Interested in novelists who were Christians

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I’m trying to collect a list of novelists who are/were Christians. My criteria:
  1. To keep the discussion within reasonable limits, I want to restrict it to novelists. That excludes non-fiction writers, as well as authors who are primarily known for other types of writing such as poetry, children’s books etc. That also excludes older writers such as Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare etc., since they did not practice the genre of the novel as we know it.
  2. The author wrote in English, or else his/her works are readily available in English translation.
  3. The author is well-known and well-regarded in society at large, not just within the Christian community. I am not interested in the type of “Christian writer” whose work is intended only for the already-converted.
  4. There are generally recognized moral or spiritual themes in this author’s body of work, and the general worldview is compatible with Christian belief. These writers may deal with issues such as sin, suffering, death and so forth, but they do not present a “dark” worldview which denies human dignity or denies the reality of God and the possibility of His grace acting in human lives.
  5. I know there are some folks on these forums who have self-published their own works. Please don’t use this thread to advertise your books. I am only interested in writers who had at least one book published through an actual publishing company.
  6. No discussion of J.K. Rowling or Stephenie Meyer, please. I am already familiar with their work, and I don’t want this thread to get caught up in arguments about witches, vampires etc.
I already have a list of the following. Can anyone add to this list?

Jane Austen
George MacDonald
G.K. Chesterton
Dorothy L. Sayers
C.S. Lewis
J.R.R. Tolkien
Walker Percy
Flannery O’Connor
Evelyn Waugh
Graham Greene
P.D. James
Rumer Godden
Elizabeth Goudge
Madeleine L’Engle
Catherine Marshall
Marilynne Robinson

And writers who worked in a language other than English:
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Georges Bernanos
François Mauriac
Shusaku Endo
Sigrid Undset

Thank you!
 
louisak said:
I’m trying to collect a list of novelists who are/were Christians. My criteria:
  1. To keep the discussion within reasonable limits, I want to restrict it to novelists. That excludes non-fiction writers, as well as authors who are primarily known for other types of writing such as poetry, children’s books etc. That also excludes older writers such as Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare etc., since they did not practice the genre of the novel as we know it.
  2. The author wrote in English, or else his/her works are readily available in English translation.
  3. The author is well-known and well-regarded in society at large, not just within the Christian community. I am not interested in the type of “Christian writer” whose work is intended only for the already-converted.
  4. There are generally recognized moral or spiritual themes in this author’s body of work, and the general worldview is compatible with Christian belief. These writers may deal with issues such as sin, suffering, death and so forth, but they do not present a “dark” worldview which denies human dignity or denies the reality of God and the possibility of His grace acting in human lives.
  5. I know there are some folks on these forums who have self-published their own works. Please don’t use this thread to advertise your books. I am only interested in writers who had at least one book published through an actual publishing company.
  6. No discussion of J.K. Rowling or Stephenie Meyer, please. I am already familiar with their work, and I don’t want this thread to get caught up in arguments about witches, vampires etc.
I already have a list of the following. Can anyone add to this list?

Jane Austen
George MacDonald
G.K. Chesterton
Dorothy L. Sayers
C.S. Lewis
J.R.R. Tolkien
Walker Percy
Flannery O’Connor
Evelyn Waugh
Graham Greene
P.D. James
Rumer Godden
Elizabeth Goudge
Madeleine L’Engle
Catherine Marshall
Marilynne Robinson

And writers who worked in a language other than English:
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Georges Bernanos
François Mauriac
Shusaku Endo
Sigrid Undset

Thank you!
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Walter Miller seems to meet your criteria. I like this sentence from his Wikipedia article: “[His] novel [A Canticle for Leibowitz] is also a powerful meditation on the cycles of world history and Roman Catholicism as a force of stability during history’s dark times.”

Robert Hugh Benson seems to meet it as well. And maybe Michael O’Brien? I’m not sure if he meets your third criterion or not, but one indicator that he does is that some of his novels have been translated into Croatian, Czech, French, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish, Swedish, and Lithuanian.

Gene Wolfe appears to meet your criteria.
 
A.J. Cronin —He wrote Keys of the Kingdom, which was made into a movie with Gregory Peck.

Tolstoy
 
louisak said:
I’m trying to collect a list of novelists who are/were Christians. My criteria:
  1. To keep the discussion within reasonable limits, I want to restrict it to novelists. That excludes non-fiction writers, as well as authors who are primarily known for other types of writing such as poetry, children’s books etc. That also excludes older writers such as Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare etc., since they did not practice the genre of the novel as we know it.
  2. The author wrote in English, or else his/her works are readily available in English translation.
  3. The author is well-known and well-regarded in society at large, not just within the Christian community. I am not interested in the type of “Christian writer” whose work is intended only for the already-converted.
  4. There are generally recognized moral or spiritual themes in this author’s body of work, and the general worldview is compatible with Christian belief. These writers may deal with issues such as sin, suffering, death and so forth, but they do not present a “dark” worldview which denies human dignity or denies the reality of God and the possibility of His grace acting in human lives.
  5. I know there are some folks on these forums who have self-published their own works. Please don’t use this thread to advertise your books. I am only interested in writers who had at least one book published through an actual publishing company.
  6. No discussion of J.K. Rowling or Stephenie Meyer, please. I am already familiar with their work, and I don’t want this thread to get caught up in arguments about witches, vampires etc.
I already have a list of the following. Can anyone add to this list?

