Romance and the ‘Meaning of Life’
In response to last week’s guest post by Zoe Brouthers on feminine sacrifice in Romance, author Moriah Jovan wrote a very thoughtful comment on the role that faith plays in so many people’s lives, despite its marginalization in mainstream Romance not tagged as inspirational. What especially caught my attention was this part of her comment:
I find it really rather odd that romance protagonists mostly don’t have any driving philosophy or faith. They don’t talk about their deities or their engagement with their philosophies. And I find the lack of mention of a church as part of their daily lives (belief not being necessary) in historicals inexplicable.
So to use Kaetrin’s “accumulation effect,” to me, the lack of characters having either a faith or a driving life philosophy is a huge gaping maw I can’t ignore anymore.
I have lately been complaining to friends that much of the books I’ve tried to read suffer from what I’m calling a “lack of suspense.” But as soon as I read Jovan’s comment, I realized that what I was really missing was a sense of both purpose and purposefulness in the way people in Romance novels live – beyond, of course, the goal of ‘finding love’ or a generalized sense of happiness or ‘completion.’
A driving philosophy is often something we think of in religious or spiritual terms, but it doesn’t have to be. Professions that operate within a strict ethical structure (physicians, lawyers, judges, therapists, etc.) also provide opportunities to articulate a sense of purpose or meaning that goes beyond the physical or emotional attraction we see at the surface level of romantic attachment
However, in the US, particularly, we are seeing a powerful divisiveness when it comes to religion, where those who come from certain religious traditions (especially evangelical Christianity) feel marginalized by society as a whole, even as those who identify as non-religious, and especially non-Christian, feel the same way. This post on “open secularism” making the rounds is a good illustration of this phenomenon (the article plus the 400+ comment thread, that is).
One of the results of this divisiveness seems to be that religion has become a difficult subject in mainstream Romance outside inspirationals. There was a great discussion of the difficulties in rendering Christian themes in historical Romance in the comment thread to Sunita’s review of Piper Huguley’s The Preacher’s Promise. This series seemed to divide Romance readers, as I saw comments by some who would not touch the book for its religiosity, while others were drawn to both the historical accuracy of this element and the role spirituality played in the story and in the development of the characters and the romance. And it’s an interesting element of our discussions about historical accuracy that we so often seem to ignore the really central role that religion – or at least the church – played in many people’s lives. As Sunita pointed out in a discussion about this topic last night, for many people the Church as an institution was very much a locus of social exchange. So it wasn’t just about faith, but also about where people gathered and spent time and exchanged in a variety of activities that may or may not have been directly connected to the overtly religious aspect of the church.
At the same time, we have sheik novels where religion may play a central role, but there are legitimate concerns about the realism with which Islam, for example, is rendered. Often the religion in play isn’t even named. Ditto for novels featuring Native Americans, which may or may not (often not) portray realistic/fact-based religious and/or spiritual belief systems.
Taken together, I think this portrays a bunch of mixed signals in regard to how faith is represented in Romance, signals that suggest a desire for deeper meaning, as long as it’s not confined within certain religious dogmas or traditions. Similarly, so-called “issue” or “cause” books can divide readers, as well, and I just want to clarify that I’m not referring to these kinds of books when I talk about meaning and purpose.
Not so long ago, Jane had an acutely insightful take on the popularity of motorcycle Romances, comparing them to Scottish Highlander stories and Medievals, in part because of the culture of the “tribe.”
I’ve read a ton of MC books and frankly most of them are pretty bad but I believe that the reason it is so popular right now is because of the tribe based culture of the club. Tribes have a long history in literature and romance. The first tribe based romance books I ever read were Scottish Highlander stories. The structure of a Highlander novel is not unlike an MC book.
Both include a militaristic hierarchy with a leader, several strong wingmen, and others that live within the confines of the primary property whether it is hold, fief, or armory. Both types of stories feature warring clans vying for power. Often the head of the tribe is a male with a patriarchal power structure. The concept of loyalty along with external signage (whether it be plaids–although those came much later in history than depicted in many romances–or cuts) is vital. Scottish stories could (and sometimes did) feature a female clan leader. Medievals often followed the same structure.
