This feels like a confession.
When asked what they hope to accomplish with their writing, Christian writers are fond of saying that they want to “glorify God.” They want to magnify, exalt, honor, give witness of and uphold God in the stories they tell.
Which leads to my confession: I have no idea what they’re talking about.
Of course, I realize that Christians are to glorify God in everything they do.
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (I Cor. 10:31).
But doesn’t this render the Christian writer’s response moot? I mean, if you’re supposed to do EVERYTHING to the glory of God, why must you single out your writing?
- Do you glorify God in how you eat?
- Do you glorify God in your TV habits?
- Do you glorify God in how you manage your money?
- Do you glorify God in how you treat your boss?
- Do you glorify God in how much you serve others?
- Do you glorify God in your online presence?
- Do you glorify God in how you market your book?
“Do ALL to the glory of God.”
If this is assumed, then why are Christians writers so concerned to point out that their literary mission is to “glorify God”? That should be a given. In fact, if you’re not glorifying Him with your whole life now, why should it matter that you stick references to Him in your stories?
And, sadly, that’s what many folks mean by glorifying God in their writing. For most Christian writers, glorifying God is all about their message. It means not backing away from the Gospel and not avoiding references to Christ in their novel. It means developing content that is virtuous, redemptive, and spiritually uplifting.
Which leads me to ask: Can only writers of explicit “Christian content” glorify God in their writing? Can a Christian sportswriter glorify God in his writing? Can a Christian textbook maker glorify God in her writing? Can a Christian dog trainer glorify God in their writing? Can a Christian op-ed columnist glorify God in their writing? Can a Christian scriptwriter for Nickelodeon glorify God in their writing?
IF NOT — if only Christian writers can glorify God in Christian stories — then how can a Christian ever hope to “do all to the glory of God”?
IF SO — if Christians can glorify God in whatever kind of story they write (or task, service, job they perform) — then how is glorifying God in a Christian story any different than glorifying God in a “secular” story?
Call me a stickler, a wet blanket if you like. But glorifying God seems to be a lot more than just going to church, quoting Scripture, referencing God, and distributing Bible tracts. Glorifying God is a lot bigger than just our message.
So why must our novels be any different?
I think if glorifying God is to be in everything we do, then our writing should be more than just about the message. It should be the writing process itself I suppose. If God is using you (the writer) as an instrument for a certain message He wants to get out, then the message should be the last thing that we as Christians should worry about. If our goal is to glorify, then I think the message should come naturally.
Does this make any sense, Mike?
IF SO — if Christians can glorify God in whatever kind of story they write (or task, service, job they perform) — then how is glorifying God in a Christian story any different than glorifying God in a “secular” story?
I’m not sure if I understand this. Could you elaborate Mike? I don’t try to make any distinctions between secular and Christians stories. To me they’re all just stories. Some will try to serve a higher purpose in serving God or allowing the stories to be a vessel for God, others don’t.
Julian, I’m just following out the train of thought. Most Christians believe that, practically speaking, we glorify God by living a certain quality of life. A Christian physician glorifies God, not just be speaking about God, but by doing a good job, being personable and empathetic, and not prescribing pain pills indiscriminately. Likewise, I’m wondering if there isn’t more to glorifying God in our writing than portraying Christian characters who quote Scripture, pray, and don’t cuss.
Sorry for so many comments but I also think that making reference to God in our stories can be done, but it doesn’t HAVE to be done. If our writing is suppose glorify God, then should the content glorify Him without the name dropping.
I have always maintained that as long as I live and breathe and exist in my theistic worldview, everything I do including writing stories will flow out of that worldview and the story, hopefully without being “preachy” will reflect that worldview. That being said, I don’t believe my stories have to be overtly Christian. Narnia and Middle Earth were not overtly Christian but the Christian worldview was well represented in the themes of the stories and the characters and their experiences.
