The "Line" in Christian Fantasy (How much magic is too much?)

Ah, fantasy.

If you're a writer, you've likely either written or read at least one book under the fantasy genre. (*cough* *cough* It was probably Narnia) They're usually amazing, yes? Action, magic, plot twists, romance, royalty, all those sorts of things?

But how much is too much?

--And that, dear writer, is why I'm here.

I've been in your shoes before. I know the struggle. You want to write a Christian (or just clean) fantasy novel, you have all these AMAZING ideas swirling inside your head, but one question is stopping you.

What is "the line" for magic in Christian fantasy?

We, as Christians, live in a world where we have to stay alert. There is a world of darkness out there and there is a world of light. We are of the light. As children of the light, we should always strive to keep ourselves in line with the light. This includes checking what is in our fantasy novels, or just our plain writing altogether.

Satan uses things like magic to lure people into the darkness, but that doesn't mean that we can't use the concept of magic for the reverse effect, too. Just like there is good music and bad music, or good movies and bad movies, or good books and bad books, we can use fictional implements of magic, as long as we take care to avoid the real stuff--which is bad.

There are real spells used by real witches. There are real demonic activities that take place in real magic. This is why it is so, so important to take care of what we portray as good and evil, and what we write as being magic. We don't want to lead anyone astray. Magic can be fine to add into a book, so long as it is kept in a sort of shallow, fairytale-ish style.

Basically, don't add real spells to your work for "realism". Just--just no.

So it's fine to have a magical doorway in the bottom of your cellar that takes you to some magical land where you fight a dragon and save a princess or whatever, because we know that magical doorways in the bottom of cellars are not real.

--But having a "good" wizard mumble spells while his eyes glaze over (or something like that) should be treated as evil because there are real, truly evil, things like this in the world that we as Christians should do everything in our power to avoid promoting.

Boundaries.

While it is good to be cautious about crossing this magical barrier line, don't let it limit your imagination, either! I can't tell you how many stories I threw away as a new writer, simply because I thought they were "evil". They weren't, looking back, but to a ten year old who didn't know what this line was and was terrified of going near it, having a story about elves was absolutely wicked. (Purely irony, y'all. I now really wish I had a time machine to stop myself from trashing a few things 🙃)

Safe and Dangerous.

Safe examples: Magical creatures; a magical land; people born with superhuman abilities.

Dangerous examples: Evil (witches, wizards, demons, etc.) portrayed as good/safe; spells.

Thank you for joining me today! I really hope this post helped solve some of your questions!!

In Christ alone,

Daisy 🌼