Pushing that concept a bit further knocks it right into Jovan’s insight about the lack of “driving philosophy or faith” in Romance protagonists and the desire for meaning without having it be explicitly religious or even spiritual. Whatever the sexual politics of these groups, they are, without question, organized around a kind of faith or dogma, and that belief system structures both the way they live their lives and the way any Romantic attachment will theoretically be carried out. Of course, when that philosophy comes into collision with another philosophy, the resulting conflict can be catalyze exactly the kind of melodrama that powers an emotionally rich Romance novel. You can have conflict between characters that, when it’s done well, forces each of them to question their own beliefs and sense of purpose, and perhaps come to a new, better, more synergistic understanding of themselves and each other.
Although I would never describe myself as religious, I do often enjoy Romance novels where faith is a factor (Barbara Samuel’s A Bed of Spices, Patricia Gaffney’s To Love and To Cherish, for example), because the romance between the protagonists must be built on multiple levels of character development in order to be successful. Attraction isn’t enough, nor is the general attractiveness of the characters. Love often isn’t even enough, especially if there is a clash of beliefs or the perception of unsuitability on the part of either protagonist within the belief system of the other. And often protagonists must consciously work through these obstacles, which allows the reader to be engaged by understanding and vicariously experiencing the characters’ struggle.
Thinking back to some of the military-themed books I’ve enjoyed, that sense of mission and idealism can provide depth and dimension to a Romance, even when I find myself in political conflict with certain aspects of the novels. Ditto for sports-themed books or even certain romantic suspense Romances. The more integrated the values of someone’s profession are into who they are on the page, the more likely I am to find them interesting, even when my own beliefs may not align with theirs. What this means is that these philosophies are not superficially or mindlessly executed, but rather that they are authentically enmeshed in the character’s sense of being to be meaningful in that person’s life, and therefore, in their relationships.
For a long time I did not understand the really focused attention that some historical Romance authors and readers trained on titles, social standing, and manners/rules. But if I think about it in these terms, those social structures can themselves operate as a kind of philosophy, one that provides both structure and boundaries to behavior, and thus, love, which is, as we all know, a most unruly and unstructured emotion, and one that can, when it comes into contact with strict social mores, give rise to delicious conflict and raised stakes for and in the relationship.
And one of the reasons I think I tend to give a pass to some of the historicals that Sunita critiqued in her recent post on ahistoricty, is that even though the issues tackled in the books may be displaced historically (and yes, that comes with some problematic implications), at least some of these books are actually driven by a sensibility that deepens the romantic relationship and grounds it in an issue that is bigger than the protagonists but simultaneously imposing itself on their chance at happiness together. In my hierarchy of tradeoffs, I’ll often choose a more global sense of purposefulness over historically authentic engagement, although certainly both would be ideal.
Although not everyone is driven by an overweening search for meaning, I do think our lives are very much structured by philosophical belief systems, even if those are the rituals and values we’ve inherited from our parents and never questioned or shed. Whether it’s a belief about how the universe is organized, about the existence and nature of a supreme being, or a sense of dedication to a social, political, or personal ideal, there’s an extent to which people thrive in an environment that coheres with their sense of self. And that environment is always built on one or more belief systems, even if they are not overtly articulated.
I do wonder, though, if there is more and more reluctance on the part of authors to engage with driving philosophies or belief systems, either from a fear of offending readers (perhaps with perceived religiosity), or from a sense of pressure to produce shorter books on a faster timeline. And so many Romance tropes have become shorthand for these philosophical systems – military Romances, biker club Romances, Scottish highlander Romances, etc. – that perhaps we’ve been lulled into a perception that only certain kinds of belief systems are fit for mainstream non-inspirational (and non-religious) Romance.
Still, I find myself yearning for more books with a “driving philosophy,” to use Jovan’s term, that isn’t necessarily religious. So much of what I enjoy about Romance is the way intimate engagement between protagonists forces them to contemplate issues and questions beyond those that sexual attraction and emotional attachment answer – questions like ‘how does this person fit into the world as I see it?’ or ‘what are this person’s values and how do they align with mine?’ or ‘what does this person believe about the world, and how do those beliefs challenge or clash with mine, and is that conflict significant to our future happiness?’ Questions, in other words, about how fundamental values affect and are affected by a romantic relationship.