I hope that as long as I live from a theistic worldview, my writing will reflect that worldview and its values. In fact, overtly Christian stories that push the message and shove it down my throat are anathema to me. I can’t read them! In fact, I resist the urge to write like that. It seems like an easy path to take. I’d rather face the challenge of letting a really good story flow out of my worldview rather than shoe horn the story to fit my presuppositions. After all, this is what Dan Brown did with “The Da Vinci Code”.
I’m gonna play Ransom Note Cut & Paste from Dorothy Sayers here.
***
No piety in the worker will compensate for work that is not true to itself; for any work that is untrue to its own technique is a living lie.
Yet in Her own buildings, in Her own ecclesiastical art and music, in Her hymns and prayers, in Her sermons and in Her little books of devotion, the Church will tolerate, or permit a pious intention to excuse work so ugly, so pretentious, so tawdry and twaddling, so insincere and insipid, so bad as to shock and horrify any decent draftsman.
And why? Simply because She has lost all sense of the fact that the living and eternal truth is expressed in work only so far as that work is true in itself, to itself, to the standards of its own technique. She has forgotten that the secular vocation is sacred. Forgotten that a building must be good architecture before it can be a good church; that a painting must be well painted before it can be a good sacred picture; that work must be good work before it can call itself God’s work.
***
I think we need to work our art as unto God; in faithfulness to His Person and Character as well as in pursuit of technical excellence and expression in the chosen medium.
I’ve got to do my best boldly and prayerfully. I can’t knowingly offer “the sick, the blind, the lame.” Mal.1:8
Wow! Fantastic quote, Patrick. I’m definitely swiping that.
When I hear writers (or any artists) say they do what they do to glorify God, I don’t take it to mean they don’t try to glorify Him in all other areas of their lives, but that they are trying to distinguish themselves from those artists who say whatever they want to say, not caring a whit about what God might think. There are plenty of those artists out there. We’re bombarded by their “fruits” everyday if we don’t choose our media carefully. Certainly, non-Christian artists can glorify God either intentionally or unintentionally, but it isn’t a common driving force in the secular realm.
My problem, Jessica, is not with Christians who want to ‘to distinguish themselves from those artists who say whatever they want to say, not caring a whit about what God might think.” My issue is with those Christian artists who believe that the only way they can do so is by referencing God, Scripture, or Christian symbolism. As if getting a tattoo of John 3:16 across my neck makes me a better witness.
Huh. Well. Yeah, there are those. And in too strong a dose it can become a bit strange and off-putting.
Patrick, I can see how it would be easy to fall into that trap, and I’ve had to ask myself that question too. Am I trying to “glorify God” merely in hopes that He will greatly bless what I want to do? I have been guilty of that attitude sometimes.
I totally agree, Jessica.
Unfortunately I’ve met those for whom that phrase is code for: “I’m believing God to prosper my little expedition, here.”
I’m just gonna say it, I’d like to tell stories (cinematic and literary) without having to mention God and Scripture. I would like the content of my work reflect my personal beliefs in God without throwing His name out there or making some heavy handed allegory.
I know its possible to do this, but I wonder how.
I’ve been studying this–making “the content of my work reflect my personal beliefs in God…–and I think there are workable strategies. I love writing strategies. They aren’t formulas, rather instigators for certain explorations. If we develop characters with strong points of view, passion, a little internal conflict, and integrity, then drop them into a scene with a character with a different point of view, or no passion or uninformed passion, something’s going to happen. Characters and stuff happening in a cause/effect pattern–a high-falutin’ technical definition of story.
Literary works are meant to convey universal truths. This is why people say that a literary work has changed their life. However, many of these people ‘just don’t get it.’ Even books like The Catcher in the Rye, one of my personal favorites, convey Godly messages, albeit in a secular tone. These works can be used to reach people of all creeds and make them think deeper about what it means. Take the prophecy: in many places it’s not-so-clear, but translates into “you need to get right with me.”
