Covenanter Witness Vol. 86 - Rparchives.org

Meaning and QualityChristian Literatureby Dr. Norman M. CarsonHead of English Department, Geneva College1This is not a simple subject. What, initially appears tobe easily defined becomes complex, slippery. As oneexamines the relationship of Christianity to literature, as hereads what has been written on this subject, as he studies inthe realm of aesthetics, he soon realizes that the concept ofChristian Literature is very broad, indeed. It is as if aMartian, visiting our planet for the first time were introducedto a chicken and told, unwisely, that a chicken is atwo-legged animal with feathers, whereupon he called allsuch creatures he saw from then on, chickens. Some scholarsare as familiar with historic Christianity as that visitingMartian would be with the varieties of earthly fowl. So it isthat one must be careful, one must discriminate, whenconsidering Christian literature.Let us begin with the term literature. The dictionarytells us that literature is "imaginative or creative writing;belles-lettres." While this definition may satisfy, to setprecise limits on this concept poses the question: "Whatdoes this definition include?" Many television commercialsare more imaginative than the program they interrupt. Yetone could scarcely label as literature the progeny of thehuckster's mind. One may argue about whether or notbiography, autobiography, or writings in natural science orin history may be included in this term. For my purposes,therefore, I shall begin by including, under the termliterature: poetry, fiction, drama, biography andautobiography.The problem grows more complex once we add theadjective Christian. If we consider the whole spectrum ofscholarly writing on this subject, we discover three distinctnotions about what the concept includes. The narrowestdescription would include only works written by Christiansfrom a distinctly Christian point of view and written with anovert purpose directly connected with growth in Christ, orwith the promulgation and defense of the Christian Faith.Such literature has been at times fictive, though in moreinstances than not it has been non-imaginative. Furthermore,it obviously demands the inclusion of types notlisted above. Therefore, one might list under ChristianLiterature in this narrow sense: devotional writings,polemic works, and didactic works, more or less evangelisticby nature, in addition to those types already listed above.Still, many persons include a whole segment of literatureexcluded by the first definition. What should one think of anovel such as C. S. Lewis' Till We Have Faces? In whatMARCH 10, 1971category is one to place T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets? Arethese works Christian Literature? The term, therefore, canbe made to include works written by professing Christiansbut which are written without the overt Christian purposecharacteristic of the first category. It is difficult to knowwhere to draw the line in this instance. Was Tennyson aChristian? This is a debatable point. We are, obviously,faced with the hoary question of judging an individual'sprofession. We must be careful not to narrow the termChristian to suit our particular evangelical point of view. Ifthe poet or novelist professes to be Christ's, and if, as far aswe can determine, his practice seems to indicate a desire toidentify himself in some way with the Body of Christ, wemust allow him under our umbrella; likewise his work. Butthere are still those who, for one reason or another, wouldinclude within our definition works written by non-Christians and which introduce moral and ethical situationswith which the Christian Faith would be immediatelyconcerned, either by way of reaction against them or by wayof offering, perhaps, a viable solution. For example, can oneassume that, in this sense, Ernest Hemingway and WilliamFaulkner write Christian literature? Where does one placesuch works as Camus' The Fall or The Stranger?At this point let me say that I have no problem treatingas Christian literature such works described under thesecond category above. Furthermore, I think I can bejustified in teaching much of the literature of the third sort inthe classroom in a Christian college. But I find myself unableto label this third kind of literature Christian. One would notthink of designating a case of murder or rape as "Christian"simply because he reacted to it from his Christian moralstance. Nor can we describe the practice of the wholesaleexploitation of natural and human resources in our communityas "Christian" just because we believe with all ourbeing that we must offer Christian solutions for such acondition.For the term Christian Literature to mean anythingdistinctive, we must think in a fairly restrictive manner.Therefore. I would propose considering only those works ofliterature written by professed Christians which are informedby a pervasive Christian point of view, whether or not anovert Christian purpose seems intended by the author. Butare we able to set and apply standards of judgment to suchworks? I shall attempt to answer this question in a subsequentarticle.(To be continued)b