Although I would love to see a more balanced approach to religion and spirituality within Romance, even more I’d like to see less reluctance to characters with “driving philosophies” of every kind. We often talk about Romance protagonists as “heroic,” which is an aspirational category in which something symbolically significant is making the lives of these characters interesting to readers. Is it merely the exercise of falling in love, or is it more than that, and if so, what, for you, makes the reading experience meaningful? By contrast, what do you actively avoid, and why?
I think this article highlights why I find so many of the Marry-a-Duke romances tedious. The prize is the really rich, very good-looking guy. Okay, he’s always nice, but he rarely is anything other than rich and hot.
I haven’t read her most recent book, but certainly Emma Barry’s first political contemporary romance featured characters whose lives were driven by a clear purpose. I liked it a lot and that was partly why. I knew what mattered to them and what the guiding principles of their lives were – and when they clashed, it mattered.
This is such a good essay. It really gets at what I’ve been thinking about for a long time–that the romance genre has divorced one really important part of human experience from storytelling, I think that’s why we end up with so many heroines whose primary goal beyond finding love is career or saving her family–because so many other (and sometimes deeper) goals for life are off the table for the genre.
I’d never thought about the MC thing before, but it makes total sense that it’s a way of filling this gap. I’ve been thinking for a while that we’ve somehow confused superficial high drama with real human emotion in fiction, but I wonder if that’s another way of filling the gap left by leaving out faith/philosophy/spirituality. So the “feels”–however artificially created–are reading as deep and meaningful because it’s all we’ve got.
I also think the trend of very damaged characters is trying to fill this gap too. Because healing as a storyline can point toward meaning, faith, or a driving philosophy without actually addressing that aspect of life.
For what it’s worth, I was more anxious about releasing my pastor marriage-of-convenience book last year than anything since my first book–because people just don’t often write mainstream contemporary romances where faith is taken seriously and is central to the storyline. I really don’t know why not.
@Noelle:
I read both Married for Christmas and A Baby for Easter and liked the MCs wrestling with their faith without getting bogged down in a particular Christian sect. I mentioned in my reviews on BL that these issues you wrote about helped me see the characters as real humans and not stereotypes of religious people. I personally believe you kept a balance between the romance and the pastor working on his own faithful path. Micah was believable as he grew up and tried to make amends with what he did in his twenties – it helped me root for him as a person and for the romance.
Off topic: I preferred A Baby for Easter over Married for Christmas, but would recommend both.
I recently read Patience Griffin’s TO SCOTLAND WITH LOVE – a book I purchased at the RWA Literacy Autographing. It is a contemporary romance in which the heroine returns to her childhood home in a Scottish village after her American husband dies. The heroine privately confronts many beliefs of Christianity – which are openly embraced in the village – as she believes God has brought her much death. Griffin weaves religion within the story without being preachy. I enjoyed this book.
Excellent essay.
The romance that sprang to my mind while reading the thoughts about a belief system as a driving force (or corollary, source of conflict) in the main character’s actions: FLOWERS FROM THE STORM by Laura Kinsale. It is perhaps the exception that proves the rule, because the heroine’s Quaker faith is what causes her to take on the charge of helping the Duke, and also what shocks his peers more than his affliction. Faith is the main underpinning of the book, I think. And yet despite that book’s wild success, it’s not emulated and people don’t talk much about the faith aspect.
Is it because the Quaker faith is perceived, like the peerage, to be a historical artifact and just doesn’t raise modern parallels to readers? There are still many practicing Quakers – and they are often very engaged with the world – but perhaps people don’t realize?
I’ve also read Knights Templar romances by Gerri Russell and Highlander’s Sword by Amanda Forrester – and they both include faith, not perhaps as much as Flowers from the Storm, but quite a bit. Neither is an inspirational – but the historical accuracy is certainly increased by the inclusion. I liked both, and I don’t normally read inspirationals, so they did a good job, I think. Amanda has gone in the direction of Regencies, and I think Highlander’s Sword had the most faith woven through the story.
