Is it wrong for Christians to read stories with positive portrayals of magic? John Piper answers
Theologian and author John Piper said he believes fictional stories can include positive portrayals of magic or sorcery and still be spiritually edifying for Christians to consume.
On Monday's episode of the “Ask Pastor John” podcast, a listener asked Piper for his opinion of the use of magic by protagonists in movies and books like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter.
“A lot of godly Christians think novels like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings are forbidden because they feature even a good use of spells and sorcery. The mere existence of sorcery in a novel makes it bad,” asked the unnamed listener. “But on the other side of the argument, we read in the Old Testament itself that God’s holy men seem to respond to sorcerers with a matching supernatural power, creating a black-and-white contrast.”
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Examples cited included Moses stretching out his hand to part the Red Sea, as described in Exodus 14, and St. Paul appearing to use magic to blind a magician, as described in Acts 13.
“Aaron, Moses and Paul accomplish supernatural feats in response to their opponents. Should this argument factor into our fiction, too, for appreciating a righteous use of supernatural power?” asked the listener.
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Piper responded by saying that he believes it comes down to “whether the creation of an alternative world in fiction can effectively communicate truth about the real world and draw people into it.”
“Can made-up reality clarify reality? Does fiction have the capacity to awaken people to the truth of the real world? And I think the answer to that question is, ‘some of it,’” Piper said.
Piper explained that he had been “exposed to fiction that is simply corrupting” on a spiritual level, but has also experienced fiction “that makes me love purity, nobility, courage, sacrifice, love, hope, joy.”
The notable theologian also pointed to examples of “fantastic fictional visions and images” used in the Bible, such as Zechariah 5:1-11, in which God shows a prophet various bizarre imagery.
“Talk about alternative realities: a flying scroll, a basket with a woman in it named Wickedness, two women with wings of a stork. What in the world is all this? This is God’s fantastic, alternative, visionary world,” said Piper.
“Zechariah does not inhabit that world. He doesn’t inhabit a world with flying scrolls and women with wings. This is God’s way of communicating truth about reality by creating images outside ordinary reality.”
Piper went on to state that he believes “the truth of fiction does not depend on the absence of fictional supernature — say, the absence of white magic — but it depends on how that is used and how it all fits together.”
The question of whether Christians can consume or write fiction that includes positive depictions of magic has been a source of debate and discussion for years.
Josiah DeGraaf of Kingdom Pen wrote that magic in Christian fiction works was acceptable depending on what “power” the magical elements are “based on.”
“Is it based on your story’s version of God, and a type of angelic power, as is the case in The Lord of the Rings? Is it just another way the natural world works, similar to science, as is the case in The Inheritance Cycle? If so, I don’t believe the biblical prohibition applies to this activity,” wrote DeGraaf.
“On the other hand, if your magic is based on a pantheistic force ('Star Wars') [and] subverts the natural order of life and death ('Abhorsen' trilogy), or looks and works very similarly to the magic that the Bible condemns ('The Craft'), then I’d say we have some problems.”
