Christian fiction sometimes gets a bad rap for being too preachy, but Christian authors have a worldview from which to write, and they must steward it well. So why is understanding worldview essential for writing powerful, truth-filled fiction?
I asked Brian Godawa, who is an award-winning screenwriter. His first feature film, To End All Wars, was one I enjoyed watching in college. It’s a World War II movie with powerful Christian themes. He’s also the best-selling author of The Chronicles of the Nephilim and the new series, Chronicles of the Watchers.
Why did you start writing fiction?
Brian: I started as a Hollywood screenwriter, which was always a dream of mine. About nine or ten years ago, I wrote a script based on a Bible story that had never really been told before. I did intense Bible research and found some fascinating material. It was very biblical but also unique. I thought, This is the perfect story. It had the supernatural elements Hollywood loves and the biblical elements religious audiences would appreciate. I thought it could appeal to both markets and make a lot of money. The story was about Noah, and I called it Noah Primeval.
I tried to get interest in the script from studios, but I wasn’t a big A-list writer and didn’t have major contacts. Then I heard Darren Aronofsky was making a Noah movie. I thought, “Oh no, he’s probably going to get it made first.” I didn’t want my story to look derivative, but I still wanted to get it out there. So I decided to turn it into a novel. I’d always wanted to write novels anyway, and self-publishing was starting to grow. I tried the traditional route first, but when that didn’t pan out, I published Noah Primeval myself.
That first novel was such an inspiration to me. I realized there was more than one story there, and I eventually wrote 12, which became The Chronicles of the Nephilim. The Noah novel did well enough that I kept going, and now writing is my main source of income. I still write movies, but the novels are my primary focus.
Because of my background, my writing has a fast-paced, cinematic feel. Screenwriting trains you to be economical. I focus more on action and choices that reveal character rather than long internal monologues. Reading my books is a lot like watching a movie.
Did you beat the Noah movie to market?
Brian: Yes, by about a year. I was relieved to see that Aronofsky’s version was nothing like mine. There were a couple of minor similarities, but his interpretation was completely different, which made me happy.
Of course, it wasn’t the success it could have been, mostly because it didn’t appeal to its primary audience: people of faith. You can’t retell a Bible story and make God the villain or portray the hero as someone who wants to murder people. That’s not going to connect with believers who revere those stories. Aronofsky’s version was visually stunning, but it failed to resonate because it betrayed the heart of the story.
How does Hollywood keep alienating its audience?
Thomas: Visually, it was very striking. But this is a mistake Hollywood makes repeatedly. They take an established story world—like the Bible or Star Wars—and think they need to “fix” it. But all they end up doing is alienating the core fans. The people who love Star Wars don’t think it needs fixing. The people who love the Bible don’t think it needs fixing either.
If you honor the source material, those core fans will become your greatest advocates. They’ll watch on opening night and tell their friends. That’s how you get hits like The Passion of the Christ.
Brian: The problem with Noah wasn’t that Christians lack imagination or reject creative license. Most of us are fine with artistic interpretation of giants, angels, monsters, all of that. The issue is when you twist the core meaning. You can’t make God and Noah the villains. That’s crossing the line. Christians are far more open-minded than people think, but they won’t tolerate a story that inverts biblical truth.
Thomas: And yet Hollywood keeps making the same mistake every year with some other property.
Brian: They did it again with Exodus: Gods and Kings. It was beautifully produced, and the Red Sea sequence was impressive. But the story made God look like a child throwing temper tantrums. It was written and directed by atheists who hate God, so of course, the portrayal came off that way. Naturally, believers didn’t like it.
Thomas: Another good example is The Nativity Story, which came out after The Passion of the Christ. Many of the same people worked on it and thought they’d make another fortune on a birth narrative movie.
They got all the historical details right, but they missed the heart. They portrayed it as a sad story overshadowed by the coming crucifixion. Everyone was somber. The angels’ choir was reduced to a single angel. They missed the whole point. The birth of Christ is supposed to be a celebration, not a tragedy.
How do you approach the fantastical elements of the Bible in your fiction?
