The importance and implications of asking ourselves “What would Jesus do?” in every situation of life is the premise of In His Steps (first published as a book in 1896), by Charles Sheldon. It’s the question that started an entire movement in the 1990s: WWJD—What Would Jesus Do?
It’s also the burning question for a group of women confronting the perils of human trafficking and their responsibility for sister victims in my novel Band of Sisters (2012), which takes place in the era of Ellis Island and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.
The above classics are absolute treasures, but there’s an entire candy store of novels from the past worth resurrecting, worth bringing anew to this generation.
Some come in the form of allegories, like Hannah Hurnard’s Hinds’ Feet On High Places (1955). I’ll never forget the challenging journey of “Much Afraid”—for don’t we all begin as “much afraid”?
Aslan—a picture of Jesus—permeates C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia (1950-1956) in the battle to save Narnia from evil. The young heroes and heroines in this series begin as children evacuated to a great country house during WWII. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces (1956) is lesser known today, but I’ve read that he considered it his most mature novel.
C.S. Lewis—as well as Lewis Carroll, author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865), and J. R. R. Tolkien, author of the Lord of the Rings trilogy (written 1937-1949)—all claimed inspiration from the writings of the much-loved Scot George MacDonald, who published fairy tales and a wide range of other works in the mid- to later-1800s.
Tolkien denied that the Lord of the Rings trilogy was an allegory and insisted that his books didn’t preach religion, but affirmed that he wrote in the Christian tradition and that his books were infused with Christian symbolism. Readers recognize Gandalf, Aragorn, Sam Gamgee, and even Frodo as representing different aspects of Christ at different times.
Such novels and the stories behind their writing make us think, question, dialogue, and breathe deeply, and ultimately they drive us deeper into the heart of God. How can we not love those works of fiction?
Some lead us directly to Jesus—novels that focus on His life and ministry, usually from the perspective of a fictitious character, but sometimes written about Him with great literary license.
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