I certainly agree that in contemporaries church ladies sometimes show up with food, but no one actually attends or discusses the sermon casually or even gossips about church, not even in the small town romances. And has anyone EVER seen a megachurch in a romance? Now I’m wondering … I’ll be curious to read the rest of the comments later today.
I’ll add my “wonderful essay” to the comments here.
I had not previously thought about the lack of belief systems in contemporary romances but have found I can’t NOT put it into my books. It’s part and parcel of my characters’ lives. Perhaps because I was raised in a small town–and therefore am more likely to set my novels there–but church-going (or not) is still well-noted.
I don’t write inspirational romance, but l like to think my characters have a belief system which they live.
I have had a mixed reaction to romances that have faith at their center. I really loved Flowers from the Storm by Laura Kinsale and its Quaker heroine. Astrid Amara Hanukkah romances are seasonal favorites of mine as well. However, even though I had always enjoyed her previous books, I couldn’t connect to the characters in Catherine Anderson’s Morning Light because they were so faith driven and ended up DNFing the book.
Iris Johanssen’s Lion’s Bride hinges on faith. The first time I read it, I was blown away. Here was a Crusades-era historical romance that didn’t use the Templars as a medieval trope, and the Christianity in the book read as accurate to the time instead of a vague modern incarnation (a reason why I loved The Preacher’s Promise–too many inspirational historicals slap 21st century evangelical Christianity onto 19th century characters. TPP felt steeped in how black and white Americans viewed Christianity in the antebellum era). This post articulated the emotional “hole” I’ve perceived in romance as of late. Even the redemption romance trope reads hollow when it’s divorced from a spiritual life.
And speaking of Emma Barry, she wrote an amazing series of posts on her blog this past spring about romance and religion. I need to hop back in the conversation.
Faith-that-is-not-inspie (juxtaposed with sex because people of faith DO have sex and sometimes even for fun!) is my stock in trade. I’m not being self-serving here; it’s something I felt and still do feel strongly about for several reasons, so I wrote what I wanted to read.
Reason 1) In my culture, virginity to late in life (mostly for women) and celibacy for unmarried people is a way of life, but all the reasons authors make up for virginity in romance heroines are getting thinner and thinner, and have become ridiculous. There IS a simple reason someone could be a virgin, but it’s never touched: religious beliefs. Obvious, simple, universally understood if not agreed with. But nobody uses it.
Reason 2) Everything people do is informed somehow by their driving philosophy AND/OR lack thereof, especially in the case of people who, as adults, have left their childhood faith. The saying “You can take the kid our of the ghetto but you can’t take the ghetto out of the kid” applies here. I have characters who act and think a certain way that is ONLY explainable by their exposure to faith and other philosophies (because you can have both and even many, which will usually overlap somehow). I can’t divorce myself from my worldview, even in my writing, so I stopped trying.
Reason 3) It just makes characters more interesting.
I don’t count some random mention of “being spiritual” as meaning anything either. If the character is not shown “being spiritual” (even something so simple as saying a real out-of-the-foxhole prayer or meditating outside yoga class), then I don’t believe it or else I find it irrelevant.
I struggled with this, whether to put it in my work or not, but I finally had to be true to myself and the characters in my head. Sheri Tepper, whose agendas I don’t agree with in the least but whose work I love BECAUSE she has an agenda, “gave me permission” to do this. Science fiction and fantasy is chock full of religion and non-religious philosophy. Science fiction and fantasy don’t shy away from it.
Why does non-inspie romance shy away? I don’t like inspies because of the lack of sex and I do love me some hawt sexx0ring. But I’ve stopped reading romance, because of the characters’ lack of a driving philosophy even while the sex gets hawter and hawter.
Make me a list. I’ll gobble ’em up.
@Noelle I was going to mention that I liked the way this was handled in your books without turning it into an inspirational, sanitized novel that I wouldn’t want to read. In the South in particular, church is a subject that is front and center, so why it isn’t included as part of the character’s essence more often is puzzling. In fact, it happens so rarely in the mainstream contemporary novels I read, it’s very noticeable when it does come up. A couple of things in Toni Aleo’s Nashville Assassins hockey series comes to mind when a character referred to something as “God’s plan”, as well as Rosalind James’ Kinkaid Series, where the 3 siblings are “PKs” and it shapes each of them in different ways. It’s seems like I read “I’m not religious or anything like that, but I believe……..” a lot, and I wonder why that needs to be a disclaimer so often. I also notice in books how everybody has these great lazy Sunday mornings and I cannot relate!
