A New Hope
Are you ready to turn your frustration with our anti-culture into something wonderful?
Apart from peeking at an episode one day while recovering from the flu, I haven’t watched any of The Chosen, the wildly popular crowdfunded series about Jesus and his disciples, now into Season Three. The series fascinates me, however, not only because of the ingenious way its producers have turned crowdfunding into a new media paradigm, but also because of the way it has revealed the hunger of Christians for stories that resonate with their faith. (For the story of how The Chosen achieved its amazing success, check out this podcast interview with the show’s creator and director, Dallas Jenkins.)
We live, as I say in my About page, in an age of anti-culture, one that is becoming increasingly antagonistic toward Christianity and indeed any expression of traditional culture. This antagonism is often expressed in the stories offered by legacy media, stories which leave many Christians feeling frustrated and angry as they find their way of life mocked or otherwise offended.
Are there honorable exceptions? Of course. One ready example is the PBS Masterpiece reboot of All Creatures Great and Small, which my wife and I have recently been enjoying.
But it would also be easy to collect examples of works that take aim at a Christian view of the world, either by explicitly trying to sabotage the Christian message or by telling stories that simply affirm the expressive individualism that is our anti-culture’s reigning ideology. Not even today’s children’s entertainment is left untouched by this hypersexualized ideology, as this example and this example make shockingly clear.
Are you someone who, like me, is frustrated and angry with this situation?
Are you someone who, like me, is attracted to the undoubted artistry and production values of legacy media, but is tired of the agenda so often pushed by it?
More positively, are you someone who, like me, has a deep and often unmet need for great art, an art that excites but which also draws upon the imagination that has produced the very greatest artifacts of Western history, namely, the Catholic Imagination?
Well, Maybe I and My Friends Can Help You
My aim as a writer is to address your desire for storytelling of the highest quality. Storytelling that excites you, that compels you to watch or turn the page, that settles for nothing less than the highest literary and dramatic standards.
It is also my aim as a writer to craft stories with a Catholic Imagination, and what’s more, to put that imagination into conversation with various currents in our anti-culture. And, what’s even more, to be wildly entertaining in doing so.
That’s a combination you may not have thought possible, or ever even considered: Catholicism + consummate craft + wildly entertaining!
But this combination is exactly what two of my most revered literary heroes, Evelyn Waugh and Walker Percy, pulled off in their work, and their example of high technical achievement, keen cultural awareness, and wide popularity, encourages me in my own work.
Speaking of which: I am very pleased to announce that I have teamed up with Chrism Press to publish my novel, The Good Death of Kate Montclair, which is slated for release in March 2023.
Chrism Press, founded in 2020, is the Catholic/Orthodox Christian imprint of WhiteFire Publishing, a small, independent Christian publisher.
I see Chrism Press, and WhiteFire generally, as an effort not unlike that of the production team behind The Chosen. Chrism Press is not crowdfunded media—though I am sure they would not look askance at your offer of support—but a new institution looking to do for fiction what The Chosen has done for streaming series: to restore a Christian presence in the arts without relying upon mainstream gatekeepers.
You can see further what I mean by checking out how Chrism Press articulates its mission:
Chrism Press is an imprint of WhiteFire Publishing dedicated to stories informed by Catholic and Orthodox Christianity that may not be able to find a home in either mainstream secular or Christian (Evangelical) presses. These two ancient faiths share a sacramental and incarnational vision that illuminates the imagination, as well as a centuries-old literary tradition spanning from Dante to Dostoevsky and beyond.
Whether Christian themes are presented overtly, subtly, or symbolically, Chrism Press seeks Spirit-filled fiction in all genres. We are not afraid of darkness; we enjoy the strange and the weird, as well as humor, romance, adventure, and fun. We strongly believe that fiction should never be boring. We invite readers to “Anoint Your Imagination” with a wide array of stories that enlighten while they entertain.
Small is Beautiful
The kinds of stories that you and I find most satisfying are not, in one sense, stories written to satisfy a global audience. A novel like Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited might have become one of the greatest novels of the 20th century, but it did so, not by trying to please everyone, but by exercising the specifically Catholic Imagination. It was written out of a particular faith tradition and was most naturally suited to those who claimed membership in that tradition.
That being said, the beauty of Waugh’s novel has the power to attract anyone who gives it the requisite time and attention. One doesn’t have to be a Catholic to fall in love with this novel.
But the paradox is this: that only by telling his story from his particular, Catholic point of view was Waugh able to appeal to those who did not share this point of view.
An enduring popularity, therefore, is not found in appealing to the least common denominator in audience tastes, but in speaking for what is good, true, and beautiful.
Brideshead Revisited, by the way, was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection in the United States in 1946.
And, as none other than the New York Times observed earlier this week, The Chosen is already extending its reach beyond its core Christian audience. As the byline of the Times article put it: “a TV series about the life of Jesus, pulls off a crowd-funded miracle: a hit with a Christian fan base that is breaking into the mainstream.”
Those of us seeking to enjoy and even write stories of enduring value need to embrace the wisdom that small is beautiful. That the tale of our own tribe is where we must begin. That a small community of writers and readers has the power to make new institutions and new artistic practices—and thus contribute to building a new culture.
This is our new hope.
Thanks so much for joining me in the effort.