Alan of Thinklings is talking about an article in which Peter Leithart argues that Modern Protestants can’t write. He says it has something to do with Zwingli. Maybe I’m in a mood tonight, but I find that I don’t care. I don’t care why we haven’t written well in the past. Some write now, and no light-weight, commercially successful novel from an evangelical author takes away from their artist effort. God will raise up artwork to glorify himself. I don’t care who complains about, heh, mere entertainment.
The Thinklings carry on part of the discussion in relation to movies.
Well said, Phil. You just read my mind! 🙂
I took a look at the Thinklings page; haven’t checked out Leithart yet, but would expect to be in sympathy with his point of view.
But I’ll venture something that I would not probably be prepared to fight for. I wonder if part of the reason that serious American evangelical literary writing seems to gravitate to the short poem, and not towards the novel, is that (at least if I can go by my memories of my evangelical boyhood and adolescence), in that milieu one is much encouraged to think of one’s own life as a/the story. For example, in the Church of the Nazarene people would often stand up in a service and give their testimonies. There _was_ some kind of imaginative and literary activity here (I mean to say this without prejudice). Why, then, “make up” stories? One looked to see one’s own life conform to a narrative pattern (how I came to Jesus, how I have grown as a Christian); there was a sort of “template” there according to which one could tell one’s own story. (I really don’t mean to sound all innerleckshul here or condescending.)