@Anna Richland What a great idea for a megachurch setting–now there’s where you could find some high drama!
The first Jo Beverley I read was a medieval, Lord of Midnight. A big problem for the heroine, IIRC, was the result of a trial by combat (in which the winner is seen as having been upheld by God’s justice). I think her father had lost, but she knew he had been in the right. What struck me and involved me as a reader was how the time’s and the heroine’s religious beliefs were taken seriously. The problem had to be resolved in order for the HEA to be believable, and Beverley did not wave it away with anachronistic attitudes, beliefs, or prejudices imported from our time. I felt the characters, the story, and the historical context/texture were all stronger for it.
Miss Wonderful by Loretta Chase is a book, that while not religious, has two characters wanting mutually exclusive things (industrial transport for coal and preservation of beautiful landscape). To me this is an example of a conflict that is fueled by two different personal and public questions (for the heroine, her mother’s legacy and the value of beautiful lands; for the hero, proving himself to his family and the economic benefits to the region of industrial development). These philosophical differences have to be reconciled or accommodated somehow for the HEA to work.
In both books part of the narrative interest for me was, how will this happen? I could not see the way, even after it was clear to the characters (and me) that personally they were good matches.
One reason why I enjoy a well-written fantasy is because of the amount of world-building that often goes into them, including developing clear belief systems (religious or not) that feed into the actions and characterizations of the characters. For example, this is one reason why I enjoyed R. Lee Smith’s /The Last Hour of Gann/.
I don’t mind religious faith finding its way into the books I read as long as it feels organic to the story and the characters; in fact, it can really add to the world-building and my understanding of the characters’ lives and motivations. If it starts to feel “preachy” or forced, then I toss it aside, regardless of the religion/faith being represented.
@Maria F: Great examples! They do a great job illustrating the power of a well-written belief system in a story.
Maybe not clear from my comment above, but I did believe HEAs in both books!
Many years ago I read some wonderful historicals by Claudia Dain–and remember thinking they were like inspirationals, only with sex. The religion was crucial to the story, and part of what made the character’s personalities.
I have to second Moriah Jovan’s recommendation for Sherri S. Tepper–if you’re interested in feminist speculative fiction, The Gate to Women’s Country is a must read.
In terms of romance, Barbara Samuel’s The Sleeping Night deals pretty explicitly with the character’s faith, but isn’t an inspirational. (And is a wonderful book!) Tiffany Reisz’s The Siren and Lisa Valdez’s Patience deal with religion and BDSM. Emma Barry and I have discussed this more here: http://authoremmabarry.com/2014/03/03/never-say-never-again/
(And a shameless plug for my own unpublished work: Nearly all of my characters have some kind of stated religious faith. They go to Mass, pray, etc–but I don’t write inspirationals. The only book of mine where faith isn’t mentioned has a scientist hero–academic science, of course, being it’s own kind of religious institution.)
@Moriah Jovan: Great comment. Wish the two aspects could meld but folks want their smexxy times without a faith aspect. And those who pen inspies seem to forget sex is a part of life, married or not. It’s funny because when “otherwise engaged” that’s the closest to God one can get, or at the very least a whole lot of calling on the Divine ensues.
Nice essay.
Since Catholicism is part of my world view, it inevitably finds its way into my stories (particularly when the characters are themselves Catholic). But writers who include their characters’ spiritual lives without expressly labeling their books as inspirational do get pushback from readers. I’m thinking of both Katherine Reay’s Dear Mr. Knightley and Marilyn Pappano’s A Man To Hold On To. Great stories, but I remember being surprised by some reader reviews that seemed almost indignant about the characters’ faith being part of the story in – gasp – a romance novel.
@JPeK: Thanks. Also agree with you about fantasy/sci fi worldbuilding.
@Maria F: Miss Wonderful is my favorite book of that series, in part because of the issues that divide the couple. They felt real, and they truly threatened the relationship in a believable way. And they required both compromise and ingenuity to solve, which I really appreciated.
