Spiritual Growth through fiction

[Debi]

Want Spiritual Growth? Read More Fiction | RELEVANT Magazine

Good article. Have you ever had a fictional story teach you something of faith or enhance your own spiritual understanding?

What books did that for you?

 

[Paintman]

The article's author had a lot of things that resonated. He started out reading CS Lewis's books about Christianity and wound up reading Lewis's Narnia series. That was me, in the opposite direction.
Also in the article he suggests that reading fiction helps the reader develop and hone empathy. Right on. I think it's good for the soul to become emotionally invested in fictional characters that live in different places and ages. I'd learn a point of view from people that are very much different than me. Good to broaden the horizons.
CS Lewis's "The Screwtape Letters" is about uncle Screwtape and his nephew Wormwood. Screwtape is a demon mid-level manager in the bureaucracy of Hell. He mentors Wormwood, an apprentice demon , in the most effective ways to corrupt his assigned humans soul.
While Anglican theology is taught through the eyes of the demons, it's hilarious. John Cleese of Monty Python fame reads the audio version that can be found on YouTube.

 

[TexDanm]

Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land & Time Enough For Love... Do you Grok?

The Second Son by Charles sailor was an interesting and thought provoking read too.

Stranger in a Strange Land was rumored to have had an influence on L. Ron Hubbard's decision to create Scientology.

 

[Ultima Thule]

Stranger in a Strange Land was rumored to have had an influence on L. Ron Hubbard's decision to create Scientology.

In an even darker connection, Scientology made a significant impression on Charles Manson in the early 1960's who studied it while in prison. Stranger in a Strange Land was also profoundly influential on Manson. His son with Mary Brunner was named Valentine Michael. A number of writers have also drawn parallels between Michael Valentine Smith's inner circle and philosophy in Stranger in a Strange Land and the social structure and philosophy of the Manson Family. Though it all went bad for the latter.

 

[Lynne]

I think learning lessons through fiction is way better than suffering consequences.