List of religious ideas in fantasy fiction

Religious themes appear in fantasy fiction, including literature, film and television. These themes may be expressed directly, or through allegory and symbolism.

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Afterlife

• The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren.

Anti-clericalism

• Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series is heavy with anticlerical themes. The Catholic Church is depicted as an over-controlling, power-rich entity. In the trilogy's second book, The Subtle Knife, a plan emerges to declare war against heaven, and to destroy God's regent Metatron in order to give the world true free will.

Christ

• C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia abound in Christian allegory. Aslan, the divine creator and protector of Narnia, is envisioned not simply as an analogue to Jesus of Nazareth, but rather as a fantastic alternate version of Christ himself. For example in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, an allegorical retelling of the Gospels, Aslan offers himself up as a sacrifice in place of the traitorous Edmund, and is mocked, tortured, executed and subsequently resurrected. Aslan himself blatantly alludes to his nature as an alternate Christ in the final scene of Voyage of the Dawn Treader, wherein he reveals to the protagonists Edmund, Lucy and Eustace that in their own world, he is known by "another name", and that they must learn to know him by that name.

Devil

• For Love of Evil (1988) by Piers Anthony

Gods

• In Lois McMaster Bujold's Chalion novels, The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls, there are five gods, with substantial consideration of free will and how the gods influence and interact with people.

Heaven

• To Reign in Hell (1984) by Steven Brust narrates an alternate account of the War in Heaven, casting Satan as a sympathetic protagonist.

Hell

• Inferno (1976) by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.
• Escape from Hell (2009) by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.

Morality

• The Time Quartet series by Madeleine L'Engle covers a good vs. evil "battle" over the hearts and minds of children and whole planets.

Theocracy

• The Goblin Tower (1968) by L. Sprague de Camp.
• Lord of Light (1967) by Roger Zelazny.

See also

• List of religious ideas in science fiction
• Religion in speculative fiction

References