I have read and enjoyed many historical romances in which religion plays an important part, for instance Mary Jo Putney’s Thunder and Roses.
In my own Amberley series most characters are at least casually religious, some very much so. Since religion used to be such a big part of life for our ancestors it would be ahistorical to exclude it from the narrative, but I am sure that just like today, for many it was mere convention and lip service.
In any good medieval romance, religion really needs to be featured prominently – a prime example is Kinsale’s For My Lady’s Heart.
However, as a reader I don’t much like religiously driven characters in contemporary romances.
Carla Kelly’s Mrs. Drew Plays her Hand is great, too. Heroine is a vicar’s widow, and although it’s been a number of years since I read it, I remember feeling like the text did decent justice to the heroine’s faith without shying away from sex or sexual attraction. Plus I love second chance at love stories.
@P. J. Dean: It’s not so much ‘those who pen inspies’ forget, it’s that the publishers’ guidelines for inspies are very specific about what is and is not allowed to be included in the story, both on and off the page. They’re aiming for a particular target market and they don’t want sex, explicit or implied.
Great discussion. I have many, disjointed thoughts to add.
I’ve noticed that contemporary romances are more likely to include religion if a minority group is involved – whether it’s a religious minority such as Catholic or Jewish or a racial / ethnic minority, like African Americans. I can think of a few white Protestants in contemporary romances – but not many, and they tend to be generic mainline Protestants, not Evangelical or Pentacostal, and certainly no mega churches.
@Noelle – good point about the damaged characters. I think a healing journey often has similarities to a spiritual or faith journey.
I was just thinking about this in a different context – I recently reread The Color Purple, for the first time in 25 ish years, and I was struck by how I had remembered it as being about Celie healing from and triumphing over abuse (among many other things) but when I read it this time, I read it more as her spiritual journey, from a limited idea of God as a white man in a robe in church to a huge, expansive love of God in everything. (I may have been influenced by Alice Walker’s preface which said something like, I was surprised more critics didn’t see the spiritual dimension of this book – but I like to think that I would have seen it anyways).
@Moriah Jovan – good point about the role of philosophy and ideas and religion in sf/f as opposed to romance. I think some of it has to do with the distance of sf/f – but even in PNR or SFR you get less of that. It is odd.
I just finished Molly O’Keefe’s Between the Sheets and the hero is a church-goer who talks in general terms about having faith. Going to church part of what the community does. However, the book also takes on some of the negative aspects of religion (don’t want to spoil things). Melissa Cutler’s Cowboy series also had the leads going to church on a regular basis. It was just part of who they were.
@cleo: Thanks, Cleo. My biggest point is this: It’s not the religion or the philosophy itself, per se. I want to see characters whose behavior and motives are informed by some school of thought instead of their personalities having evolved in a vacuum. That’s where I’m at. Who are these people and what have they done with their tribal affiliations?
For instance, in May Burnett’s comment, “I am sure that just like today, for many it was mere convention and lip service.” I am too, but for me as a reader, this satisfies my criteria because it’s there and acknowledged.
But let me say this: The Gate to Women’s Country is a wonderful book (h/t Genevieve Turner) (and Tepper in general is wonderful), but the agenda would have fallen flat if the writing hadn’t been up to par.
@PJ Dean:
Amen.
There’s a scene in one of Patricia Veryan’s novels where the hero and heroine aren’t sure they’re going to survive another day, and they want to consummate their love but aren’t married. So they go through a marrriage-like ceremony on their own, only in God’s sight, before they have sex. I think about that scene a lot because I think she did a really good job of being true to the characters’ faith and driving philosophy and to the historical moment without directly referencing religion at all.
Moriah Jovan’s point above about how, in contemporary romances, virginity has to be given some far-fetched justification is really worth considering. I often hear, in response to books that feature virgins in their twenties or thirties, how unrealistic and implausible that scenario is. But I’ve known many, many people who have made exactly that choice based on their driving philosophy.
@Melissa Thank you! Most people liked the Christmas one better, but I wonder if it’s because it had sex in it.
@Kim Thank you too!
@Ros: thank you. didn’t know that.
