Are Karen Hancock's Guardian-King novels Christian novels?

A long time ago, in a fit of self-importance, I proposed to assess whether a novel was Christian or not. I proposed six criteria for that assessment. These are:

1) A Christ-figure.
2) Belief in important Christian doctrine.
3) Praying to a monotheistic divine being.
4) Expressing a relationship with God.
5) Consciousness of supernatural guidance.
6) Explicit rejection of personified evil.

I now apply this flawed instrument to the first three novels in Karen Hancock's series "Legends of the Guardian-King." See here and here for my posts on them, and for more details about these novels. It would be surprising if they didn't pass the test, as all three of them won the Christy award.

1) There is a Christ-figure, in fact two, one major, one not so major. Tersius, a supernatural being, son of Eidon, who stands in for God the Father, is explicitly said to have died to pay the penalty of sin, and, since he occasionally appears in the books, was also resurrected. The less important Christ-figure gave her life knowingly to protect Abramm from harm, in the first book. She was not resurrected, nor did her death pay a penalty for sin, but in a sense, she also was a Christ-figure. This woman is the woman that Abramm had a sexual encounter with, as mentioned in my post on the first book.
2) I have already indicated belief in an important Christian doctrine, namely that sin must be paid for, and that a perfect sacrifice is needed to pay for it. There are others, less explicit. The Writings don't occur much, but they have parallels with at least parts of the Bible.
3) Characters do pray to Eidon.
4) Abramm, the main character, realizes, when he puts on the object that signifies that he has become a Terstan, that there is a real, good, God. He feels this.
5) There are a number of occasions when Abramm asks for, and receives, supernatural guidance, or simply puts things in Eidon's hands. Other characters also do this.
6) There is rejection of personified evil. The evil beings are supernatural, and there is also an apostate religion, controlled by these beings.

As I say, it is not a surprise that these novels meet my test -- they are Christian. But it's my blog, and I wanted to go through the exercise. Thanks for reading.

The Shadow Within and Shadow Over Kiriath, by Karen Hancock

I have previously discussed Karen Hancock's Light of Eidon in this blog.

I have now read the second and third books in her quartet of novels. Both of them also won Christy awards. They are The Shadow Within (Grand Rapids, MI: Bethany House, 2004) and Shadow over Kiriath (same publisher, 2005) and

In these two books, Hancock stays on some well-beaten paths, in both fantasy literature and faith fiction. But she also departs from well-beaten paths.

First, the beaten paths. Abramm comes into the kingship in this pair of books. He also falls in love, and the object of his affections reciprocates. But there are difficulties. There is a religion, which is important to the characters, and the plot. None of that is a surprise. The same sort of aspects, including the religion, may be found even in fantasy literature which is not Christian. For example, see here.

Hancock departs from the beaten path in a few ways. One of them is that the Terstan faith, which is clearly meant to be a fictional Christianity, has what amounts to church services. Sometimes, Abramm receives prophetic guidance in the teaching, or sermon. Another, as I indicated in the first post on the series, is that those who are Terstans, as well as those who oppose that faith, wear, or have attached, tokens of their faith -- small stone-like objects. These are not merely passive. They can work magic. Another non-standard religious matter is that there is an apostate religion, which claims to honor Eidon, the name for God in the series. But this apostate religion emphasizes form rather than belief and heart attitude, and, it turns out, is captive to evil supernatural beings. Some of the followers of that apostate religion wear a different kind of token, which can also work magic.

The last non-standard item I wish to discuss is that, in the third book, the opening section, the close, and small parts of the in-between, are about an evil supernatural being, who wishes Abramm, and his kingdom, nothing but harm. This is something like The Screwtape Letters, but without any humor. The evil being can interact with other such, and even commands some of them. It also inhabits a member of Abramm's staff.

I think that Hancock may have overdone her menagerie of evil creatures. There are several kinds of beings which appear to be part animal, and part evil spirit, and she almost seemed to conjure a new type up whenever she needed them for a plot device.

Nonetheless, this is a good series. As I said in the previous post, I believe that it could have stood up as a fantasy series published by a publisher not overtly Christian, and I wish it had received the larger audience that that should have meant.

Thanks for reading. I'm glad that I read these books, and I look forward to reading the fourth. I'd like to know what's going to happen to Abramm.

