Herewith, Professor Merle Meeter presents an interesting and challenging article on “Seek First the Kingdom – in Literature.” This is the first in THE OUTLOOK’S new series of articles under the general title, “Seek First the Kingdom.” Professor Meeter teaches literature at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa.

1n Matthew 6 our Lord promises us that if we live to do His will and obey His commandments—in every, possible way proclaiming His Gospel of redemption, pardon, healing, and eternal life—then He will supply us with all bodily necessities for this temporal existence.

Now it is probably possible for many Christ-believers to fulfill their Godly vocation without the reading or study of imaginative literature—novels, short stories, poetry, drama; however, for other Christians, such as teachers, pastors, editors, writers, counselors, and artists, it may be necessary to read, reflect on, and evaluate literature—both secular and Christian—in order to do their work assignment from the Lord most effectively and blessedly.

A limited advance – Much literature, from the classical to the contemporary, deserves our consideration, for it artistically presents or objectifies sensitive and thoughtful interpretations of life and its aspects by skillful writers who use their God-given abilities and training either to praise their Creator or to ignore, reject, and even blaspheme Him.

Nonetheless, pagan-spirited literature -whether materialism, romanticism, empiricistic realism, naturalism, nihilism, absurdism, or existentialism, for example-can be importantly instructive to the judicious Christian reader in his discovery of the ways in which non–Christians confront the problems and pleasures of human experience and the sinful rationalizations by which humanism (anthropocentrism) futilely attempts to resolve its enigmas and dispel its anxieties apart from the Savior Christ.

But gleaning the common grace insights or glimmers of truth from humanistic literature seems to me an incomplete employment of this form of verbalartistic expression. Yet, is it not about as far as the Reformed Christian community has advanced in using this medium to the glory of God?

Nor have we teachers of literature in Christian high schools and colleges done much to inspire our graduates to produce distinctively Christian fiction, drama, and poetry –literature with an informing and integrally Scriptural perspective on life, a Biblical approach to reality, the various relationships of man, God, and His creation.

Modest ways to begin – Certainly, as well as in our reading, we can begin to seek the Kingdom of God also through our writing of Christian literature, starting naturally, perhaps, with biography and autobiography.

I am encouraged by such works as Surprised by Joy by C. S. Lewis, Christ the Tiger by Thomas Howard, Servant of Slaves by Grace Irwin, To Live Again – Catherine Marshall, The Chost in My Life Susan B. Anthony, A Foreign Devil in China – John Pollock, and Shadow of the Almighty by Elisabeth Elliot. Such writings lucidly and artfully show their readers the Truth as it coheres in the person of the Redeemer King Jesus Christ, and they edify those who already rejoice in the saving grace and providential love of their sovereign Triune God.

Another modest way to begin composing literature—also for adults in their spare moments—is to write short stories for evangelical and Reformed publications. The Reformed Journal is to be commended in this regard for the encouragement it gives, periodically, to Christian literary artists, particularly in poetry and short fiction. The Banner has also printed several notable stories over the years, and we trust that Dr. DeKoster will continue the good tradition.

Calvinist-Contact, Christianity Today, His, Vanguard, and THE OUTLOOK (formerly TORCH AND TRUMPET), as well as Insight, should also be mentioned here, but these publications could do even more to promote worthy fiction (and poetry) written in Biblical perspective.

Evidence of Christian vision in our high school and college literary reviews is often distressingly sporadic—that is, the Gospel view of life is frequently embarrassed, ambiguous, or even obviously excluded (out of disinterest? fear? rebellion? ignorance? contempt?). In such endeavors also, however, there are signs of life—which the Christian community should exert itself to nurture—such as the collegiate stories “The Cross” by Ralph J. Huizenga and “White Gift” by Pat De Young. You may have read other well-crafted stories by students who have attempted to employ and embody the Christian world and life view.

Outstanding contributions – Aside from C. S. Lewis’s peerless Narnia Chronicles—novella-length allegorical tales or realistic fantasies for adolescent and older readers—the short stories that seem to me best to fulfill the requirement of artistically composed Christian fiction are collected in I Saw Cooley Fly by Joseph Bayly (see the title story and “Ceiling Zero”), and A Slow Soft River by Lawrence Dorr. The title story of this latter volume and Dorr’s “Lazarus”–in The Reformed Journal of September 1973—are the finest distinctively Christian short stories that I can recall reading—though my colleague Hugh Cook‘ suggests that I reconsider some of the stories of the Roman Catholic fictionist Flannery O‘Connor.

