This is a guest post done by a friend of mine, Michael T. Hare! Make sure to check out his blog and subscribe, he has really awesome posts!

Since joining the Young Writer’s Workshop, I’ve begun grappling with an imperative question, one I believe many Christian authors are considering: How do I make my fantasy book Christian without explicitly calling out religion?

This is a valid question, but the more I understand the Bible, the more I understand the answer.

Christianity is not a religion. Christianity is a way of life—love your neighbor as yourself, love the Lord your God with all your heart, treat others as you want to be treated, go the extra mile, etc. Jesus didn’t come here to give us a religion. He came to provide us with a path, a road paved by love. Notice that Jesus didn’t need to say ‘Christian’ for his teachings to be ‘Christian.’ The same goes for writing fantasy. You need only display the commandments of Jesus because he is more powerful than the words ‘Christian’ or ‘Bible’ or ‘Faith.’ He is Christian. He is the Bible. He is Faith. Showing who Jesus is through fantasy is a form of preaching, and it’s more powerful than slapping a label on something.

Now, do I still believe we should evangelize Jesus as a person? Of course! People would be very lost otherwise; at the end of your book, you could even write a short note about your faith. Maybe that’s where you tell people about the God behind the project, the God who gave you the words, the God who commands us to exhibit the heroic morals written in your book.

But don’t beat yourself up over the presence of ‘Christianity’ in your manuscript. If your writing accentuates Jesus’s character and commandments, it’s already Christian because—as I said above—Christianity isn’t a religion. It is a path Jesus has laid out before us. It is the only true way of life. Write by the guidance of His words, traveler. They don’t need the label ‘Christian’ to be Holy. They are Holy in and of themselves, and thus, if we choose to adhere to them in our fantasy, we are glorifying God.

Do you remember when I mentioned a road paved by love? If you do, then congratulations. If you don’t, then… well… I guess we both have ADHD. Anyways, Christianity revolves solely around our love for one another, and that right there is the most important part of honoring God through writing. Write with the ambition to serve, with the ambition to give a gift, with the ambition to LOVE. Love is our symbol, our mark of discipleship. Jesus says it himself in John 13: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

So, the key to writing a successful Christian fantasy is emulating Jesus, seeking moral advice from his words, and, most importantly, loving others (our audience, for example) in the process. Author S.D. Smith of the Green Ember Series is an excellent example of this practice, and I’ve found him to be a source of encouragement.

Until we meet again, traveler!