Jane Austen
George MacDonald
G.K. Chesterton
Dorothy L. Sayers
C.S. Lewis
J.R.R. Tolkien
Walker Percy
Flannery O’Connor
Evelyn Waugh
Graham Greene
P.D. James
Rumer Godden
Elizabeth Goudge
Madeleine L’Engle
Catherine Marshall
Marilynne Robinson

And writers who worked in a language other than English:
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Georges Bernanos
François Mauriac
Shusaku Endo
Sigrid Undset

Thank you!
Click to expand...
You already have a great list here. I am not close to reading them all. But I would say the Christian writer that had the most impact on me is Dostoyevsky, his four major novels, BK, The Idiot, Possessed, C&P. Second would be Flannery O’Connor. I am happy to see Jane Austen on here though I was not aware she was a Christian. I agree though that her books reflect a thoroughly Christian world view - and one learns one’s manners from Austen to be sure. ‘Too good for this world’ as my prof used to say - I second that.
 
FollowChrist34 said:
You already have a great list here. I am not close to reading them all. But I would say the Christian writer that had the most impact on me is Dostoyevsky, his four major novels, BK, The Idiot, Possessed, C&P. Second would be Flannery O’Connor. I am happy to see Jane Austen on here though I was not aware she was a Christian. I agree though that her books reflect a thoroughly Christian world view - and one learns one’s manners from Austen to be sure. ‘Too good for this world’ as my prof used to say - I second that.
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I just finished Pride and Prejudice today…Blech…I don’t think Jane Austen is my cup of tea, and I suppose I’ll skip Sense and Sensibility since I didn’t like P&P.
 
FollowChrist34 said:
I am happy to see Jane Austen on here though I was not aware she was a Christian. I agree though that her books reflect a thoroughly Christian world view - and one learns one’s manners from Austen to be sure. ‘Too good for this world’ as my prof used to say - I second that.
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I actually don’t know anything about her personal life or beliefs, but I assume that she was at least nominally Christian due to the time and place at which she lived. And her books, underneath the light-hearted surface, show such strong understanding of human nature and such appreciation for the importance of the virtues for human happiness, that I felt bound to include her.
 
dmar198 said:
I just finished Pride and Prejudice today…Blech…I don’t think Jane Austen is my cup of tea, and I suppose I’ll skip Sense and Sensibility since I didn’t like P&P.
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Well! I respect your view, but I must say…this post is a picture perfect example (…you’re not Lydia by chance are you?) of why we need to read and understand our Jane Austen.

:curtsey:

There is a lot more to manners than meets the eye. 😉 Seriously, I did learn manners (forebearance, patience, self-control) from Austen along these lines. Now, I think most of my acquaintances would argue I don’t always hit the mark, but I do a whole lot more than I used to - thanks to Austen (and the Church) and when I don’t, I instantly, instantly know and regret it. :o (fat lot of good that does my victim) I also am fully aware of that. Now, if a writer can teach you this… s/he belongs on this list as far as I am concerned. And teach us with such grace, wisdom and style. Par excellence. 🙂 Up there in her own way with Flaubert, Dostoevsky, Hawthorne etc. etc. IMHO, of course.
 
FollowChrist34 said:
Well! I respect your view, but I must say…this post is a picture perfect example (…you’re not Lydia by chance are you?) of why we need to read and understand our Jane Austen.
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I’m not Lydia, but I appreciate the politeness with which you drew attention to my crudeness. It occurs to me that I did not read the novel with the intention of learning manners, and had I done so, I might have avoided summarizing my opinion by typing out an unmannerly sound effect. Perhaps I ought to read Sense and Sensibility in order to acquire a bit more of both. 🙂

BTW I fancy myself to be somewhat more like Mr. Collins.
 
dmar198 said:
I’m not Lydia, but I appreciate the politeness with which you drew attention to my crudeness. It occurs to me that I did not read the novel with the intention of learning manners, and had I done so, I might have avoided summarizing my opinion by typing out an unmannerly sound effect. Perhaps I ought to read Sense and Sensibility in order to acquire a bit more of both. 🙂

BTW I fancy myself to be somewhat more like Mr. Collins.
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:rotfl:

Now, who needs to apologize…? 😉

Forgive my presumption, please! (that is so annoying when people do that)

Does it rise to the level of prejudice I wonder? - hope not!
 
Thanks for mentioning those. I knew about Walter Miller and Charles Williams but had forgotten them. Williams was something of a niche writer, I’m not sure if he was mainstream enough to be included in my list.

I did a bit of research on the other two - I see that Lawhead has written a couple of sci-fi novels which are appealing to me, although he is more known for fantasy. And Wolfe sounds very interesting. Unfortunately his work seems to be rather - shall I say - difficult? Is there anything you would recommend as an introduction? I was thinking of starting with one of the volumes of short stories.

Thanks also to everyone else who contributed. I had forgotten about Hawthorne, he definitely belongs on the list.
 
The Irish novelist Brian Moore (well, born and raised in Belfast, but emigrated to Canada when in his twenties) comes to mind.

His Catholic-themed novels include Catholics, Black Robe, Cold Heaven, and The Statement.

His best novel (to me, anyway), The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, doesn’t have any especially religious themes, but it’s a beautiful novel anyway, and well worth reading.
 
LOVE your list!

Maybe add Anne Patchett and Alice Mcdermitt? Both have strong Catholcic themes in their fiction…and both write just beautifully!!!

I don’t think I spelled their names right though!

Blessings!
 
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