Of course, not all the stories in the above-mentioned collections attain the same level of artistry, nor are they all in every respect always truly Christian, that is, consistently Biblical, in their genius, tone, theme, mood, and characterization. But the discerning reader will identify and evaluate the spirits of the stories to see whether and at what point they are of God, and where they are not.

As for longer fiction, we should seek first the Kingdom of God—both for this world and the New Heavens and Earth—in the literally Christ-centered ways suggested to us by Rudy Wiebe’s Pence Shall Destroy Many, Margaret Epp‘s A Fountain Sealed, Both Banks of the River by Argye Briggs, The Adjustable Halo – Ken Anderson, Perelandra – C. S. Lewis, and Marching Orders – Olov Hartman. I would add Elisabeth Elliot’s No Graven Image were it not for its somewhat fatalistic conclusion and Grace Irwin‘s Andrew Connington trilogy but for its rather idealized, at times, protagonist and its denial, albeit equivocal, of the Biblical teachings concerning hell in volume three, Contend With Horses.

The Biblical norm – Perhaps you are wondering why I am not being more theologically or doctrinally explicit in this essay, why I am not discussing primarily dogmatical criteria, but I fear that our alertness on that score may have been conditioned by a measure of pride and an over-pragmatic bias, and that we may have occasionally discountenanced attempts at Christian writing when we should, thereat, have praised the Living God together through our Savior Jesus Christ and in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

Should not our young men—and women—dream dreams and our old men—and women—see visions, providing they be Biblically and beautifully expressing the truth of God‘s world and infallible Word to the glory of His Name?

On the other hand, though, it is equally urgent that our beginning writers do not develop wrongly and end cynically, hopelessly, and tragically by aping the world’s aesthetic and literary standards, Humanism, for example, hates and despises the Biblical norm “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers” (Eph. 4:29).

Christian poetry – In Christian poetry, our lyric celebration, as in the days of David and Solomon, is flourishing, but few publishers have adequately recognized the exciting vitality and‘ Kingdom vision of our regenerated artists. Zondervan, Eerdmans, Shalom, Wedge, Park, Moody, and Tyndale House have printed occasional compilations, however, and Being Publications may well be the premier publisher of Christian poetry in the English-speaking world today. I Never Visited an Artist Before by Marie Post and In a Strange Land by Cor Barendrecht are two recent volumes by Being that contain much excellent, clearly Christian poetry—as does Luci Shaw‘s Tyndale anthology Sightseers Into Pilgrims.

Margaret Avison, Vassar Miller, Fred Tamminga, William Oldenburg, Robert Swets, John Meeter, Kathleen Speyers, Hugh Cook, Marie Post, John Leax, Eugene Warren, Charles Waugaman, Chad Walsh, Jack Clemo, Nancy Westerfield, Cor Barendrecht, Stephen Mosley, Harry Abma, Thomas John Carlisle, Elva McAllaster. Margaret Clarkson, Beth Merizon, Joc Veltman, Gladys McKee, Eugene Peterson, Albert Howard Carter III, Charlene Anderson, Sherwood Wirt—the names proliferate to the praise of God as these competent and dedicated poets unite with us in the communion of the saints to write, variously and uniquely, of the wonders of God and His love in our sin-cursed world as He daily forgives and restores His people, the elect in Christ, through the blood of the Cross and the life-giving resurrection of our victorious Redeemer.

Christian drama rare – A final word—and that about drama. Aside from Dorothy Sayers’ epic radio play on the life and death of our Lord Jesus, The Man Born to Be King, and Christopher Fry’s heavily symbolic, highly multi-vocal dramas, and T. S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral and The Cocktail Party (which tend to substitute human martyrdom and meritorious saintliness for the free gift of grace in Christ’s atonement), fully–developed Christian drama is strikingly rare, (Fred Tamminga has written a dramatic pageant entitled Christ the King, and Jim Koldenhoven has produced an improvization on the book of Ruth with the Dordt College Thalians.)

But with the current demand for television and movie scripts, Christian dramatic writers should exercise themselves to declare the Name of the Lord and His will in this medium and for all the situations of life, This means that Christ-believing playwrights must be knowledgeable about both contemporary life and the teachings of the Bible, through which Scripture‘s God perfectly instructs us in His Kingdom will and laws; moreover, He says, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” That Biblical, Kingdom view of reality should pervade all of our imaginative writing, but especially this visual, dramatic, experiential genre of literary art in its character–influencing, culture-forming power.

Let us write, then, to laud our King, so that men may repent of their sins, believe on Jesus, know His salvation, confess Him as Lord, and begin with joy to obey all of His commandments.