Imagination is a gift from God. When we use it, we reflect his image. And that is something to revel in. I imagine God is happy to see us do that.
I think it’s a matter of verbiage and definition. We glorify God in what we do by working at it with everything we have, as if working for the Lord. So anytime we put forth our best effort and work with integrity, because we are working for God, not man, that is glorifying God. And we can do that in anything we choose to do.
I think what many Christian writers mean when we say we want to glorify God with out writing, is that we want to point to God. We want to point to His majesty and grace and the power of his redemption. A writer for the secular market can definitely glorify God in his/her writing, but even so, their stories might not point readers to God.
If that makes any sense.
On a slightly different note, I’m posing more questions on my blog tomorrow. Mainly about the nature of preachiness and if Christian books (books published by the CBA) are by default, message books. I’d love your input, Mike!
oops – I mean “with OUR writing” not “with OUT writing”. What a difference a letter makes.
Oh, and another thought.
Any writer can glorify God in their writing, but that doesn’t mean the finished product will glorify God. Does that make sense?
This is a great article. I’ve had strong objections to “Christian fiction” and “Christian music” since I was in high school and first started making a serious effort at writing fiction. It seems like any old piece of crap can get published as long as it slaps in a message about loving Jesus or sings God’s praises. I don’t believe God is truly glorified by people who write dreck in Jesus’ name. I believe God is truly glorified when we use the talents He’s given us to tell stories that are meaningful and true, whether or not they explicitly say that Jesus is the only way to heaven.
I try to write honest fiction about Christian characters. I also try to write honest fiction about non-Christian characters, because my life doesn’t exist in a vacuum. I’m surrounded by non-Christians, many of whom I am very close to and care deeply about. How is God going to be glorified if those non-Christian friends of mine read my fiction and feel that I have marginalized them or belittled them?
I’m not writing fiction with the purpose of saving people’s souls. I’m writing fiction with the purpose of telling a good story. I think the things that are important to me will shine through (at least that’s my goal) without my preaching.
The answer lies in what is it about the light that we let shine that points people to God, that glorifies Him?
There is the kind of glorifying based on the quality of our work, whatever that is. When someone learns we are a Christian, then that can glorify God, but in and of itself is just as likely to point to me as to God from someone looking in. If I write a terrific book that blows everyone out of the water, they aren’t going to say, “Wow, God wrote a great book there!” They are going to focus on me, and short of some level of realization that I’m a Christian, and that influences my writing, God will not be noticed.
Then there is the level where themes and morals lived out in the novel, promoted as “good” or “evil” in the novel, whether God or Christ or Christianity is ever mentioned or not, is compatible and supportive of Christianity. Again, Christianity shares much of that with other religions, even with purely secular values. So short of them knowing I’m a Christian, such an outsider reading my book may not see God at all, despite my specific Christian worldview very evident in the writing.
Then another level is the more overt mentioning of God. This has the advantage of making it clear both what audience we are shooting for (a Christian one), and that God is clearly stated as the basis for the novels values and themes. The only problem is such a novel isn’t likely to be very “light shining” because few outside of Christian circles are likely to read it. Especially if it is decidedly preachy, which they tend to be. C. S. Lewis tried to get around this with allegory (and so have many, many other writers) but all too often the allegory is fairly obvious, as in C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia. Such have a better chance of reaching non-Christian audiences than straight out preaching.
My Reality Chronicles falls as a hybrid between the last two. It is obvious God is a character, though you never hear Him or see Him, and that the main character is a Christian, and there are themes of redemption running through it. But I’ve done my best not to get too “preachy” in it, and just show through the story the morals and values that arise. How well I’ve done with that, readers will have to decide.
But, and here for me is the key point, the above while all good in their own ways, isn’t what glorifying God is about. Rather, glorifying God is about offering my life to Him. Offering my writings to Him, to do with as He pleases. It’s a personal thing that I offer to God whatever it is I do, to Him. This can inform the quality, the audience, and the themes. But it is the quality of my life as a whole that shines the light. One of my stories might be a little ray among the whole, but apart from my life would be meaningless in glorifying God.
