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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
![\"Book](\"https:\/\/novels.zerosilver.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Idiot-gray.jpg\")
(Orthodox)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
For example, The Idiot<\/em><\/a>, by Fyodor Dostoevsky, is one of the greatest, most well-known works of Christian fiction ever written. Almost every definition on the list above can be used to describe it. It\u2019s not the sort of novel, however, that would ever be published by one of the conservative Protestant houses or imprints. Its Russian Orthodox worldview would eliminate it from consideration, and its content would be regarded as too stark and gritty by many readers of modern Christian fiction. Still, the English translation of The Idiot<\/em> I\u2019ve read is clean enough to meet “My Clean-Reading Criteria<\/a>,” a standard that\u2019s more flexible than that of many Christian publishers but strict enough that it\u2019s becoming increasingly difficult for me to find contemporary adult novels that meet it outside of the religious markets.<\/p>\n\n\n While the lines that define Christian fiction can seem puzzling at times and often blurry, they\u2019re drawn by the marketplace and are, therefore, important. The Idiot<\/em> is on hundreds of Goodreads\u2019 book lists<\/a>. Not one of those lists is for \u201cChristian fiction.\u201d Anyone who does a search on \u201cChristian fiction\u201d anywhere online is going to find that most of the titles that come up are those published by the evangelical Christian publishers and marketed to conservative Protestants. If you\u2019re looking for a book like The Idiot<\/em>, you\u2019re probably not going to find it by doing a search on the term \u201cChristian fiction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That observation leads back to my original question: Is fiction marketed to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> \u201cChristian fiction\u201d? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes! Much of it is, in substance, Christian fiction by almost every definition I\u2019ve ever encountered that defines Christian fiction. I\u2019ve read my share of evangelical Christian fiction, and fiction published for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I can tell you that these books are similar in substantial ways. They are far more like each other than they are like secular books of the same type.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The answer is also no. If you\u2019re looking for fiction published for Latter-day Saints, and from that particular Christian perspective, you\u2019re not likely to find it easily by doing a search on the term \u201cChristian fiction.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSo why am I asking the question? Does the answer\nmatter?\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n I believe it does. Ever since President Russell M. Nelson asked members<\/a> of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to use the correct name of the Church whenever possible and stop using the adjectives “Mormon\u201d and \u201cLDS,\u201d I\u2019ve been struggling to decide how to classify the books I recommend that have long been labeled as \u201cLDS fiction.\u201d The easy answer is to expand LDS into Latter-day Saint. I\u2019ve seen this approach in many places and often use it myself. While I don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything wrong with it, I can\u2019t help but ask: Where is my Savior in that classification?<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the perks that comes with having my own website is that I can classify the books I write and recommend by any label I choose. Since many books that have been long labeled \u201cLDS fiction\u201d really do fall into a specialized sub-genre of Christian fiction and always have, I\u2019m going to start classifying them that way. I read a lot of Christian fiction from various perspectives, so to avoid confusion, this is the way I\u2019ll label contemporary books with Christian content: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christian fiction:<\/strong> Books that are universal enough appeal to Christians from many denominations. Most of these are published by mainstream houses or under Christian imprints designed to cross over to a secular audience. I\u2019ll also include religious works in this category by independent authors who seem to be targeting a general audience. If I believe a book could be of interest to people of faith who aren\u2019t Christians, I may label it \u201cFaith-based fiction.\u201d If it\u2019s more than fifty years old, I may use the term \u201cChristian classic.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christian fiction\n(Evangelical):<\/strong> Books published by evangelical Christian\npublishers and independent authors targeting this audience. While the\nunderlying worldview of these books is unabashedly evangelical, and the content\nis often didactic, many of them are universal enough to appeal to Christians\nfrom many denominations.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Christian fiction (Latter-day Saint):<\/strong> Books with overt content that refers to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members, teachings, and lifestyle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ll add corresponding labels as I find books to recommend that need them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve recently updated “My Favorite Clean Fiction<\/a>” with twenty-three titles. All of them could be considered Christian fiction, even if I didn\u2019t classify all of them that way on the list. I\u2019ve added books by these authors: Lynn Austin (4), Rebecca Belliston (4), Morgan L. Busse (3), Wilkie Collins (1), Melanie Dickerson (6), Chelsea Dyreng (2), C.S. Lewis (1), Neal A. Maxwell (1), and Frank Peretti (1). <\/p>\n\n\n\n The photo of Christus<\/a>, by Aldo Rebechi, can be found in the collection of Gospel Media at www.churchofjesuschrist.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Since many books that have been long labeled \u201cLDS fiction\u201d really do fall into a specialized sub-genre of Christian fiction and always have, I\u2019m going to start classifying them that way. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2879,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[212,234,45,69],"tags":[10,13,53,219,218,79,9,220,11],"class_list":["post-2864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christian-fiction","category-clean-reading-resources","category-russian-classics","category-updates","tag-faith-based","tag-fiction","tag-fyodor-dostoevsky","tag-latter-day-saint","tag-lds","tag-mormon","tag-religious-themes","tag-the-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints","tag-wholesome","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novels.zerosilver.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/novels.zerosilver.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/novels.zerosilver.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novels.zerosilver.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novels.zerosilver.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2864"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/novels.zerosilver.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5139,"href":"https:\/\/novels.zerosilver.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2864\/revisions\/5139"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novels.zerosilver.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novels.zerosilver.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novels.zerosilver.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novels.zerosilver.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Book](\"https:\/\/novels.zerosilver.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Crown-Crucible-new.jpg\")
(Evangelical)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Book](\"https:\/\/novels.zerosilver.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/SilenceGod.jpg\")
(Latter-day Saint)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
\n\n\n![\""Go](\"https:\/\/novels.zerosilver.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Resources-Launch-Page.jpg\")
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