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Some stories that do not come from sacred Christian texts still do reflect Christian themes, are intended to foster Christian values, or address spiritual or folk traditions. These stories are considered by some Christian journalists, theologians, and academics (see citations below) to constitute a body of Christian mythology. Many of these include characteristics of fantasy fiction.
A selection of such stories might include:
- Hagiographies, that is, stories of the lives of the saints.
- Many of the stories involving Lucifer, which owe more to John Milton's Paradise Lost than to the Bible.
- The legends of King Arthur and other tales of medieval chivalry, especially the Quest for the Holy Grail.
- The results of Christian fusions with other cultures, such as Vodun.
- Stories about angels, guardian angels, devils, and tales of making pacts with the Devil (see e.g. Faust).
- Stories about the physical appearances of angels with white robes, a halo, and wings.
- Stories about the physical appearances of the Devil wearing a red suit or having bright red skin, carrying a pitchfork and having a forked tail and horns.
- Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan.
- Stories about Santa Claus, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, the Little Drummer Boy, Frosty the Snowman, the Easter Bunny, and other holiday traditions.
- Invented mythologies and fables that contain overt or subtle Christian themes and allusions, such as C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia and Oscar Wilde's The Selfish Giant. Some people would include J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings George MacDonald's "At the Back of the North Wind," "Lilith," and "Phantastes" in this category.
External citations:
- Louis A. Markos in Myth Matters, from Christianity Today magazine. Quote: "just as Christ came not to abolish the Law but to fulfill it, so he came not to put an end to myth but to take all that is most essential in the myth up into himself and make it real."
- Mark Filiatreau in A Master of Imaginative Fiction, from BreakPoint Online. Quote: "Classics of Christian Myth -- MacDonald’s key mythic works include five full-length books, which we’ll introduce here."
- Abstract of the Collected Works of C. G. Jung, from The CG Jung page. Quote: "The astrological characteristics of the fish are seen to contain the essential components of the Christian myth."
- James W. Marchand in Christian Parallels to Norse Myth, from the Center for Advanced Study, University of Illinois. Quote: "This reluctance to weigh fairly the possibility of the influence of Christian myth on Norse myth has had a number of unfortunate consequences. The most unfortunate is the resolute refusal on the part of most students of Norse myth to look at medieval Christian myth."
- More to come
External links:
See also: Myth, Mythology, Islamic mythology, Hebrew mythology, Greek mythology