To answer that question, it’s important to understand what Christian fiction is. Depending on who you ask, you may get one of these answers:
- Fiction with a lot of talk about God
- Fiction with very little, if any, sexual content, graphic violence, and foul language
- Fiction that promotes traditional values and practices such as chastity, integrity, and repentance
- Fiction written by practicing Christians for practicing Christians about practicing Christians
- Fiction that explores religious themes in a way that testifies of Jesus Christ and glorifies Him
- Fiction that preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ
- Stories that would fall apart if the religious element were removed
- Fiction that contains universal Christian themes and content that will appeal to Christians from a wide variety of denominations
- A broad genre that contains works from all Christian denominations
- A narrow genre that only contains books published by specific companies and imprints marketing to a conservative Protestant audience or by independent authors that meet the standards of these companies and imprints
Every single one of these descriptions is accurate. Not every work of Christian fiction, however, can be defined by every single description on this list.
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