Reading Fantasy for a Better Understanding of Spiritual Life in a Material World

Can reading the fantasy works of certain authors help us better understand difficult spiritual concepts, gain insights bridging the gap between the physical and spiritual worlds, and help us live spiritually-fulfilled lives in a material world? In George MacDonald’s novel Phantasies: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women, Anodos experiences twenty-one years of life in fairyland in twenty-one days, gains spiritual insights from those adventures, and is thereafter a changed person. In J. R. R. Tolkien’s fantasy novel, The Children of Húrin, the son Túrin repeatedly illustrates the spiritual interplay between God’s Grace, evil’s curse, and consequences in the material world of man’s free will. In C. S. Lewis’s fantasy, The Screwtape Letters one sentence, “Humans are amphibians—half spirit and half animal”, is an important key concept on the dynamic challenge of living spiritually in a material world and gives insights into Lewis’ writing