Monday, October 23, 2006

My nominations for modern Christian satirists

The folks over at Worldviews, the World Magazine blog, make the observation that political satire is tres chic these days, citing such luminaries as Stephen Colbert and Ann Coulter. They then ask whether anyone has examples of contemporary Christian literature that "lampoons" the current state of the world.

Well, I suppose it depends on your definition of "contemporary", but I would think that many of the novels of G. K. Chesterton (circa. 1874-1936) would have to count, as well as much of his non-fiction, particularly books like Heretics and Orthodoxy, and many of his newspaper columns. And certainly Walker Percy's novels, particularly Love in the Ruins, and The Thanatos Syndrome, which are wildly clever send-ups of the pathologies of modern life and thought, would have to be considered.

And while we're talking about Christian satire, a web search turns up the very interesting post at "John Mark Ministries" on the subject of Christian satire.

3 comments:

SPorcupine said...

Steven Colbert IS a modern Christian satirist. He pretends that he's pretending on that part, so his colleagues can cope. But watch the tape when he rolls out the Apostles' Creed or John 3:16. He isn't acting the part of someone demanding space for faith in the public square: he's actually demanding. And thousands of post-modern secularists are getting an education while they laugh.

SPorcupine said...

My bad: it was actually parts of the Nicene Creed, right there on Comedy Central.

Anonymous said...

Have you checked out the Wittenburg Door? A little juvenile at points, but very observant. Centers mostly on televangelists and ultra-conservative types like Pat Robertson.