7 Great Christian Authors (Who Aren’t C.S. Lewis)

Madeleine L’Engle

During her lifetime, many Christian bookstores refused to carry A Wrinkle in Time on the grounds that it embraced modern science (and L’Engle’s personal outspoken views regarding salvation). But Madeleine L’Engle’s efforts to dig into the deep and beautiful mystery of creation fueled her understanding of time, where an eternal God could be everywhere and in every time at once. Like Lewis’ parallel world in Narnia, L’Engle makes clear in her allegory that God – and specifically Christ – is for everyone, where truth is consistent. Different planets quote the same Bible we use everyday to show that God works for the good of those who love him, and that love is always stronger than hate.

G.K. Chesterton

Though quoting Chesterton has come in vogue over the last several years, his books are still lamentably under-read. After having his imagination “baptized” by George MacDonald, it was the work of G.K. Chesterton that pushed C.S. Lewis further on his journey to Christ than any other, leading the Oxford professor to refer to the late Victorian journalist as his “spiritual father.” With over 80 books and 4,000 essays – not to mention short stories, newspaper articles, plays and poems – to his name, Chesterton was as prolific as he was witty, approaching both fiction and non-fiction with humor and depth. His apologetical works Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man point to Christ and the truth of the church as the turning point of all human history and the only thing that holds paradoxes together. His fiction is equally faithful and whimsical.