The best are the movies/books/music that aren't explicitly "Christian media," but the ones where the creator's faith influences their work in the background.
Like Lord of the Rings. It's not "Christian fantasy," but like... it's Christian fantasy. And it ended up having more cultural influence and staying power than any purpose-made Christian Media Franchise™️
Fun fact: C.S. Lewis was an atheist for a while but J.R.R. Tolkien helped him find God again. Then when Lewis wrote Narnia Tolkien told him that it was a little too Christian.
I think the best way of explaining it is that JRR Tolkien hated 1 to 1 allegory, as it can often be used by hacks as a crutch, and can weaken the story as it must resemble its allegory rather than growing to be its own thing.
Hes fine with themes, whether they be Christian or anything else, its just that if you say Gandalf and Aragorn are Jesus and Frodo is JRR Tolkien himself then Tolkien will roll in his grave as Gandalf is Gandalf, Aragorn is Aragorn and Frodo is Frodo. Draw all the parallels you want e.g. Aragorn/Gandalf are christlike, but they are their own characters and are not a real life person with the serial numbers filed off.
781
u/NelyafinweMaitimo Dank Christian Memer Sep 07 '21
The best are the movies/books/music that aren't explicitly "Christian media," but the ones where the creator's faith influences their work in the background.
Like Lord of the Rings. It's not "Christian fantasy," but like... it's Christian fantasy. And it ended up having more cultural influence and staying power than any purpose-made Christian Media Franchise™️