God will be glorified in my stories because I’ve offered them up to Him, and He can use them however He sees fit, whether that is edifying the faithful or convicting a non-Christian of their need for Christ.
So to me, the content is a minor factor in whether it glorifies God or not. Granted, overt anti-Christian themes or content would not glorify God. But as a Christian, I’m not likely to write anything like that unless it is a mistake that was totally missed. But I know my Christian worldview will inform the types of things that are promoted as “good” and those which are seen as “evil.” The real test of whether it is glorifying God is whether I’m doing it as unto God, or unto myself. We don’t ever get ourselves totally out of the picture, but if we are doing it for Him primarily, and we stay true to Christian values and teachings, whether or not it is obvious, then I think we are glorifying God.
Why I think a lot of “Christian novels” tend to be overly preachy and unnatural in their presentation of Christianity is because they haven’t offered it up to God fully. They don’t feel comfortable allowing God to use it as He sees fit, instead they feel a need to force the reader to get the message that the author wants.
For you see, when they get “preached” at by the author, they see the author as being glorified by having this nifty message. If the reader sees something of value in the writing that speaks to them, they will see God using the authors words to speak to them, because the author didn’t directly say X, Y, Z. The reader simply connected the dots and had a “ah ha” moment. Then God is glorified instead of me. If I’m offering it up to God, then He has control of what message people will get out of it. If I don’t, I’ll tend to force-feed a message to the readers, but it may not be the one they need to hear. And in either case, the author gets the glory.
So I’d say in that view of things, explicit preachy Christian messages will have limited glorifying God appeal. Especially when they come across as tacked on instead of natural to the story and/or characters.
R.L., this is an incredibly insightful comment. I completely agree with you.
Something else came to mind this morning. I was the drama minister at my church for 15 years. Five years ago, our church adopted a new strategy under our new pastor. We would no longer perform church based drama. Up until that point, the idea was to offer art to our community in the form of drama — more than just the usual Easter or Christmas pageants. We would attract non-believers to our church with excellent, high quality drama and art in general. The idea was for the church to become once again a center of excellence in art as it used to be when the church commissioned artists to create great and wonderful works.
Now, the idea had arisen that we, as Christians, should go OUT into the community and become involved in secular art. By doing so, we would expose the culture to our Christian worldview and thus begin to change culture. I learned firsthand about this strategy from a church in Los Angeles. This church had a film school whose entire purpose was to train Christian filmmakers and send them into Hollywood to change culture.
I don’t know if this strategy is going to work. Certainly as Christian writers, we already have that mandate. We are writing our stories and sending them out into culture. But, is that writing focused on the established Christian reader or are we trying to cross over to the secular reader? Here is the rub, I believe. In order to reach a secular audience, do we have to water down the Gospel and risk not glorifying God with our work? Is that what we are supposed to do?
Or, do we compromise our values and write dark, edgy stories with curse words and gratuitous sex and violence in order to attract secular readers and somehow hope that our Christian worldview comes through? Not sure. But, it seems to be the prevailing attitude among church leaders today that our art as Christians should not be expressed in the church but taken to the streets so that in doing so, secular culture gets exposed to our “glorifying” of God. How do we do this without appearing to no longer “glorify” God? It is almost a Catch-22.
What do you think?
I sort of think of it this way, what it means to “glorify God” through our writing: If “the heavens declare the glory of God,” then His fingerprints are there. The heavens don’t use words, but their very essence shouts of something and Someone far, far bigger than we are. Glorifying God in what we do (in my opinion) doesn’t mean we have to “tag” everything we do with God’s name. There’s not a tag under a cloud that says “made by our Awesome God.” We just need to do what we do to the best of the ability He’s given us, and ask Him about what to do that will bring glory to Him. Sometimes, that’s very simple to do.
