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Great question @lin! I have had to take a lot of time to wrestle through this one…

In a nutshell (because I really could take a deep breath and let out a very long rant on this one XD) I believe that fantasy is a mirror or reality as the author decides to portray it. Through fantasy, you can explore an idea in a different way and help the reader to see something differently that they might have seen it before, or to become acquainted with a concept or idea. I am so grateful for fantasy writers who understand this and have impacted my life by showing me things through a different perspective.

So, writing God into the story. I think that in a way, you have to accept that the your world works (depending on the sort of story or point of the story you are working on) will portray a type of reality.

I view it as if I don’t have a God figure, I am potentially writing a story that portrays witchcraft or humanism that will not help my reader in any way shape or form. I’m not saying that every fantasy story has to have a Jesus figure, etc, etc, but if any power/magic and the like is not explained by “God-given abilities” or the powers he has naturally set up in the world, I might be writing a humanistic or downright messed up story. Without a God figure, who defines right and wrong in my story? Where does everything come from? Where did the world come from? I know not every story goes that deep, but really, in a fantasy story, if you are actually taking it seriously and doing the proper worldbuilding, you have to ask all sorts of questions. I’d say that no matter how much you reference the God-figure in fantasy, whether he’s present or not, I’d say it’s important that in fantasy it’s not religion or this “stick-in-the-allegory” thing. I think it should be the whole foundation of your story.

I’d say that you are never going to get a perfect picture of God in your story, but if you can expound upon one or more things about him in a new way that will help your reader to think about God in a new light and understand him better, I think that it’s a good thing.

The biggest thing in my mind, is when you write fantasy, you MUST have something that defines right and wrong. I can’t have this without some sort of God figure, so if I am to write fantasy, I believe I MUST have a God-figure to some extent.

Those are my personal thoughts on it, but I really do respect your heart for wanting to portray God in a holy and glorifying light. I do too!!! I just believe that I can do this in fantasy. 🙂