How’s that for the title of a sermon on the story of Adam and Eve’s fall in Genesis 3? It popped into my head while my daughter and I read that story from The Jesus Storybook Bible.

(Jenni and I are currently listening to Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy [1, 2, 3] in which the “One Ring to rule them all” is prominent.)

Earlier this week I mentioned how much Jenni and I enjoyed listening to J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.

Several good-intentioned people rebuked me on the premise that Harry Potter is dark literature that Christians should avoid. I privately asked each person three questions:

1. Have you read Kevin Bauder’s series on fantasy literature (I link to it in my post)?
2. Do you have a problem with C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia or J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings?
3. Have you read any of the Harry Potter books?

Their answers were consistent:

1. No.
2. I’m not sure because I haven’t read them. (Some added a comment like this: But I’ve seen The Lord of the Rings movies, and I think Christians should avoid those, too.)
3. No.

I don’t mind disagreement on this issue. The underlying desire to glorify God by avoiding worldliness is commendable. But I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask that people be more informed about this issue before admonishing others about it.

Jenni and I just finished listening to the best-selling book series of all time: Harry Potter.

Jim Dale masterfully reads the seven-volume unabridged audiobook. It’s 4.8 days long (about 115 hours), but we thoroughly enjoyed listening to it on date nights and road trips. We’re sad it’s over.

The series is not without objectionable elements (e.g., the protagonist and his friends tell lies without negative consequences), but overall J. K. Rowling’s story is brilliant, creative, intriguing, and entertaining. Its literary quality is not as exquisite as J. R. R. Tolkien or C. S. Lewis, but it isn’t junk food either (cf. Kevin Bauder’s series “The Christian and Fantasy Literature”). (The movies, on the other hand, do qualify as junk food.)

By the way, this may explain one of my Facebook status updates a couple of months ago:

If I become a professor at a college or seminary, I may suggest a different title than the typical “Professor of New Testament” or “Professor of Systematic Theology.” How about “Professor of Defense against the Dark Arts”?

Update: See my follow-up post, “Rebuked about Harry Potter.”

Jenni and I are enjoying listening to The Complete Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes dramatized by BBC (64 CDs, 48 hours, and featuring a full cast), and we found the following statement particularly striking when we heard it last night:

It’s a wicked world, and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst of all.

-Sherlock Holmes in “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, an agnostic

Over the last two weekends (and trailing into the wee hours of this morning!), Jenni and I listened to three more outstanding audio books by Randy Alcorn: Deadline, Dominion, and Deception. They’re like modern Sherlock Holmes novels that deal in an edifying way with issues like abortion, racism, and faith and challenge readers to live in light of eternity.

Since Randy is the author, I expected the novels to be edifying. What I didn’t see coming was his ability to write a riveting murder mystery. This partially explains it:

Who are your influences, sources of inspiration or favorite authors/artists?

Those who read Deception will see that I have a special love for Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories—every chapter begins with a Holmes quote. In Deception, I also pay tribute to the Nero Wolfe mysteries by Rex Stout. I’ve read or listened to most of the forty-seven Nero Wolfe books.

1. Deadline (Multnomah, 1994)

From Randy Alcorn’s site:

Deadline is the story of a politically correct journalist forced by tragic and mysterious circumstances to come to terms with his own mortality. In the process he must also deal with the consequences of his skewed perspectives on life, family, morality, and religion. Intended for believers and unbelievers.

Deadline portrays friendship, family, faith, morality, social decline and media bias in the context of an unpredictable and hopeful story of personal crisis and change. The second story line, on death’s other side, compliments the who-done-it mystery. Deadline is a unique pro-family, pro-values, pro-life, pro-faith book. It portrays the vital connection between how we think and live in the present, and how that will inevitably impact our future, both on earth and in eternity.

2. Dominion (Multnomah, 2006)

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This week my wife and I listened to the audio book of Randy Alcorn’s novel Safely Home (Tyndale House, 2001). We finished the six audio CDs last night after our church’s cross-centered Good Friday service. The novel is excellent, and it was a means of grace for both of us. It helped broaden our horizons on multiple levels (e.g., re persecution of Christians in China in particular and a heavenly perspective on persecution in general). Highly recommended.

It’s available in the following formats: paperback, hardcover, Kindle, audio download, and audio CD.

Related resources:

1. introduction to the novel
2. excerpt: chapter 1
3. discussion questions
4. a biographical note from Randy (including this: “100% of royalties from Safely Home will go to help persecuted Christians and to spread the gospel in their countries.”)
5. articles on China (including this: “Is there still persecution of Christians in China today?“)
6. articles on the persecuted church
7. readers’ responses
8. a 43-second clip of Randy talking about the book:

On December 17, 2008, John Piper warmly recommended Leif Enger’s novel Peace Like a River. Jenni and I read it together over the last month and finished it last night.

Enger is a gifted writer who crafts words like an artist, and his novel has several redeeming qualities. The problem, however, is that the story’s plot is far too thin. It starts well but then fizzles. We kept waiting for it to get better, but it never did. Perhaps this says more about us than it does about Enger—sort of like how the only thing being evaluated at fancy art museums is the people looking at the paintings, not the paintings themselves!

Should you read Peace Like a River? A cheeky side of me wants to answer, “No, don’t waste your life.” :-)

Over the last several weeks, Jenni and I listened to The Chronicles of Narnia (Amazon.com | Wikipedia), another first-class presentation by Focus on the Family Radio Theatre. (Cf. my previous posts on The Life of Jesus: Dramatic Eyewitness Accounts from the Luke Reports and Bonhoeffer: The Cost of Freedom.) Since purchasing the Narnia CDs about one year ago, this was our second time listening to this excellent twenty-two hour production (157 tracks on 19 CDs). (No, we’re not bored. We took some road trips and had some downtime with some illnesses.) It definitely beats TV.

On a related note, Kevin Bauder’s series “The Christian and Fantasy Literature” (2005) is well worth reading (or rereading if it’s been a while). See esp. the sixth essay.
1. Definitions and Questions
2. Evaluating Fantastic Writing
3. Magic in Fantasy
4. Pilgrim’s Progress
5. The Lord of the Rings
6. The Chronicles of Narnia
7. The Harry Potter Books