Religious Fiction

Religious fiction is a genre of fiction that explores a religion or religious text. Spotting a work of religious fiction is not always obvious but, in this article, you’ll find some examples of such texts!

Religious fiction: definition

Religious fiction is fiction that is inspired by religious texts or other elements of a religion. Religious fiction uses features of a chosen religion to tell a story. The story could encourage certain teachings from that chosen religion.

Religious fiction: genre

The religious genre is a literary genre that has religious elements, like religious teachings and practices. The religious genre includes fictional and non-fictional texts. The fictional texts use fictional characters and events to depict and discuss religious teachings. These teachings could be about the stories told in religious texts, like the Bible in Christianity or the Quran in Islam. Sometimes these teachings could be about the values that are treasured in a particular religion.

The non-fiction texts in the religious genre can share values and teachings that are essential to religion in a factual way. It could be a spiritual guide for those who practice a particular religion. It often has practical tips or teachings that practising followers can implement in their lives to help them strengthen their belief in the particular religion.

Religious historical fiction

Religious historical fiction is a combination of historical fiction and religious fiction. Historical fiction is fiction that takes place in the past. In historical fiction, there are factually accurate elements to the story. This could be the customs or attitudes of a particular era. In the context of religious historical fiction, this is fiction that is set in the past that focuses on the perspective of a particular religion or incorporates elements of a particular religion.

Religious fiction: authors

This is a brief section on some authors of religious fiction.

C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis’s best-known religious fiction works are The Chronicles of Narnia series (1950-1956). The fictional characters in the novels represent various elements of Christianity.

Dan Brown

Dan Brown’s series Robert Langdon (2000-2017) is a religious fiction series with elements from Catholicism. It features the religious group Opus Dei and tells of Langdon’s adventures uncovering the group’s secrets.

Leila Aboulela

Leila Aboulela is the author of a number of books that feature Muslim characters. Aboulela's most famous novel is The Translator (1999) which tells the story of a Muslim Sudanese woman who struggles to live as a migrant in Scotland after her husband dies. The novel explores themes of cultural and religious differences.

Religious fiction: examples

Here are some examples of religious fiction in English literature that you may know of.

Religious fiction: books

Let's take a look at well-known books in the religious fiction genre:

The Chronicles of Narnia series (1950-1956) by C.S. Lewis

The Chronicles of Narnia series (1950-1956) is one of the most popular examples of religious fiction in English literature. The best-known religious elements are in the second novel of the series, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1950). The novel follows four siblings from the Pevensie family who discover a magical world called Narnia that can be entered through a wardrobe. When they first enter Narnia, it is plagued by the reign of the Witch Jadia. Jadia plunged Narnia into a winter that lasts for a hundred years. The lion Aslan is the rightful King of Narnia, and he represents Jesus Christ. The Pevensie siblings help Aslan take his throne back and they are symbolic of Jesus’ disciples. Jadia offers Turkish delights to one of the Pevensie siblings in exchange for information about Aslan and the other siblings. The Turkish delights are representative of sin and vices that tempt followers out of their loyalty to Jesus.

The Canterbury Tales (1392) by Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales (1392) is a classic example of religious fiction. It features 24 stories that tell the experiences of pilgrims on a pilgrimage from London to Canterbury. They wish to honour the shrine of the Archbishop of Canterbury, St. Thomas Becket. On their journey, the pilgrims take turn telling stories. These stories have different underlying themes, but the theme we will focus on is the people’s relation to Christianity and the Church.

In 'The Friar’s Tale', Chaucer discusses the hypocrisy of friars who take donations from donors but use the donations for their personal benefit. In 'The Summoner’s Tale', Chaucer tells of a summoner who is not thorough or fair in his role. His practice as a summoner is filled with corruption. These tales question the roles these characters have in the Church, and they are considered religious fiction because of these discussions.

Religious fiction: short story

Now we will explore a short story that also falls into the genre of religious fiction:

'Hell Is the Absence of God' (2001) in Stories of Your Life and Others (2002) by Ted Chiang

'Hell Is the Absence of God' (2001) is a contemporary example of religious fiction. One of the characters that readers follow is Neil Fisk. Fisk’s wife Sarah was recently killed during an angel’s visit to Earth. In this reality, angelic visitations are such overwhelming occurrences that they can have the same destructive effects as tsunamis, earthquakes and other natural disasters. In the world of the story, it is a known fact that God, Heaven and Hell exist and such angelic visitations (often accompanied by miracles) are also a real occurrence. After Fisk sees Sarah’s soul take its place in Heaven, he yearns to join her by worshipping God. Yet he feels too much resentment because God took Sarah away from him.

Another character, Janice Reilly, benefits from an angelic visitation. She was born without legs, as an angelic visitation removed them whilst she was a foetus. After years of empowering other disabled people, she is given legs after another angelic visitation. Reilly is inspired to lead a pilgrimage to a place where she hopes to experience more angelic visitations.

In Chiang’s short story, there is the belief that Heaven’s light, the light that angels travel with to and from the earth, will allow one to go to Heaven despite how sinful they have been in life. Fisk and Ethan Mead, a man curious to learn more about angelic visitations, join Reilly’s pilgrimage. In the flurry of the angelic visitation, Fisk and Reilly are hit with Heaven’s light. When this happens, Fisk wholeheartedly feels God's love and loves God. He dies in this encounter, but he goes to Hell, disproving the belief about being struck by Heaven’s light meaning automatic admittance to Heaven. Reilly is left blinded but she shares the wonders of God’s love she felt during this angelic visitation. Mead becomes a preacher and shares his eye-witness testimony. He preaches how unpredictable God’s actions can be but also how this does not mean one should stop devoting their life to God.

The religious elements of Heaven and Hell in Christianity are featured in the short story. 'Hell is the Absence of God' explores what it means to have faith in the Christian God. It relates back to real-life beliefs about the unpredictability of God’s actions, despite which many Christians still choose to love God.

Religious fiction: is religion considered fiction?

Is religion considered fiction? The answer you get depends on who you ask. Some religious and non-religious people would say that the stories told in religious texts are fiction. Yet, the purpose of these stories is to teach the values and ideals of that religion - the stories are not meant to be taken literally. Some religious followers would say that religious texts are non-fiction.

Evolutionary biologist and atheist Richard Dawkins is of the opinion that religion is fiction because it is filled with instances of supernatural events, like the stories in the Bible. These supernatural events do not rely on evidence to be proved, so they must be fiction, according to Dawkins.