Christian novel

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A Christian novel is any novel that expounds and illustrates a Christian world view in its plot, its characters, or both. Any novel that deals with Christian themes in a positive way could also be Christian novel.

Twentieth century proponents of the form would include G.K. Chesterton and C.S. Lewis. However in conservative evangelical American Christian culture, their novels were frowned upon. Two significant books triggered a change in this viewpoint - Love Comes Softly by Janette Oke (1979) and This Present Darkness by Frank Peretti (1985). These two books encompassed a strong Christian message in novel form, and made it acceptable for conservative American evangelical Christians to be seen reading novels. ^{[citation needed]} In earlier times Ben-Hur:A Tale of the Christ helped make the novel (and later, the cinema) acceptable to religious people of the day.

Publication of Christian novels increased greatly from these starting points, culminating perhaps in the immensely popular Left Behind series.

In North America, the Christian novel evolved into a specific genre of its own, written explicitly by Christians for Christians. Such a Christian novel does not have to involve an actual event or character in Bible history. A novel can be Christian merely because at least one of its characters (preferably the main one) either comes to a proper understanding of God and of man's need for salvation from sin, or faces a crisis of his or her faith. Some of the better Christian novels feature both kinds of characters. Nor does the plot need to turn on whether any given character is a Christian or not — although many Christian novels do have plots that explicitly reference persecution (in the past, the present, or the future), Bible history, or unfulfilled Bible prophecy^{[citation needed]}. The Christy Awards honour excellence in this genre.

Publishers of Christian novels include Harvest House and Waterbrook Press (a division of Random House).