Fiction or Non-Fiction

I’ve been collecting personal stories of my struggle with justification for over a year now. I’ve been doing this with the hopes of writing a book- in the tratition of Donald Miller- about my search for my own righteousness. I’ve tried to phrase these stories in terms of my experiences working in a coffee shop, to make them a little more interesting.

As I sit here and try to start this book, I have one big question: should it be fiction or non-fiction?

Stories are powerful means to convey a truth- whether they are true or not. So much of what I have written about justificiation are stories. Even though these stories are true, I could edit and arrange these stories to better prove my point- and make the book a fiction.

I guess my fear in doing this would be to be see my book placed on the “Christian Fiction” shelf. My impression of most “Christian Fiction” is that it is like the Beatles sing about in their song, “Paperback Writer”- shallow and unoriginal. I would rather write a novel- the difference being that a novel poses a problem or question without necessarily solving it. Of course, because I believe Christ is the answer to the problem, I would strongly hint at this, but still let the reader come to this conclusion themselves.

This take a little faith- that the reader will understand my point. I think that this is why most serious Christian fiction throughout the ages (e.g.: The Pilgrim’s Progress and The Chronicles of Narnia) is allegorical. I don’t think the authors want to be misunderstood, so they set their stories in some sort of analogy. Not all Christian fiction is allegorical- such as Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings- but even he had to qualify his story with the Silmarillion so that people knew he had been talking about God the whole time. Truth is important to Christians this is why most Christian fiction throughout history is allegorical- or they they just gave up on trying to write a story and just wrote good-old, sturdy non-fiction theology.

While allegory can be insightful because some analogies are very deep, I think this dumbs it down for the reader and misses the potential power of the reader discovering the truth for themselves. Perhaps this is why the vast majority of the Bible is written in stories (even Jesus used fictitious stories to prove his points). Christ wanted to convey truth, but he did it without allegory- which I guess proves that it can be done. Of course, this doesn’t mean I will be able to do it.

I still don’t know whether I should try to write a novel or just take the easy route and write a non-fiction book sprinkled with my own personal stories. In the end I just want people to know the truth about justification and their search for righteousness.