#christian themes

[good-soupmens]

Crowley and Aziraphale have very Jesus-like elements to them when you consider that Jesus wasn't WITH all the religious leaders

He criticized the Pharisees and actively went against them for being hypocrites. They were supposed to represent the side of good, but fall short, instead abusing their power

(Quotes from Matthew 23 to make a point)

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are. Woe to you, blind guides! You say, `If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.' You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness!"

Heaven in good omens is a lot like this. They misconstrue plans and take a "holier than thou" approach while Crowley and Aziraphale connect with the heart of humanity. They get their hands dirty and risk sacrificing themselves to save it. They put it before themselves.

Jesus acted as a bridge between humanity and the Heavens. Crowley and Aziraphale may form a similar bridge, but for Heaven and Hell to see humanity rather than the other way around

They need to put angels and demons in their place, but more importantly, show them earth and all the humans that care for it

[friendrat]

So I started watching the Percy Jackson show, and I just wondered if I'm the only one noticing the (probably unintentional) Christian parallels and themes?

[ambrieldoespoems]

Washed Away

Little girls prayed for ponies

I prayed for restart

I prayed to be ripped to pieces

For the fire to burn

Ashes to ashes

From the ashes arise something new

Redo

I was too ruined, corrupt, broken

Like the earth I must be drowned out

If he could wash away an entire planet

Why not one whole person

If entire creation needed decimation

Why not me?

Like Noah and his ship survived my body would remain a vestige

But all that made me me must go

Like the sinners of the earth

Washed away

[gyossefka]

Christina T in "Catholic Guilt" by Skye Tan and Randolph Tan.

[evelynmlewis]

The Boy in the Castle: Masterpost

(Image: Wikipedia)

Summary:

Far, far away in the lands to the East, in the time of horses and carriages, a smuggler named Ilya is hired to transport a mysterious woman in disguise and her 9-year-old son into the active war zone which they ought to be escaping.

Chapter list:

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9

[krisscrossbuns]

painterly art I made

[lennyinlordran]

Thoughts on Ravenloft and Cristian Influence in the Gothic Horror Genre

I want to briefly note that Gothic-Horror isn't innately Christian, However, Christian Mythology and Ideals are baked into it's themes and archetypes, and the way this affects Gothic-Horror in settings that are overtly not Christian is interesting.

Also, here a "Cristian Setting" refers to one where the christian god is confirmed-- indirectly or otherwise-- to exist, is the "top deity" and still all-loving. IE, Shin Megami Tensei isn't.

Ravenloft is interesting because it's a campaign setting in D&D lore, meaning that it's openly polytheist.

In Ravenloft, A pair of fairly interesting concepts exist, namely, Dark Lords and the Dark Powers.

A critical Piece of the Gothic-Horror Genre is a Transgression, A specific act in word or deed that opposes the "natural order", causing a character to be Corrupt/Evil/Sinful/Tragic, etc.

For example, Dracula forsakes god, Dr.Frankenstein creates the Monster, etc.

In Ravenloft Lore, a Dark Lord is essentially a character who performs a transgression, whereas the "Dark Powers" are essentially whatever punishes/curses them to their torment.

For example, Dracula can Never Reunite with his Lover, Frankenstein's Monster kills him, etc.

So, the Dark Powers are essentially a Pantheon of tormentors designed to enforce the rules of a Gothic Horror Story, IE, transgression against the natural order, tragic villains who curse themselves, etc. In Gothic Fiction proper, this role is usually assigned to god.

So, Are the Dark Powers Angels of an unseen analogue to the Cristian God, or am I tripping?

[furiousmiraclewonderland]

Artist: John William Waterhouse

The Annumciation 1914

[renee-writer]

Name

By any other name

Would you want to be called?

Your birth name,

Maybe a nickname picked up in school,

No,

What about what your guilt calls you,

Bad child,

Bad parent,

What type of person are you really?

Deep inside, you know

You know the guilt

The regrets

The times, places, and things

That you wish you had a do over for

You can live there

Or

You can be called,

Redeemed

Saved

Sanctified

Adopted

Grafted back into the family of God

Oh He knows,

He knows all about that thing,

That habit,

That bone deep regret,

He knows,

Still,

He stands with open arms,

Waiting for you to come home

Not by any old name

But by one He has carved in His palm

By His own Name,

He has given you,

The only name that matters,

His!

[rancidfruit]

The Immaculate Conception (1768), Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

[the-mess-writes]

“Either you kill Kyle Moore… or we will.”

Sawyer Reyes should be your typical college student subsisting on reheated pizza and vanilla wafers. But unlike most college students, Sawyer’s degree lies in the grip of the city’s most ruthless villains. So when she’s faced with the decision to reveal her roommate’s secret identity or lose her hard fought degree, there’s really only one choice.

Read "The Hero Dies in the End"

Purchase a physical copy (Fall 2024)

[lakilogan]

"Despite everything I had put her through, Leah continued to shine like an angel on earth."-Lucy (probably)

[williamrablan]

Event Horizon - The River

I wrote a long time ago that I would hesitate to call my novels “Christian Novels.” There are too many things that go on in them that are ugly. There are murders. There are sexual assaults. There are drugs. But that doesn’t stop the Word of God from being spoken, expanded on, and demonstrated. For the message in Event Horizon, here is for your reading pleasure, a small excerpt: “But changing…

[ambrieldoespoems]

Life’s Blessing

Sometimes I lie awake at night

Wondering why my chest feels so tight

Why I can't seem to open up to anyone.

