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by A.C. Williams @ACW_Author

I don’t remember the first time I read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. Nor do I remember the first time I read Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan. Both of those stories were so formative for me as a child, diving deep into the beautiful pictures they painted of who Jesus is and what it means to be a follower of Christ. They are truly exceptional classic works of literature. 

But there is a reason why the most successful allegories in history were written by theologians. 

As an editor and teacher, I get the privilege of reviewing and giving feedback on multiple manuscripts on a regular basis. Sometimes I will be reading five manuscripts at a time in one month, and when I go to conferences I get inundated with all sorts of different kinds of stories and concepts at various levels of development. One of the types of stories that people always end up bringing to me is allegory. 

Admittedly, I cringe a little bit every time someone tells me they have written an allegory. And please don’t hear me wrong if that’s what you write, but at the same time, I think it’s important that we make sure we understand what allegory is. 

Allegory as a genre isn’t picking and choosing Scriptures that fit your plot or your world or even your character arc. Allegory puts Scripture first. Scripture, all of it, must be represented in your manuscript. You don’t get to create a character and claim he is an allegory of Jesus and then have him do something unChristlike. You don’t get to tell us that you’ve written an allegory of heaven where people still sin. And, honestly, the one I hear most often is authors who write allegory about the Holy Spirit. 

Writing Allegory Isn’t As Easy As You Think by @ACW_Author on @BRMCWC #Writing #Writinglife #BRMCWC Share on X

I understand The Shack was a powerful book, but it’s not true allegory. Similarly to the popular streaming television show, The Chosen, which I adore and have watched since it launched. The Chosen isn’t Scripture. It’s inspired by Scripture. 

We shouldn’t get those two ideas mixed up.

Many times, I think we use the term allegory because we don’t know how to explain what we’ve written. We want to express that our story includes symbols and themes that come from Scripture. We’ve written a retelling of the Prodigal Son. We’ve re-imagined what the romance of Rebekah and Isaac would have been like at the Texas State Fair (yes, I did that one). We’ve taken a truth from the pages of Scripture and used it as a foundational element of our fictional project. 

Maybe you have a character who is based on Jesus, a messiah figure who heals the sick and lives righteously and is killed and then is resurrected. That’s fine, but if you are going to say it is an allegory, you must make every detail accurate to Scripture. 

If you use symbols and themes to communicate your story’s message, that is wonderful. You can pick and choose all day long. You can integrate elements of Scripture with elements of fantasy, which is what J.R.R. Tolkien did with The Lord of the Rings by the way. Tolkien’s masterwork was never an allegory, nor was it intended to be an allegory. It was, however, heavily influenced by the Bible and the truths from it. 

Allegory is all or nothing. Either you get every detail in line with what Scripture says, or you’re writing symbols and themes. 

For example, let’s go back to your Jesus figure. It would make sense that you want to make him the hero of your story. That’s perfect, right? Jesus is the ultimate hero. 

Well, here’s the problem with making Jesus your protagonist. Most main characters need a growth arc. They have to go on a journey where they learn how to embrace what is true and reject a lie they believe about themselves. If you set your story up with Jesus as your main character, that means you are indicating He believed lies at some point in His life. If He must go on a journey of growth emotionally and spiritually, that contradicts the parts of Scripture that tell us Jesus was born perfect, that He was without sin and that He never did sin. 

Do you see the problem? 

I have a superhero series that I’ve been working on for thirty years. It’s a hilarious found-family kind of adventure series that’s great for all ages, where you’ve got these five totally different guys who are given elemental samurai armors without an instruction manual and told to save the world. Shenanigans ensue. 

Early on in the development of this series, I decided I wanted the armors these guys wear to represent the Holy Spirit. At the core, this particular series is a portal fantasy with sci-fi elements; enemies from a hidden, unseen world are attacking the world we know, and if we want to beat them, we have to put on armor that allows to fight them. Each armor represents a Fruit of the Spirit, and the only way to effectively use the armor is to let it fight for you.

Is my series an allegory? 

No. For a lot of reasons, namely the fact that in my story, people can take the armors off after they’ve put them on, and I’m pretty sure the Holy Spirit stays with us at all times. There are many ways to look at it. All that to say, my Holy Spirit Samurai Armors are symbols that point to the fact that some battles are too big for humans to fight. 

It’s powerful. It’s meaningful. It resonates. It’s true. 

Symbols and themes are hugely effective literary devices you can use to express biblical truth in your fiction without accidentally writing heresy.  

That’s not to say that you can’t write allegory, but before you do, please make space to ensure you have enough time to fully research Scripture. And if your story isn’t actually an allegory, don’t feel like you have to introduce it that way. 

As Christ followers, we are stewards of His Word. Before you decide to rewrite His words through the lens of your fictional world, make sure you understand how all the pieces of Scripture fit together first.  

A.C. Williams is a coffee-drinking, sushi-eating, story-telling nerd who loves cats, country living, and all things Japanese. Author of more than 20 books, she keeps her fiction readers laughing with wildly imaginative adventures about samurai superheroes, clumsy church secretaries, and goofy malfunctioning androids; her non-fiction readers just laugh at her and the hysterical life experiences she’s survived. If that’s your cup of tea (or coffee), join the fun at www.amycwilliams.com.