Faith and Fiction Saturday: What about the Other Stuff?

Faith and Fiction Saturday is a weekly chance for people of (mostly) the Christian faith to discuss issues as they relate to faith and fiction. You are always welcome to participate by leaving a comment or writing a post on your blog and leaving the link in comments.

I've noticed lately a definite value judgement about fiction created by believers over fiction created by people who profess a different worldview. This is not exclusive only to the subject of Christian fiction, but also just fiction written by someone who believes. Additionally, I've been reading Don Miller's blog from time to time, and he's one who talks about really taking care with the stories we let into our lives.

I'd like to ask you today if you think there's value in reading fiction from people with different world views, and if there is fiction written by people with radically different world views that you cherish as much as faith driven fiction.

My answer is of course a resounding yes to the first part and yes to the second. While I love and crave excellent faith drive fiction, I mainly just like good fiction. And because I believe that ultimately we are more the same than different I think there's loads of value in reading books that offer different perspectives, challenge our assumptions and prejudices, and expose us to other ideas. But also, we shouldn't assume that the value in a book lies in identifying with it or agreeing with it. Books can be thought provoking and help us understand ourselves better, even when we ultimately disagree with the author.

I eagerly await your thoughts!