It's absolutely different for different people. Learning that the Narnia books were intended as allegory didn't really change my reaction to the books: for some people it does (which way generally depends on their own views and their tolerance for stories with a moral).
For me it has to do with the naturalness of it all. Even in real life I have a lot more tolerance for people who just seem to live their faith than for those who talk about it all the time (I'm not talking about LJ introspection or respectful discussion of people's views on religion, I'm talking about telling your coworkers "I'll pray for you" whether they want you to or not.) In a book about kids growing up in a religious family there has to be some discussion of religion, just as I'm sure you talk to your boys about it. But there's a difference between a character going to her mother with a question and having it answered in a way that fits the family's beliefs and a diatribe that seems to be aimed at the reader rather than the character.
Some of this is just good writing too. Having good things happen to religious people and bad things happen to ones with bad morals is bad writing as well as annoyingly preachy; having bad things happen to religious characters who use their faith to get through it seems reasonable to me.
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Date: 2010-08-14 01:52 pm (UTC)For me it has to do with the naturalness of it all. Even in real life I have a lot more tolerance for people who just seem to live their faith than for those who talk about it all the time (I'm not talking about LJ introspection or respectful discussion of people's views on religion, I'm talking about telling your coworkers "I'll pray for you" whether they want you to or not.) In a book about kids growing up in a religious family there has to be some discussion of religion, just as I'm sure you talk to your boys about it. But there's a difference between a character going to her mother with a question and having it answered in a way that fits the family's beliefs and a diatribe that seems to be aimed at the reader rather than the character.
Some of this is just good writing too. Having good things happen to religious people and bad things happen to ones with bad morals is bad writing as well as annoyingly preachy; having bad things happen to religious characters who use their faith to get through it seems reasonable to me.