why fantasy fiction and religion?

[Libby]

I've been working on a project on fantasy fiction and religion for a
while, and I want to know what brings others to this conversation.
Are you simply bringing together two interests? Is fantasy fiction
inherently religious in its concerns? Is religion inherently
fantastic? Does it matter if it's fantasy for children or for adults?

Way too much to bite off at once, I know, but I'm curious to know if
others have the same ways of looking at these things that I do. I'll
come up with a few answers in another post, just to get things started.

[Libby]

It doesn't seem fair to ask these questions without being willing to
answer them. Others will probably ask better questions, and that's
good, too!

But for the moment, I think for me the two are intrinsically linked--I
have little to no interest (so far) in fantasy fiction written
primarily for adults, but the fantasies for children that I enjoy the
most are the ones that take on the cosmic, life and death, good and
evil questions. And I think these are questions that authors may be
more willing to address in literature for children, because children
are still working through the questions for themselves (not that
adults aren't, or shouldn't be).

When I taught a course on theology & children's fantasy I prefaced it
with quotations from Philip Pullman and Ursula LeGuin, and I think
they still sum up the reasons for my dual interest:

LeGuin: "fantasy is the natural, the appropriate, language for the
recounting of the spiritual journey and the struggle of good and evil
in the soul."
Pullman: "There are some themes, some subjects too large for adult
fiction; they can only be dealt with adequately in a children's
book."

Are they really right, though?

--Libby

[Mike Gray]

It's pretty late in my corner of the world, but I'll take a stab
before I stagger off to bed.

As far as religion goes - well, I'm a theologian, and that's that! But
the theological discipline I gravitated to is what Catholics call
fundamental theology. That can mean a lot of different things, but I
want it to mean "what happens when theologians try to give a
reasonable accounting for what they are up to in conversation with
people outside of churches and seminaries." Traditionally, this has
meant having endless debates with philosophers (who are patient souls)
and trying to have them with scientists (who aren't). I'm a bit more
interested in talking to people who write stories and/or think about
them.

I'm working on fantasy stories becuase thy're the kind I grew up
loving. I was very small when my mother read Narnia to me, and it was
a series of fantasy-oriented early readers that turned me into a
reader. There are plenty of other kinds of fiction that I love, but
fantasy has always been special. When I got to thinking about a
project it seemed like the natural choice. (Well, actually, I began
planning a project on the philosophical problem of freedom, which I
meant to solve, until I realized that I didn't have a clue and wasn't
even sure whether I still thought there is any such thing. Bother.)

I think fantasy does have a natural tendency to connect to the
religious, though. I put a power point presentation in the group's
files section from a presentation I did on that last February in
Scottland. I don't know if the link will work - otherwise, it's in the
files section. Which anyone should feel free to use, btw.

http://groups.google.com/group/fantasy-and-religion/web/Fantasy+%26+Religion.PPT

Mike