I think people complicate things more than they need to, and end up pushing their opinions onto others as well. As in, if our characters don’t say grace over every meal or we don’t have a church sermon in the book, that “God” isn’t being shown in our work. But I guess that’s getting back to an earlier post… 🙂
Interesting train of thought. And it doesn’t hurt for us to think carefully about why we write, what we write, and if God is pleased with our offerings, and how we can best “reflect” Him to our readers…
Glorifying God means doing everything to the best of our ability. “Do it with all your might’ as it says in Ecclesiastes. For sure, writers can glorify God without mentioning God. It’s like saying an artist can only glorify God if they paint pastoral pictures of Jesus. Come on!!! As an artist as well as an author, this drives me crazy! I personally hate pastoral scenes of anything. Pictures that are raw and elicit an emotional response are far more engaging – and dare I say ‘glorifying’ if they have some kind of message. (Let’s say, pointing out some kind of injustice, as in protest art…)
It reminds me of what I happen to be reading right now in the Bible. I’m into the prophets and let me tell you, a lot of that stuff isn’t pretty! But it’s still glorifying.
Okay, I think I’m really digressing here. short answer: YES – you can glorify God without mentioning God, and non-Christian authors can also glorify God. (Look at how a dancer glorifies the creator simply by showcasing the amazing human body … ) Oops. digressing again.
Pastorals do not lack meaning or passion. They are the flip side of the picturesque. This style of art was meant to bring about emotional responses. Judging by the treatises philosophers wrote about these two types of landscapes, my guess is that artists were successful in both painting emotion and meaning into their compositions.
I know I’m taking you literally, but I can’t help feeling irked at the maligning of pastorals. God gives us various images of himself, his son, and the holy spirit in the Bible. Jesus as shepherd is used repeatedly because it’s a powerful image. And there’s nothing particularly soft or nice about humans being compared to sheep, either. It’s not a nice image at all.
And why can’t the good and the peaceful glorify God, as well as the bad and the ugly? Truth-telling is multidimensional. But, on the other hand, I agree with your ultimate conclusions. 🙂
I believe a scriptwriter writing for Nickelodeon can indeed glorify God with his writing. The widow who gave a penny-and thus all she had-to God, glorified Him with her quiet deed. And on the flip side, too many so-called righteous people loudly proclaim their deeds in the name of God without their lives and hearts glorifying Him.
In response to this post, Becky Miller has taken up the discussion about glorifying God and what that means at her site. As usual, Becky brings her theological analyses to the subject for another interesting spin on the subject. Check it out!
I love your thoughts and comments Mike. I have been a Christian for over 28 years and I am so tired of the ides of “secular” vs. Christian. I think that by creating this delineation we limit the ways in which God brings glory to Himself. And just being frank here, there is much in literature, music, and in film that is “Christian” in its message but terrible in its persentation.
I believe that a Christian can write, paint, photograph something that does not have a “Christian message” as understood by modern evangelicalism, and still bring glory to God because of its creativity and theme.
I also believe that a non-christian can write, paint, photogragh, something that brings glory to God as well. I think so much of the artistic realm in the “secular” that has depth, and amazing creativity. And since God is the Author of everything beautiful, His glory is evident.
Thanks again for your insightful blog.
Peace to you,
Mark
I have little to add to what others have said.
My primary aim in everything is to glorify God. But a lot of Christian writers seem to use that as a shibboleth to getting published. As if they say “God is on my side so this book WILL see the light of day.” It’s the writers’ version of Name it and Claim it. And it bugs me because so much of what many of those books are is not something I’d want to put God’s name on, but I guess that’s not my problem.
Anyway, my primary goal in writing is to entertain and comfort people. I figure that glorifies God and it seems pompous to announce that I’m GLORIFYING GOD at every turn.
As usual, you’ve brought up some interesting questions about Christian faith and writing. I think you are right — we should glorify God in everything that we do.