The Light of Eidon, by Karen Hancock

I occasionally post about fantastic literature that I have read. I recently decided to try a book that won a Christy Award, namely The Light of Eidon by Karen Hancock. (Bloomington, MN: Bethany House, 2003) The book is a first novel, and also the first in a series of four. The first three of the books won Christy Awards, but the category names were not the same each year.

I have nothing against so-called faith fiction. But I prefer to read mainstream fiction -- fiction that is likely to be read more widely. I have been inspired, in various ways, by some well written fantastic fiction. I have mused in this blog about Christianity in books that were not aimed at a conservative Christian audience. See here for one such post. Light of Eidon, and other books that have won the Christy Awards, are written for and marketed to a primarily conservative Christian audience, most of it women.

So what is Christian about Light of Eidon? Well, Christianity, in slightly disguised form, is there, all right. Eidon is God. God has a son, Tersius:

"Why do you think Tersius had to die?"

"To make the Flames, of course."

"The Flames are a lie, created by the very darkness they claim to ward. But you're right about Eidon's being perfect and that He can't ignore our failings. There is a price to be paid. It's just that Tersius is the only one who could pay it." (p. 305. The first speaker is Trap Meridon, a follower of Tersius, or a Terstan. The second is Abramm, prince of Trap's country.)

So, there are clearly Christian elements in the book, including sacred writings. But this isn't surprising. Other works of fantastic fiction, especially sword and sorcery fiction, not apparently Christian, often have lots of religious aspects, such as the theology of Lois McMaster Bujold's Chalion novels, for an example. But the Christian elements in Light have a twist. That twist is that Terstans have an object, shield-like in shape, embedded in their chests, just below the neck. This shield, in addition to being a symbol, also imparts certain powers. One is that the wearer can produce another such object for another person. The shield has healing powers, and is able to repel magic from evil enemies. (No one can receive such a shield unless they want it, and unless they have faith in Eidon. Receiving such a shield is not a guarantee that the person will remain a true worshiper of Eidon. Someone who receives such a shield, and later becomes evil, gets sick. The main symptom of this is a crust, or curd, produced by the eyes.)

Evil is personified. There are evil people, who explicitly and purposefully serve an evil god. There are also several types of malevolent evil animals (or perhaps spirits -- I'm not clear on that).

I wish to say a little about the plot of the book. Abramm is a younger son of a king. He begins life wishing to do nothing but serve Eidon as a priest. So he enters priestly orders. But these priests, who use the Flames as part of their worship, are, as indicated in the quotation above, evil in nature. Eidon is good. The priestly order is evil, actually serving an evil god. Abramm's main instructor has not only been preparing him for service to an evil supernatural being, but he has been expecting to use him for political reasons. Abramm's brother, the king, is a lapsed Terstan. Abramm, and Trap, who is a master swordsman, flee from the capital, but are captured and enslaved. As slaves, they are trained to swordfight. They become gladiators, in other words. Eventually, they escape, and encounter a nation that has a majority, or nearly so, of Terstans.

In the meantime, Carissa, Abramm's sister, keeps looking for him. She finally finds him, just after Abramm, who has resisted Trap's continued invitation to become a Terstan, accepts it. Abramm resisted because he had such a bad experience with what was supposed to be representatives of Eidon. But Abramm finally agrees, and sees, immediately, that his spiritual quest is at end. Carissa, who is not a Terstan, and whose brother, the king, is the example of one that she knows best, is horrified. Abramm, as the book ends, fights the leading representative of the the evil god, which representative is also the king and general of a country which is trying to destroy Abramm's family, and subjugate his country. With the help of his newly acquired powers, he defeats the evil being both with his sword, and by repelling the magic that is used against him. He feels that he should go home. Carissa separates from him.

One aspect of the plot that I had better mention, for the sake of anyone who decided to read the book on my recommendation (an unlikely eventuality!) is that there is a sex scene in the book, between Abramm and a young woman who loves him. Both of them are slaves at the time, so marriage wasn't an option.

I've certainly read worse fantastic fiction, in terms of plot, characterization, and general writing. Hancock deserved the Christy Award, I believe. (Although I haven't read any of the non-winning nominees.) I would suspect that Light would have held its own if published by a mainstream publisher.

Thanks for reading. I hope to post on the additional books in the series soon. I also expect to post on the religious aspects of the book.