FnFS: Finding God In…

(Faith ‘n Fiction Saturdays are hosted by Amy!)

This week’s question asks:

Have you seen those books, Finding God in Lord of the Rings, or Harry Potter, or one that is on my shelf (oh yes it is) What Can be Found in LOST? These books often take popular stories that are not about God and find the spiritual elements in them.

Well sometimes this happens to me. I’ll be watching a movie or reading a book and it has nothing to do with Jesus, but all of the sudden all I can see is Jesus.

Has this happened to you? Have you ever read a book that was NOT a Christian book but been able to see spiritual truth or analogies in it?

Tell us about a book or if you can’t think of a book, a movie that has reminded you about God in some way that didn’t intentionally set out to do so. Dig deep…you might be surprised!

I actually own “Looking for God in Harry Potter” by John Granger, and think it’s a fantastic book, especially if you aren’t really sure whether you should let your kids be reading the books / watching the movies. I wasn’t sure, but then I read this book –written by a pastor– and thought, “Okay, I don’t mind them” (side note: I still think you need to watch the movies / read the books WITH your kids, and then talk about what you’ve read / seen… I can’t stand it when parents will refuse to check something out and just blatantly boycott it without knowing for themselves what it’s about… but that’s another post, entirely!)

Anyhoo. I’ve been able to see the symbolism in movies like “The Lord of the Rings“, or “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe“, but I think that was only because I knew about the symbolism before going to watch those movies.

As for other movies and books, I sometimes “see” Christian themes in them, but I don’t recall which books / movies those would be. I just know that I’ve occasionally come across it and been fascinated.

I read two books, this past week, that were not Christian books, but both dealt –in some way– with Christianity. One (“Blankets“) had the main character growing up in a Christian family, attending church every Sunday, and seeking to make faith his own… the other (“The Life of Reilly“) was a supposed “chick lit” novel where the male main character was a pastor, and the female main character was a scientist — and they frequently discussed how science & religion (Christianity) can/don’t fit together.

I may have to revisit this post after I’ve had time to give it more thought… I am drawing blanks this morning, but might be able to come up with more after I’ve woken up a bit more! LOL.

Edited to Add: Aha! I knew there was a book I wanted to mention that kind of fit this category, but couldn’t -for the life of me- remember the title! It’s a book I haven’t read, yet, but at one point in time, my local library had a copy of… it was “Christian Wisdom of the Jedi Masters” by Dick Staub. Apparently my library no longer has that copy, so that’s why I couldn’t find it. Grrr… (I spent the last 30 minutes trying to find it, both on the library’s online catalogue, and on Amazon!).

Anyhoo. I found a couple of more titles that fit this category, but that I also haven’t read:

• “The Gospel According to Tolkien” by Ralph C. Wood
• “The Gospel According to Star Wars” by John C. Mcdowell
• “Finding God in the Movies: 33 Films of Reel Faith” by Catherine M. Barsotti and Robert K. Johnston

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