No, they’re not literally going against each other, however, I found the article above quite interesting. Although the Left Behind series has taken off, peaked, and slowly declined(although it’s still popular), I’d still like to see it take off with the same magnitude as the Harry Potter Series. I’ve noticed there are people out there, Christians, who are totally unaware of Christian fiction. There are Christians who feel that fiction and novels are bad because they consider it lying, and God frowns upon lying. There are others I’ve heard of who only read Christian non-fiction because they feel that when they read something, they want it to be a book that’ll make an impact on their daily Christian living, and Christian walk (like the Purpose Driven Life. I know I haven’t blogged about that in awhile since I’d forgotten all about it until recently. As time permits I’ll go back to blogging about the chapters in The Purpose Driven Life.)

As far as Christian fiction goes, I just wish that there were a way to make more people aware of its existence. Some people might pick up a Christian fiction novel and be surprised that they actually enjoy the content! Perhaps God has a plan, though. Perhaps He doesn’t want the Left Behind series to be as big as the Harry Potter books because LaHaye and Jenkins would not be able to handle that kind of fame and fortune?? I’m totally speculating here, but in my lifetime I have seen an increase in Christian fiction. Back when I was growing up, there was no Christian fiction market available, with the exception of the classics like Tolkein. I believe Janette Oake’s books have been around for a long while, as well as the Grace Livingson Hill books. When I started writing back in 1994, I don’t think there was a Christian market. When publishers found this untapped market, then I guess they decided to start acquiring more books to fill this need. Harlequin created their Steeple Hill imprint and Barbour created their Heartsong Presents imprint. Currently, Christian fiction is so huge that any reader can find a number of titles to fill their days and nights with pleasurable reading because the magnitude of titles released has increased so much.

So it’s nice to hear that the final installment of the Left Behind Series is going to be released. Their popularity is something worth noting in the history of Christian fiction.

Cecelia Dowdy
www.ceceliadowdy.com