Is It a Christian Book, or Is It a Book That Happens to Be Written by a Christian?

Do You Know Which One You’re Writing?

My grandparents used the word Christian as an adjective. I know the word is, in fact, an adjective most of the time, but my gram and pop would slap it at the end of a sentence like an exclamation point. If someone gave an unhoused person a hot meal, they’d say, “Now that’s Christian.” Or if they read a news story about a minister embroiled in a scandal, they’d go, “Mmm, that ain’t Christian.”

Many books have made me want to use my grandparents’ verbiage. I’ll get to the end of a particularly powerful, faith-filled book and think, Wow, that book was Christian, wasn’t it? But I’ve read plenty of other books—books written by Christian authors, books that have something to say about faith—where I wouldn’t assign them that adjective. A lot of those books were incredible, but they just weren’t, well, Christian.

If you’re a Christian author working on a manuscript, are you writing a Christian book? Or does your book just so happen to be written by a Christian? What’s the difference, and why is it important?

Some books are very obviously Christian. Reverend Joe Schmoe’s new book called Ten Ways to Be a Better Christian, published by Father-Son-and-Holy-Spirit Press, is undeniably a Christian book.

Lots of other books don’t really come into this Christian-or-not conversation. A book about flipping houses to get rich, which never once mentions God, faith, the Bible, or anything like that, doesn’t face the dilemma I’m describing here. The author of that house-flipping book might be a follower of Jesus, or they might not, but it doesn’t matter because the book doesn’t touch on Christian topics in any substantial way.

Then there are books that fall somewhere in between. The author is a person of faith, and faith does come up in the book in some way. However, the main point of the book is not explicitly biblical or theological or pastoral. Maybe it’s parenting, or leadership, or marriage, or justice, or mental health—topics that can and do intersect with faith. These are the books where we need to determine whether they are “Christian” or not.

In the Christian writing community, often instead asking whether a book is “Christian,” people will ask whether it is “faith-forward.” In other words, are Christian principles front and center in the book, or are they supporting cast members?

The Christian-or-not question is important for at least two reasons:

First, this question helps determine which publishers might be a good fit. Christian publishers are, for the most part, only looking for faith-forward books. Other publishers love to acquire books that dip their toes in Christian waters but don’t jump all the way in. But every publisher will struggle with a book that’s having an identity crisis and can’t decided whether it’s Christian or not.

Second, answering this question helps authors narrow down their target audience. If an author is aiming specifically to serve Christian readers, they’ll write and market their book differently than if they’re trying to reach people of any faith or no faith. A Christian author writing for a broader audience won’t hide their faith or how it influenced the book (hopefully), but there won’t be a Bible verse on every other page.

If you need help determining whether or not you’re writing a faith-forward book, I have four questions for you to ask yourself:

1. How often does faith come up in the book?

I’d argue that in a Christian book, faith should come up at least once per chapter. That’s not a real rule—in fact, I don’t know of any firm rules on what makes a book faith-forward or not—but it’s an opinion I’ve developed as a writer, editor, and reader of Christian writing. If I’m reading a book with ten chapters and the thread of faith disappears for three chapters in a row, it’s hard for me to think of it as a Christian book.

If your faith is foundational for you, you’ll probably feel inspired to incorporate faith-related elements at various points as you write. After all, your walk with Jesus affects every corner of your life. But if the faith element floods some parts of the book, but in other parts there’s a spiritual drought, that’s confusing to readers. To serve your readers well, my advice is to move clearly in one direction or the other—be faith-forward, or don’t.

If you decide to make your book faith-forward, relate what you’re saying to faith at least once in every chapter. Do your best to make it cohesive—I’m not talking about scattering inspirational quotes from famous pastors throughout the manuscript, but rather making faith a central theme of your book that you consistently return to.

If you decide not to make your book faith-forward, be sparing with how often you reference matters of faith. When a biblical or theological concept meaningfully drives your message forward, use it, but don’t let it take over a section or chapter when it doesn’t need to.

2. If you took the faith part out, would it still more or less be the same book?

It’s always tough to boil down an entire book into one paragraph—worse, one sentence. Authors have to be able to state their book’s central message succinctly, summarizing tens of thousands of words in just a few hundred. The book proposal needs an overview and a summary. The back cover needs a blurb. Google Books and Amazon need something to show potential customers. When you attempt to summarize the book, how easy is it to omit the faith part?

If you deleted every Bible verse and every instance of “God,” “Jesus,” “spiritual,” and the like, are you looking at a totally different book? Are the key takeaways intertwined with spirituality to the point that untangling them makes them hollow?

If faith-related things add to the book, but the book could live without them, then your book just happens to be written by a Christian. If your book, despite being about something other than the Bible or theology, doesn’t make sense without the Bible and theology, then it’s a Christian book.

3. Could a non-Christian understand and apply the book’s message?

I don’t just read Christian books. I read authors of any faith if what they wrote looks interesting or useful. But some books are so filled with jargon and concepts from another religion (or a particular discipline or philosophical tradition or worldview) that I get lost in it. Now envision a reader like me who will read anything by anybody, but that reader has never been to church, never read the Bible, and doesn’t have any Christian family members or friends. If that person picks up your book, will they be able to grasp the basics? Will the book be useful for them?

If that hypothetical reader would be dazed and confused before they got through chapter 2, then you wrote a Christian book. If, on the other hand, that reader might not catch a few faith references here and there, but overall they’d understand, then your book just so happens to be written by a Christian.

John C. Maxwell is one strong example of a Christian author who writes books that are not faith-forward. Maxwell is a pastor and Christian leadership specialist, but his leadership insights are renowned far beyond church circles. He aims to equip and empower marketplace leaders of all faith backgrounds, and he does it well. To anyone familiar with Christianity, the faith themes are apparent in his work, but they aren’t overt. Maxwell doesn’t hide his faith, but he deftly casts it in a supporting role in his books—the leadership principles he teaches are his main characters.

I don’t think my grandparents ever read John C. Maxwell, but if they did, I bet they’d give it their signature statement of approval: “Now that’s Christian.”