Brian: That’s exactly what I’m trying to do with all my stories and series. I deal with the fantastical elements of the Bible, like the supernatural, angels, demons, and so on. I take some creative license.
When I first started the series, I was a bit nervous. I’m a traditional, evangelical, Reformed Christian. I’m not a heretic, but as an artist, I’m more open-minded in how I use imagination to approach Scripture. I worried that Christians might reject some of my creative license. I assumed they would be more literalistic or fundamentalist, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised. Christians have embraced my genre with open arms, which has been very encouraging.
For example, take Leviathan. Some Christians think it’s a dinosaur, but if you study the text, you discover it’s a symbolic image representing chaos. In the ancient Near East, the sea dragon of chaos was a common symbol for the forces a god must defeat or suppress to bring order. The biblical writers used that same image symbolically to communicate powerful truths through familiar imagery.
In my novels, I make Leviathan more literal to enhance the storytelling. The creature appears in Noah Primeval in a more tangible form. As my stories progress, from Enoch to Noah to Abraham, the narratives become more historical in tone, just as the Bible’s own storytelling shifts from primeval to patriarchal history.
I still emphasize the supernatural dimension because it’s such an integral part of Scripture. I always believed in angels and demons, but didn’t want to deal with them at first. The more I studied, the more I realized how essential that realm is to the biblical story, and that’s what this series explores.
What role does worldview play in storytelling?
Thomas: You can take a lot of creative liberty as long as you stay true to the heart of the story. We often talk about being “true to the heart,” and that term relates to worldview.
Hollywood has a worldview, and when their factually accurate movies feel dissonant, it’s because their worldview clashes with the audience’s. For example, the Lord of the Rings movies made big changes to the books, but fans accepted them because the filmmakers shared Tolkien’s worldview. They honored the spirit of the story.
A lot of authors don’t think through the worldview before they start writing, unless they’re deliberately writing an apologetic. But worldview shapes how your characters see the world, how they make choices, and how you tell their stories.
How does worldview shape your stories?
Brian: As a storyteller, there’s always a tension between the entertaining side and the meaning side; between story and message. Some stories are too preachy because the writer fears that if they don’t spell everything out, readers won’t get it. Others go too far in the opposite direction, letting imagination run wild without realizing that every story conveys a worldview.
I try to understand worldview through creation, fall, redemption, restoration, and the philosophies that underlie them. For example, a humanistic worldview sees man as the measure of all things. It claims humanity’s main problem is religion, which blinds us from science and reason. The “redemption” in that worldview is freeing ourselves from religion to become enlightened.
Every story, whether it’s a movie, book, or show, communicates some worldview, even if the author isn’t aware of it.
I’ve educated myself extensively about different worldviews, including paganism, monism, and, of course, the Christian worldview, which centers on creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. God created humanity for communion. Humanity fell. Christ redeems humanity from outside itself, and one day God will restore all things, beginning with individual transformation.
When you understand that framework, it naturally shapes your storytelling. Your imagination drives plot and action, but your worldview guides how characters make choices. Every choice reveals something about who they are and what they believe.
If you have a solid grasp of worldview, it will influence your creative decisions—consciously or unconsciously—and your story will have thematic depth. Without it, your story may lack direction or coherence, and you won’t communicate a meaningful message.
How can understanding worldview impact the kinds of Christian stories we tell?
Thomas: Without that foundation, the only Christian story most people know how to tell is one about the crucifixion and resurrection. Those are central, but there’s so much more to the gospel. Luke and John both spend many chapters showing Jesus’ ministry before the Passion narrative.
Once you have a Christian worldview, you can write about all aspects of life in a Christian way. When you understand other worldviews, you can include characters shaped by them. You can let those characters follow their beliefs to their logical conclusions, which lead to emptiness, sadness, or destruction, and you can do it without being preachy.
Understanding worldview gives you a powerful toolbox for showing truth through story. You can communicate powerfully and authentically while being less heavy-handed.
What is incarnational storytelling?
Brian: I’ve wrestled with this in my own writing. I call it my aesthetic—my theory of beauty and how I understand it. I wrote two books about it: Hollywood Worldviews, which helps Christians understand storytelling in film, and The Imagination of God, which explores what I call incarnational storytelling.
