Faith 'n Fiction Saturday: Questions Asked or Answered?

Welcome to Faith 'n Fiction Saturday! If this is your first time participating, please read this post. It will tell you everything you need to know!

Today's Discussion: I was reading over at Novel Journey the other day (a great blog, by the way!) and this post caught my eye and just really really grabbed at the heart of what I think is the conflict around "preachy" Christian fiction. So I'm going to take this quote from the quote in the post, and ask you to share your thoughts about this topic.

"Too many Christians think we are supposed to use the arts to give people the answers. We’re not. We’re supposed to use the arts to lead them into a question."
Barbara Nicolosi

What do you think? Do you think Christian fiction should provide answers or lead us to questions?

My Thoughts: I think what keeps Christian fiction from being embraced by a lot of people is this very problem. In fact, while I certainly believe in Jesus and love Him, I think it would be arrogance for me to assume that I know the complete picture of what it means to follow Him. So I think, perhaps, this is the problem in Christian fiction. Life gets measured down into what fits into what we know and because the book seems to offer all the answers, it is perceived as being preachy.

Of course not all Christian fiction is this way. I applaud the authors willing to take risks in their writing, to raise questions and not tie everything up in a neat little bow. And truthfully I love a lot of the other stuff, too.

This is not to say certain values and ideas can't be promoted while still exploring the mysteries of life and God. There are other reasons I love Christian fiction....it's usually clean, with no offensive language or explicit sex. But when I think about the books that impact me the most, that live inside my mind for days afterwards (Silence, Quaker Summer)...they are books that invited me to explore what it means to follow Christ and leaving the questions unanswered, rather than wrapping it up in a neat little box.

This does beg the question...why do Christians feel the need to have everything so black and white cut and dried? Why are we so afraid of admitting that we don't have all the answers? It doesn't mean that Jesus is any less...all it is is the acknowledgement that we are not Him!

Your Turn:
Please post your thoughts and include a link back to this post...I expect a wide range of thoughts on this one for those of you willing to dig deep with me! Then come leave your permalink in the Mister Linky!