garbage. He needs to pluck out his eye. This show is not a replacement for Scripture, as its director has stated multiple times. Viewing the show sinfully–that is, with an idolatrous heart–is sin. But Dallas Jenkins no more causes people to commit idolatry than Glock causes people to commit murder.

Aliens! Now that we have your attention—if it’s not that infamous and not-at-all-seasonally-colored balloon the People’s Republic of China sent America early for Valentine’s Day, it’s some kind of floating silver craft that was also just shot down, over Alaska this time, that might could just be more Armies of the Aliens. So we’re showing our love a different way, this time for urban legends about sci-fi and spaceships. These often seem creepily plausible, but cause a lot of questions for Christians. What can we learn from this war of the worldviews?

The Chosen biblical drama series is headed back to theaters to conclude season 3. Somehow this season, above all, we’ve seen a lot more criticism of the show. Are these creators trying to replace the true Christ with a TV Jesus? Aren’t they adding to Scripture and supplanting the local church? Is this Mormon propaganda? We’ll return to this fantastical-adjacent series to explore the purpose of biblical fiction, and debunk some of the misunderstandings and plain lies about these kinds of stories. Two guest stars join this roundtable discussion.

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Josiah DeGraaf is a literature nerd who loves epic fantasy stories with imaginative worlds and authentic characters. He loves crafting fantastical stories about characters who face the same dilemmas we do when we try to do the right thing. You can download his short story collection for free to read about ordinary people struggling to be heroic when suddenly gifted with supernatural powers.

Jenneth Dyck is a dyslexic writer, illustrator, and designer who creates professional book covers for indie authors and small press publishers. She thinks way too deeply about superhero movies. These stories, plus quantum physics, angels, and the fourth dimension are regular topics of discussion at her dinner table. She holds degrees in professional writing and digital media with an M.A. in graphic design.

There is a SIGNIFICANT difference between Aslan and another clearly fictionalized “Jesus”, and a fictionalization of the REAL Jesus. The Chosen blends truth, fantasy, AND Mormon teachings into one package. In other words, it INTENTIONALLY blurs the line between faithfulness and fiction in a way that is incredibly difficult for even a cautious believer to discern. Unfortunately, it’s being consumed by a vast number of people who are using to “learn more about Jesus” with little to no discernment applied. I know people recommending it to unchurched or new believers as a way to learn about the Life of Christ.

In the end of the day, what Aslan says is STILL only what Aslan says, but words falsely attributed to Christ Himself muddy His actual teachings no matter how well intentioned they are.

Thank you for this. My family has experienced many losses including the death of my son last April after a long battle with a rare neurodegenerative disease (he was 17 with the mind of a 4-year-old). I feel God’s love, compassion, and comfort. My hope is that in the novel I’m writing, I’ll be able to express the goodness and sovereignty of God that others may see and experience.

What if you were a blind young man living in medieval times? And you were called to a special and future-mythological mission: to become the wizard Merlin? Robert Treskillard’s fantasy Merlin’s Spiral series has been re-forged into audiobook form. This day Sir Robert himself rides into the studio to share more about his medieval fantasy—round tables, knights of yore, and the wonderful true King reigning over them all.

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Robert Treskillard has been crafting stories from his early youth. His author career began when Robert’s son wanted to learn blacksmithing and sword-making. The two set out to learn the crafts and in the process were told by a relative that they were descended from a Cornish blacksmith. This lit the fire of Robert’s imagination, and so welding his Celtic research to his love of the legends of King Arthur, he forged new books—The Merlin Spiral series, Merlin’s Blade, Merlin’s Shadow, and Merlin’s Nightmare. All three titles just recently released to audiobook. He’s also a software developer, graphic artist, and veteran homeschool dad. He and his wife have three children and live in Missouri.

Although I haven’t yet finished Season 1 of The Chosen, I find this article a reasonable, well-articulated perspective on the issue of Biblical fiction in general. Thanks for posting!

Really grateful for this post, Josiah! Put into words what I couldn’t put together in my brain. I also can’t join the discussion because I’m not a watcher yet, but it’s still good to have this information. … It’s not really my type of show, at all, but I’ve been convinced I must try it anyway, so it’s on my list.

The Chosen biblical drama series is headed back to theaters to conclude season 3. Somehow this season, above all, we’ve seen a lot more criticism of the show. Are these creators trying to replace the true Christ with a TV Jesus? Aren’t they adding to Scripture and supplanting the local church? Is this “Mormon propaganda”? We’ll return to this fantastical-adjacent series to explore the purpose of biblical fiction, and debunk some of the misunderstandings and plain lies about these kinds of stories, possibly with some guest stars, in our next episode.

Have you been watching the hit animated Christian-made streaming series, The Wingfeather Saga? No doubt you’ve heard of the fantasy series by singer/songwriter Andrew Peterson. This story of the Igiby family’s darkly whimsical journey has attracted legions of readers from all ages. Now it’s a streaming series from Angel Studios. Today, series CG director Keith Lango visits our studio to share more about the origins of this animated story.

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Keith is both a student and instructor in the art of animation and its technology. His passion for developing engaging experiences in animation has given him a wide and varying experience in the field and was fundamental to the creation of The Wingfeather Saga‘s distinct animation style. He has worked on 3-2-1 Penguins, VeggieTales and at Valve Corporation on video games like Portal 2. He’s an executive producer and animation director for The Wingfeather Saga.

As a Christian and a fanfiction writer, I’m so glad other Christians are doing this. Yes, it’s going to incur some wrath from other groups, but Salt & Light isn’t trying to force others to agree with them. They’re just making a place where those who already do can congregate and share stories.

I’m adding this tag to my works right now.

Dude, I am so joining this. I’m always wishing I had an easier way to find Christian fic writers, and for them to find me.

What if you were a blind young man living in medieval times? And you were called to a special and future-mythological mission: to become the wizard Merlin? Robert Treskillard’s fantasy Merlin’s Spiral series has been re-forged into audiobook form. Next week, Sir Robert himself gallops into the studio to share more about his medieval fantasy—round tables, knights of yore, and the wonderful King reigning over them all.

Long ago, before C. S. Lewis or J. R. R. Tolkien, and before even George MacDonald or G. K. Chesterton … lived another fantasy writer, British poet Edmund Spenser. In the 1590s his epic adventure was published in six books. It’s an epic fantasy allegorical poem, written in nine-line stanzas, involving phrases like “iambic pentameter” and other incredible facts we need explained by a literature expert! So in this episode we’ll be joined by Rebecca K. Reynolds, classic literature educator, audiobook narrator, and editorial director for Oasis Family Media. She will introduce us to a long-forgotten classic being given new life: The Faerie Queene.

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Rebecca K. Reynolds is the editorial director of Oasis Family Media and Sky Turtle Press. She is the author of a text-faithful prose rendering of Edmund Spenser’s 1590s epic poem The Faerie Queene and of Courage, Dear Heart by Nav Press.  Rebecca is a longtime member of the Rabbit Room and she has spoken at Hutchmoot both in the US and the UK. She taught high school literature for seven years and has written lyrics for Ron Block of Alison Krauss, Union Station.

Not a big fan of the Willow show, but my hubby and I really liked the new Middle Earth one.

Have you been watching that other hit Christian-made streaming series, The Wingfeather Saga? No doubt you’ve heard of the fantasy series by singer/songwriter Andrew Peterson. This story of the Igiby family’s darkly whimsical journey has attracted legions of readers from all ages. Now it’s a streaming series from Angel Studios. CG director Keith Lango will visit our studio to share more about the origins of this animated story.