Webcomic evangelization / Catholicism w/o humans?

[iceflame1019]

Hi,

The title may read a little weirdly…
I’ve recently started a graphic novel / webcomic and am hoping to attempt to evangelize through it, since webcomics and fantasy genres in particular are rather popular with teenagers. I’m using anthropomorphic characters (humanoid animal-like beings), primarily dragons. The story itself appeals to fantasy readers and the RPG genre of gamers, but I’m trying to “sneak” some Catholicism into it, like morals, a few references to Bible verses, etc. Kinda like Tolkien or CS Lewis. The main source of my problem is that this story is in a universe without humans.

My main question is: at some point in the comic I want the main characters to attend a Mass service, can I do this in the story’s non-human environment? Can I have a Christ figure when there are no humans in this story’s universe, and subsequently can there even be a Mass?

I can go with just a worship service, but I really want to know if this is allowable. I don’t want to be blasphemous or something with this idea…

The main reason I want a Mass service is that one of the main characters is polytheistic but very unsure of her faith, and I want her to follow the other main character to church; as a result she chooses to become monotheistic.

If it helps I can link to some character art I’ve drawn for the comic on my deviantART account. Having browser problems so I’m unable to access the locked threads, hence I can’t find this forum’s rules on external linking >_<

 

[GEddie]

Hi,

The title may read a little weirdly…
I’ve recently started a graphic novel / webcomic and am hoping to attempt to evangelize through it, since webcomics and fantasy genres in particular are rather popular with teenagers. I’m using anthropomorphic characters (humanoid animal-like beings), primarily dragons. The story itself appeals to fantasy readers and the RPG genre of gamers, but I’m trying to “sneak” some Catholicism into it, like morals, a few references to Bible verses, etc. Kinda like Tolkien or CS Lewis. The main source of my problem is that this story is in a universe without humans.

My main question is: at some point in the comic I want the main characters to attend a Mass service, can I do this in the story’s non-human environment? Can I have a Christ figure when there are no humans in this story’s universe, and subsequently can there even be a Mass?

I can go with just a worship service, but I really want to know if this is allowable. I don’t want to be blasphemous or something with this idea…

The main reason I want a Mass service is that one of the main characters is polytheistic but very unsure of her faith, and I want her to follow the other main character to church; as a result she chooses to become monotheistic.

If it helps I can link to some character art I’ve drawn for the comic on my deviantART account. Having browser problems so I’m unable to access the locked threads, hence I can’t find this forum’s rules on external linking >_<

Go ahead and flame me if you like but this is my take:

If there are no human beings in your story’s universe, how can there be Bible verses (the Bible was written by and for humans) much less a Mass (which centers around the death of a Human Being: agruably the ultimate human being)?

I’m not even sure this would work as fiction, apart from any irreverence issues.

You mention Tolkien and CS Lewis. I’d suggest you re-read their fiction, esp. Lewis’ Space Trilogy; to get a good sense of how these authors handled the Christian morality that these works are full of. Lewis never has nonhuman characters practicing human religion; his alien races have their own sense of God, which the reader recognizes as Christianity. That’s what you would need to do.

God bless and ICXC NIKA!

 

[Eucharisted]

You could create a religion like Christianity. For example, it could have scripture and tradition, a savior who is both divine and dragon, sacred signs, etc.

 

[Wowbagger]

Thomas Aquinas defined humans as “rational animals.”

If they’re rational – if they think and use language and write literature as we do – and they’re creatures, then your characters are human enough to be Catholics and participate in Catholic religious practices. They would, after all, be a part of salvation history, just as we are.

However, you might want to think about how the Faith would have to adapt its practices for humans who do not belong to homo sapiens. Obviously, you can’t change the essentials of the sacraments, nor any teachings on faith and morals, but I imagine that dragons, being fairly large, would need to chomp down on fairly large chunks of unleavened bread (consecrated in the usual way, of course) instead of the tiny little hosts we homo sapiens use.

I say have at it. Just be creative and don’t be painfully obvious, as so many young webcomicists are.

EDIT: On Excelsior (see my signature), I have made a rule: no hero character may share any of my deepest-held beliefs. We have no Catholics (no theists, in fact, though one character may eventually adopt a Bajoran religion), no conservatives, no pro-lifers, and our one person who has issues with gay marriage does so mostly out of sheer homophobia. They’re mostly utilitarians, and the closest thing they have to a God is the secular order of the United Federation of Planets.

Allowing these horribly lost, completely wayward characters the opportunity to occasionally snatch at glimmers of the truth, slowly growing their awareness of morality and reality… that’s a real joy. And, for me, it’s where all the really good writing happens.

 

[iceflame1019]

Wow, I’m getting mixed messages here XD

Well they’re not huge dragons…here:
iceflame1019.deviantart.com/art/Cory-Profile-1-130224423
the main character of my story
(solo image link:
fc09.deviantart.com/fs47/f/2009/201/4/3/43d093b2bc9ca3487cb7ee3896be7b76.png )

@ GEddie:
That’s a point I did consider, I’m not going to use direct quotes if I can help it. I’ve been trying to re-word quotes so that they’re similar and hold the same meaning, but aren’t blatantly “This.Is.CHRISTIAN!”

@ Eucharisted:
That’s my fallback plan, I do have a religion similar to Catholicism planned. However, I need to work out a lot of its theology, sacraments, traditions, etc. Thing about my endeavour here is that a lot of other graphic novelists use polytheism, their characters believe in multiple gods and they have a rather complex religious system. I’m trying to “fight” against this, but understandably I’ve put myself in a rather hard predicament XD;;

@ Wowbagger:
Your answer is similar to what one of my local priests told me, although he wasn’t terribly sure I should even be trying this (understandable though since he’s not really into fantasy).
The religion in my story isn’t really obvious so far, and most of the characters aren’t terribly religious except the main, and he’s rather introverted so it’s not really blatant with him either.
I didn’t know that Thomas Aquinas quote though, that’s an interesting “proof” for my idea here…thanks! XD