Why life just doesn't seem fun

People say that life is a blessing and I know that it is

But wonder why the universe chose me of all

people to live.

It's a one in a million shot that I made it here

today.

So why do I not want to stay?

I want to go to a place far away, where I'm not so awkward. I don't trip on my feet.

Where everything just feels more complete.

And I know a lot of people have it much worse than I

So I don't understand why I want to die.

Except I don't really want to die, I just don't want to live.

But maybe I still have more to give.

Maybe that's why I'm on this earth today.

Maybe I still have something to say.

Things will get better as life moves on.

Maybe there's hope for the future and that hope lies in me.

If I go on to become who God called me to be.

[tmkosonwrites]

Nanowrimo 2023

It's that time again when my thoughts turn to Halloween and writing 50K in a month and the anguish of writing about shifters & vampires and being a Jesus-loving girl. I've participated in this November monthly challenge for quite some time and always tend to walk away disappointed at and with @nanowrimo and my regional leaders. I think it's because I expect to be welcomed listened to and genuinely brought into the group, like it is with the Christian ladies and circle I'm a part of. I'm not in my twenties or thirties, sadly, nor do I know what college life and working and having lots of friends is like today. I have a small group of very good close friends and one or two friends with a lot of similarities. My library doesn't do anything for the month and when there are write-ins it's in a neighboring city I don't want to catch a regional bus and be at the mercy of their schedule. So maybe I see about starting one, is the thought/notion that comes to me. So if that part of the event isn't as I like it then why do I participate? I enjoy the Instagram posts and challenges and that accountability even if no one acknowledges them. That in a way feels somewhat like I'm in a community. After reading Elizabeth Gilbert's Big Magic in 2019 I wrote 35K for that year's Nanowrimo meeting my goal for the first time in quite a long time and proving to myself that I can do it even with other things going on. I've had a running plan as to what to do with the characters I've had since my early teens and the mass of vampires I felt that were truly in the world. I'm finding myself rethinking that plan and looking at the entire thing from a different angle that I haven't ever before. I get so overwhelmed with the entire world that I can't see straight. It's all about the "feels right" and my thoughts are like, I should get it down on paper, thoughts. Like yikes! Did Tolkien write out all about the Elves and Dwarfs? So I think I'm going to try to hang on to this different sort of thinking and feeling and use some of what's written already and try to write 50K with the previous post inspiring me. Directing me... but how? How do I write a Pharoah? I sense it's all about taking your fear and running internal thoughts captive and realizing it's not going to be fully ready when I finish writing. It's an art that you need to get the hair off of polish the frame and dress it properly. I follow a couple Christian writers that have no spice in their books and if these ladies can do it, I am no different and can do it with all the hurt and healing I've survived and done. God willing.

Keep me accountable by finding me on Nanowrimo. Thank you.

[blackcur-rants]

Fundamentally, "The Owl House" is an allegorical story dealing with the dichotomy at the heart of the "American Dream", with Luz representing the ideal of America as a Melting Pot of Nations that brings together all the peoples of the world, while Belos/Philip represents the Manifest Destiny crap about how America exists to serve the interests of rich White Cishet Christian (preferably Protestant) Men and no one else. Both of them literally follow the classic American Immigrant Story™ of coming to a new land with nothing but the clothes on your back and making your way in the world with cleverness and ingenuity and intelligence. Luz even goes so far as to fall in love with the daughter of a prominent rich family and win her love in return like she’s in “Hamilton”. But whereas Belos attempts to destroy the Isles’ beautiful culture and/or twist to suit his own purposes so that he can kill and destroy everyone and everything on them, Luz accepts the culture of the Witches as her own and helps to restore it to its former glory after Belos is destroyed.

It’s also kind of a Christ allegory wherein Luz is a dark-skinned person raised by a working class single mother in a distant corner of the world’s most powerful nation who comes to a world straining under the weight of a truly terrible tyranny and helps people heal from their trauma and pain and love for her redeems or at least helps to redeem several flawed and broken people and her name can potentially even be taken as a reference to the messianic solar deity Sol Invictus and/or the Jewish concept of the Ur Ein Sof…oh, and her whole thing is descending into the Underworld and offering her life up to save its inhabitants and denizens.

(And no, I will not attempt to read Christian meanings into “Amphibia” or “The Ghost and Molly McGee”. “Amphibia” is a Buddhist story wherein the Calamity Trio (or at least Anne) are destined to transcend physical reality/Samsara and become deities/Bodhisatta through their good deeds and kindness, while Molly McGee is a personification of Tikkun Olam/a potential Tsadik Nistar who heals the world without realising just how much of a positive impact she’s been leaving on people, at least at first).

@disregardcanon @lady-asteria @witch-apologist @awakefor48hours @candyskiez

TOH Fans: OMG, you should watch The Owl House, there's gay witches that kiss on screen!!

Plot points about government corruption, ethnic cleansing, living with a chronic disability, white washed history, working through grief, having abusive parental figures, overcoming suicidal thoughts, and more