Why Is God Such a Four-Letter Word in Modern Fantasy Fiction?

Earlier this month, I read a fascinating modern fantasy book by an author I already knew I enjoyed. I’m not going to mention this author’s name or the book’s title, because the purpose of this blog post isn’t to insult anyone. It’s just to wonder…

I’m a Christian and a writer. I’ve written Christian fiction, and I’ve written historical fiction with a heavy Christian focus (I didn’t set off to make “Maiden America” like that; my research led me to conclude that was the way to go). But the majority of my published or publishable stories fall into some other category, four being thrillers and three being modern fantasy.

In my Faerietales series, of which I just published the second one: “To Err Is Faerie,” I maybe mention God offhandedly a total of three times. It’s not Christian fiction, and so I saw no reason to pretend that it was.

But I also see no reason to write fantasy fiction and purposely leave God out of it or insult him or pull a Nietzsche and say that he’s dead, which is exactly what so many other modern fantasy fiction authors seem to do for some reason.

For example, this ghost story I finished went out of its way to kick God out of the picture, dismissing him as a vague possibility at best and a stupid myth at worst. Which kinda makes me go, “Huh?”

So it’s okay to believe in ghosts and faeries and other supernatural entities, but God is off limits? I guess I just don’t get that.  Not to mention that it’s depressing as anything when anyone – fictional character or real life human being – says stuff like, “Yeah, it’d be nice if there was a God, but tough luck, cookie. You’re on your own.”

I don’t read fiction to be depressed. I read it to be entertained, and maybe even to grow a little… because you always learn something when you’re reading, even if it’s just someone’s perspective.

And the perspective I’m getting this time around is that maybe these authors don’t want God to exist. Maybe he’s inconvenient or maybe he’s too scary or maybe they think they’ll somehow sound stupid writing about him in the middle of supernatural settings.

I don’t know the answer. Like I said, this blog post is just me wondering “out loud” on a page.

All I know is that it's odd.