Incarnational storytelling means recognizing that the power of story is to embody truth, not to rationalize or preach it. When you write about characters making meaningful choices, those choices naturally reveal your message. You don’t have to explain it outright because the story’s power lies in what the characters do, where their choices lead, and what consequences they face. Those choices reflect a worldview—how you see and understand the world.
For example, when Mel Gibson screened The Passion of the Christ for Christian audiences, some Protestant viewers asked him to add John 3:16 at the end. But that missed the point; the entire movie was John 3:16 embodied. Watching Christ suffer was the Gospel message. You didn’t need the verse printed on the screen.
Christians are starting to understand this more. You communicate the gospel not by quoting verses but by incarnating truth in your story through characters, images, and choices.
In every story, the protagonist and antagonist each represent a worldview. The hero’s worldview drives his actions, but also contains a flaw that leads to his downfall or struggle. Through the conflict with the antagonist, who embodies an opposing worldview, the hero comes to see his own flaw. When he overcomes it, he gains the inner strength to triumph.
That journey is a picture of redemption. You don’t need a “sinner’s prayer” scene to show transformation. The story itself is a conversion or an incarnation of change. Whether the story ends in triumph or tragedy, it teaches truth through the consequences of belief.
That’s the power of story. It incarnates worldview and redemption in a way that reason alone never can.
Thomas: For those who insist you must quote John 3:16, consider Scripture itself. If I had written the Bible, I might have started Genesis with the Ten Commandments. But God did not. Genesis is one sweeping narrative filled with people making good and bad decisions and facing the consequences. It is compelling.
You might think Exodus finally delivers the commandments, but for many chapters, it continues the narrative. Only in Exodus 20 do we get the Ten Commandments. Throughout the Old Testament, narrative and exposition intermix. The prophets then reflect on what came before. If you have not read Kings and Chronicles, the prophets will not make sense. After reading those histories, you understand why their critiques are so sharp.
The Gospels also blend exposition and narrative. John features more direct teaching, while Mark is action-heavy. Mark does not include John 3:16, and that is fine. Paul did not always cite that verse when he preached, either. Shrinking the gospel to one verse does a disservice to everything else Jesus said and to the breadth of the biblical witness. There is more to Christianity than a single verse.
Brian: Amen. There is power in telling a focused story. Stories should not have to encapsulate the entire Christian worldview. A film that simply portrays a good marriage may be exactly what is needed in an anti-marriage culture.
Individual Bible books also model this. Ecclesiastes does not contain everything, yet it contributes powerful truths that interweave through the rest of Scripture. I approach my stories the same way.
Thomas: You can trust God to raise others to address topics you do not cover. Rather than digging one hundred shallow wells, dig one deep well on the theme God has given you. Perhaps someone else will handle forgiveness while you write on joy or loving your enemies. That message is needed right now.
Jesus modeled focus in His earthly ministry. He concentrated on the Jews, then the five thousand, then the seventy-two, the twelve, and finally Peter, James, and John. If I had been His marketing manager, I would have pushed for Rome. In wisdom, He trusted that others would take the gospel there, which proved the better strategy.
If your story does not feature John 3:16 but highlights another aspect of Christian truth, that is acceptable. Sixty-five books of the Bible do not include that verse.
What was your biggest failure in writing, and what did you learn?
Brian: I have always been both right-brain and left-brain. That can be a strength, but it creates tension. Sometimes I become too explanatory. Other times, I let my imagination run so far that I risk communicating something I do not intend.
Early in my Christian life, I leaned heavily into apologetics and philosophy. That formed a highly rational spirituality. I was a visual artist before I was a writer, yet I struggled to integrate imagination into my faith. Writing Noah Primeval changed that. Stepping into imaginative storytelling freed me from restraints I did not realize I had. I still aimed to be clear and truthful, but I stopped fearing that some Christians might misunderstand. Before that shift, I was more preachy. That turning point, about nine years ago, opened up my storytelling.
How does fear inhibit good writing?
