Here’s one of the best articles I’ve seen on evangelical millenial fiction, exemplified by the Left Behind books.
When I went to college (early 1990s) one of my relatives gave me a copy of This Present Darkness by Frank Peretti. I started reading it but stopped after 50 pages - I knew what was going to happen already. In general I try to avoid wasting my time reading books where I know what the final answer will be. I want art to surprise me. There are exceptions when I read books where I know what the final result will be and, in those cases, I’m just as guilty as anyone of reading books that affirm my own prejudices.
When I worked at Barnes and Noble (mid 1990s) I shelved the first few LaHaye and Jenkins books in the religious fiction section. Since then I’ve observed that the religious fiction sections in bookstores continue to grow. The fiction doesn’t lead me to any new thoughts but I believe it can be interpreted as a useful indicator of the rhetoric of evangelical Christianity in America.
