Greatest Christian Writer

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shelby2014

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OTHER than the God-inspired writers of the Bible (St. Luke, St. John, St. Paul, etc), who, in your opinion, is the greatest Christian writer?

My opinion is that it is C.S. Lewis - mostly because of his writing talent. He is able to express either simple or difficult concepts in a way that I understand and find interesting. He brings up fascinating topics. And he has expressed abstract ideas I have often thought myself.

As for his theology, I know he was not Roman Catholic, but i have never heard his theology explicitly criticized by the church, and he writes like an Anglican with Catholic leanings.

I’d like to hear the opinion of others in this forum? Greatest non-Bible Christian writer?
 
William Shakespeare is the greatest writer who was a Christian.

If your looking for someone who wrote about Christian Ethics-I’d say CS Lewis and Reinold Niebuhr.
 
Its amazing that most of the best Christian writers I can think of are from England.

Name some Americans.

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Meeeh, I greatly dislike both Tolkein and lewis. Sorry, but those books bored me to tears. We had to read the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in middle school, and I hated it so much.

It may be subpar compared to the “greats”, but I gotta go with Dean Koontz
 
shondrea said:
Meeeh, I greatly dislike both Tolkein and lewis. Sorry, but those books bored me to tears. We had to read the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in middle school, and I hated it so much.
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Heretic!!! 😃

Just kidding. 🙂

But really, I’m having trouble imagining how someone could not like Lewis or Tolkien. 😉

Have you ever tried Lewis’ non-fiction?

To answer the OP, I would have to think about it for a while. I’d hesitate to pick someone from the past century simply because we cannot accurately gauge their influence. (Even though there have been some great writers in the last 100 years.)

I would probably go with Augustine or Aquinas. Hard to choose, though.
 
I know, I should be burned at the stake! XD

In actuality, I can agree that he’s a very GOOD author, he writes amazingly well, I just didn’t care for the stories. I haven’t read his non-fiction, but have been thinking about it the next time I’m making an Amazon spree.
 
I would have to agree with Rascalking, Shakespeare is probably to most influential Christian writer and he was Catholic. But does anyone have an opinion of G.K. Chesterton? I bought his book Orthodoxy but the language is a bit old fashioned like Shakespeare so I put it back on the shelf for now.
 
Alamo_Catholic said:
But does anyone have an opinion of G.K. Chesterton? I bought his book Orthodoxy but the language is a bit old fashioned like Shakespeare so I put it back on the shelf for now.
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If I am 100% wide awake, in my absolute best of form cognitively (which is slipping more and more everyday it seems) I can read Chesterton and marvel at his insight wit and wisdom. However usually I find myself reading and re-reading sentances (which seem a bit run-on) over and over again and walk away feeling a bit like an imbocile. 😦

I know he has a lot to say but I can only seem to pick up pieces of it from time to time. My biggest gripe is he often uses current events and/or people in his writings as references to a point. Maybe this comes from his humility, not realizing his writings would be around much later. Or maybe he simply underestimates his genius. Also he assumes he is speaking to literature scholars referencing many classical writings I have never even heard of.

Other then that I love him. 🙂

Anyone else?
 
I’m going to surprise you and say Laura Ingalls Wilder.

She has managed to write a series of children’s books that appeal to adults as well. These books demonstrate how Christianity can be lived every day, in real-life, in good times and extremely bad times.

Her book The Long Winter is absolutely inspiring, a true testimony of how God helps his people. At the end of the book, when the Ingalls family and their friends gather for a celebration meal, Pa prays, “God, we thank Thee for all Thy bounty.” This prayer is the theme of all of Wilder’s books–she recognizes that ALL that she has comes from God, and that He giveth and He taketh away, Blessed be the Lord.

Often critics analyze Wilder by saying that she seems to see life much more sharply than most of us. She doesn’t just describe a spring day or a herd of deer or a sugaring-off dance, she makes us see it. (Part of this ability on her part is due to the fact that her sister Mary went blind when she 12 due to scarlet fever–she learned to make pictures with words at a young age. Her Pa told her that she had to be Mary’s eyes, and Laura obeyed him.)

I believe that the reason Wilder appreciates life’s daily experiences so much is that she attributed all of her life and times to God. She was grateful to Him for everything, the smallest things, including a bowl of cornmeal mush, a good book, singing hymns in church with her best friend, etc.

The Christianity in these books is not in-your-face or didactic. It’s definitely there, as Wilder describes family prayers, church services, and entire hymns sung by her Pa. But it’s more a description of life as a Christian family rather than a sermon on how others should live their lives.
 
I am confused on the Shakespeare choices? Since coming to CAF, I have seen his name pop up, but I never thought of him as a particularly Christian writer…in fact, most of his plays seem downright worldly…Can you explain?
 
G.K. Chesterton is just too much of a genius… when I read his stuff I’m constantly in awe of how much brilliance and how many layers of meaning are in every sentence. Very challenging, but then that’s appropriate to its greatness.

Chesterton dwarfs Lewis in sheer intellect, and Lewis was also a genius!
 
shelby2014 said:
I am confused on the Shakespeare choices? Since coming to CAF, I have seen his name pop up, but I never thought of him as a particularly Christian writer…in fact, most of his plays seem downright worldly…Can you explain?
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…he’s a Chritian, and he’s a writer. Therefor, he is a Christain writer.

The OP was vague. We don’t know if he meant authors who write ABOUT Christianity, or authors who ARE Christain.
 
shelby2014 said:
OTHER than the God-inspired writers of the Bible (St. Luke, St. John, St. Paul, etc), who, in your opinion, is the greatest Christian writer?

?
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my brother says he could live happily on a desert island with the writings of Pope John Paul II and I agree
 
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