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Message

Subject: Re: Attn JMS: taste; was: various bounced replies from jms
Date: 26 Feb 2001 19:53:18 -0700
From: jmsatb5@aol.com (Jms at B5)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

> Now THAT's unfair.  Christian authors writing for Christian readers are
>> under no obligation to start off each and ever oeuvre with an apologia
>> for the sake of non-Christian readers.

Except, of course, that much of his stuff is marketed as straight-ahead fiction
or speculative fiction, such as Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That 
Hideous Strength and Till We Have Faces.  I don't see The Lion, the Witch, and
the Wardrobe being sold in stores as specifically Christian literature.  It's
in the fiction section along with everything else.  So the premise that he's
writing only for Christian readers seems a little false to me.

And I used the Screwtape Letters only as one example, when clearly there are
many others.  And I'm far from the first person to maintain that he tends to go
for the straw-man argument in most of his work that has theological leanings. 
And I do think that it's an intellectual cheat.  I'd much rather see a mind
that sharp turned in debate against a well-armed opponent than seeing him knock
down somebody who was already hamstrung.



 jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
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