Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Dragons In Christian Fantasy?

    A few days ago, I posted on Christians involving themselves with magic in books and writing. View that post here. Now, I want to post about dragons.


    This is a hot topic. And one that all of you are probably familiar with in some aspect or another.
    Some of you may be familiar with Bryan Davis' contemporary Christian fantasy book series, Dragons In Our Midst, followed by The Oracles of Fire, and Children of the Bard. DIOM and its off-shoots all have dragons (or dragon hybrids) as main characters. Now, some of you may be thinking that anything that has dragons in it must not be Christian, but if you've ever read the first book of the Dragons In Our Midst series, then you should have noticed that the book is explicitly a work of Christian fiction from a Christian mind.
    A little while ago, Bryan Davis himself addressed the matters of dragons in Christian Fantasy fiction. You can see that post titled In Defense of Dragons here.
    Personally, I agree with what Mr. Davis had to say in defense of dragons.
    If you pay close attention in the Bible, then you'll notice that:

1. Dragons did exist.
2. God created them.
3. If God created them, then they, like angels, could be either good or evil. (E.G. before Satan and his third of the hosts of heaven fell, they were all angels that served under God, but they then turned evil.)

    Now, just because Satan used the essence of a dragon, does that mean that all dragons are evil? No. Not in my opinion.
    Like Mr. Davis said in his post: "The Bible uses a dragon to symbolize Satan, but God also describes Leviathan as one of His greatest creatures in Job 41, and this creature is clearly a fire-breathing, scaly monster that is strikingly similar to the dragons in my stories. It seems to be used in the Bible in multiple ways."
    Not only is the dragon used to symbolize Satan, but the lion is as well (1 Peter 5:8). Does that mean that all lions are evil? Of course not! Like dragons, lions are beasts of great ferocity and majesty. Satan is also called an "angel of light", but that doesn't mean all angels of light are evil.
    To me, dragons are great beasts of power, grace and majesty, but they can also be the opposite of that.
    So, should dragons be used in Christian fantasy fiction stories? Sure! Why not? They can be used either as good dragons or bad dragons, it is up to the writer.
    I really hope that this post was helpful in either helping you to confirm to yourself where you stand on the subject, or vice versa. If you would like to read a more in-depth post on the subject then you can visit Bryan Davis' post on it here.


    This is my opinion and I do not claim in any way that it is the right opinion or that it is fact.
    As always, the comments are open for you share your own thoughts and opinions.

God bless,
Brian

3 comments:

  1. Well, as I said about your post on magic: Right on. Answers in Genesis has some great resources on dragons for Christians, for anyone wanting to learn more from a totally biblical perspective. Dragons are just so cool... it makes me glad I'm a fantasy writer. ; )

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  2. I agree. I believe dragons, like all animals, were effected by the fall. I also believe they lived after the flood and knights did ride out to fight them. But I shall always believe that they could have been good. (Were I alive back then I would have adopted one for a pet...raised it from a baby. And my mum would have made me live outside, but it would be worth it.)

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