Thomas: Fear ruins good writing. If you write to avoid criticism, you will produce something bland and forgettable. It’s crucial to know who your audience is and is not. You believed there was a readership for your first book, and when it sold, your planned four-book series became twelve. You found your audience, and the process transformed you from primarily an apologist into a novelist.
We even see these approaches in the Gospels. Luke, the physician, moves logically from point A to point B. John is more thematic and layered. Both are inspired, and both are needed. A single harmonized “super gospel” would lose the distinctive strengths of each. Be what you are. Your book is not the only message people will hear about Christianity, and you are not writing a replacement for the Bible. We already have a very good Bible. You are writing something else.
How do imagination and reason work together in storytelling?
Brian: In my book, I describe it as the battle between word and image. The word represents rationality—the left brain—and the image represents imagination, poetry, and symbolism—the right brain.
For a long time, I overemphasized rationality in my faith and understanding. When I finally recognized that imagination and reason are equally ultimate, just as Jesus is fully God and fully man, it changed my creative life. If you elevate one over the other, you distort the whole.
In storytelling, that realization meant that entertainment became just as important as meaning. If a story isn’t entertaining, I won’t read it or write it, no matter how meaningful it is. Likewise, a story that’s imaginative but meaningless feels shallow to me. You need both.
Once I accepted that entertainment is just as valuable as message, my storytelling took off. As Francis Schaeffer said, the Christian imagination should “fly to the stars” because we serve the Creator God. Entertainment still needs purpose, but it’s essential. That balance is what freed me creatively.
Thomas: Exactly. If you don’t capture the audience’s attention, they won’t hear your message. I don’t quote Scripture often on this show, but John 4:24 says, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.” That’s the same balance: spirit and truth, imagination and meaning.
Tell us about your new novel Jezebel.
Brian: Jezebel is the first book in my Chronicles of the Watchers series. The concept comes from the biblical idea that there are “watchers” or territorial spiritual powers over the Gentile nations, while Yahweh rules over Israel. I explore what that might look like if we could see the unseen realm of the supernatural forces behind the nations.
In the story, I reimagine the gods of the ancient world like Baal, Asherah, and Astarte, not as imaginary figures but as demonic beings. They’re the “watchers” ruling over the nations. They’re not gods in the true sense but fallen powers contending against God’s angels.
The novel retells the story of Jezebel and Elijah. It includes Mount Carmel, the prophets of Baal, and Jezebel’s subtle corruption of Israel through Baal worship. Behind the scenes, the demonic watchers battle with the archangels for control over the land.
The story also draws parallels to our modern world. Jezebel’s promotion of child sacrifice in Baal worship echoes today’s debates over abortion. I’m not preachy about it, but it’s clear that what happens in the past often reflects what’s happening in the present. Historical fiction shows the seeds of our current struggles, just as science fiction shows their future outcomes.
Jezebel is remembered as one of history’s most wicked queens, but she’s often misunderstood. The Bible calls her a “harlot,” but that’s a spiritual term. Her harlotry refers to idolatry, not literal prostitution. In my story, Jezebel begins with good intentions. She wants to bring progress and sophistication from Phoenicia into Israel. But that elitist mindset leads her to spiritual corruption and oppression. That’s one of the main themes of the book.
How do you write believable villains?
Thomas: So she’s not a cartoon villain. She’s the hero of her own story, and she just happens to lead everyone to destruction.
Brian: Exactly. My editor even said, “You’re making her look too good,” but that’s intentional. Every villain sees themselves as the hero. They act from conviction, not malice.
If you want to write good villains, you have to see the world through their eyes. Don’t judge them; understand them. Once you grasp how their worldview operates, you can portray them fairly and realistically. That’s what makes them persuasive and believable.
I learned this partly from acting. When you play a villain, you can’t judge your character or play them as evil. You have to believe you’re doing good in the world. That authenticity makes the character compelling.
Thomas: You have to believe that destroying half the universe will make it better. You’re wrong, of course, but you don’t know you’re wrong. This topic of villains deserves its own episode because there’s a lot more we could explore.
- Godawa.com
- Hollywood Worldviews: Watching Films with Wisdom and Discernment (Affiliate Link)
- The Imagination of God (Affiliate Link)
- Jezebel (Affiliate Link)
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