@Moriah Jovan: I’ll raise your “Amen” and add a “LOL” to sweeten the pot.
In response to the first quote from Moriah Jovan,above: “And I find the lack of mention of a church as part of their daily lives (belief not being necessary) in historicals inexplicable.” I suspect that one’s perception of how much of a role something plays or even how often it’s mentioned may have a lot to do with the lens of one’s own perspective.
In my reading of 18th and 19th century eras in European historicals, I encounter a substantial presence of church-going and Christianity. Many of the heroines are vicars’ daughters, many of the aristocratic “third sons” are directed toward careers in the church, many conflicts have to do with unhappy marriages that cannot be dissolved because of the inter-relationship of of church and state, and the Bible is used to justify the subordinate role of women in society. Doesn’t seem lacking to me.
What I have encountered are women in the books of Loretta Chase, Jo Beverley, Mary Balogh, Lisa Kleypas and more, who are in fact asserting themselves because of their own, dare I say “existential” belief systems.
Forgive me if my own discomfort with religiosity is clouding my understanding of this discussion, as I mean no disrespect. But since I’m on that “other side” of the faith-based divide, I do not seek any greater role for greater meaning in my romance reading.
Thank you for writing insightfully about this important topic. I began reading m/m romance (initially in the form of slash fiction) after four years as an interfaith news reporter, covering all types of spiritual beliefs, from Orthodox Judaism and Christian Cell Churches to Paganism and Humanism. So I was especially struck by the lack of references to spiritual or philosophical belief systems in the m/m stories I was reading. Occasionally a pagan god would come along to stir up trouble, but that was it.
In order to figure out what was going on there, I co-moderated a panel on spirituality in slash at a slash fiction convention. So many people turned up for the panel that we ran out of chairs. Most of the writers there said the same thing: “I want to include references to my characters’ spiritual beliefs . . . but I don’t want to offend my readers.”
Obviously, m/m poses a particular challenge, since so many religions are opposed to homosexuality, but I was left with the impression that many writers believe that spirituality is too serious and touchy a topic to appear in a story intended for entertainment.
Another possibility: A study done on American journalists found that they were less likely to have religious lives than the average American, and therefore it was less likely to occur to them to include references to religion in articles where those references would have been relevant. I don’t know whether the same is true of romance writers, but we do live in a media world where very few films or TV programs mention people’s spiritual or philosophical beliefs. That could be influencing writers.
@Anna Richland:
Please forgive me if this seems tacky, but part of my motivation for writing Angel on the Ropes, my science fiction novel with a love story (not quite SFR) was to portray a futuristic Quaker who is a social activist. Her faith influences her choices and self-image and is entwined with all of the conflicts in her life. I was also interested in exploring what it’s like to sincerely follow a philosophy that many people consider naive or weird.
I don’t think the lack of Quakers in romance is due to a mistaken sense of their demise as much as to stereotypes of frumpiness and holier-than-thou attitudes — nothing like the modern Quakers I know. Perhaps part of it is also a fear of writing an “issues” or “cause” book. SF readers are far more open to that than many romance readers, it seems.
Very thought provoking essay, Janet.
I went back over some of the self-pubbed books I’ve written, and I realize religion plays a big part in many of them, even in the YA stories. The last book I released had a Somali Bantu who is a Sunni Muslim and paired with a MC member. Even my scifi books contain homage to a deity. Your article has given me something to think about. Perhaps I’ve been interjecting religion in ways that I feel most comfortable with, as sort of a Greek chorus/consciousness to add a moral to the story, but I’ve been trying to branch out a bit further than my own religious upbringing. I’m not sure why the angst of breaking one’s religious vows wouldn’t be emotional enough for the romance genre, but while I don’t mind reading about religious protags who stray (and perhaps return to the fold. Or not), I can certainly understand how others may feel differently.
Dusk Peterson it is interesting you commented about m/m – because I am mostly reading m/m romances and I am torn about wanting more religion/ spirituality in the books. On one hand I always always love when the writer makes up a religion and it is clear that they devoted a lot of time to it and made it part of their characters every day lives, on the other – if I know that this religion treats LGBTQ people as sinners, I absolutely do *not* want to see more of such religion shown in the romances I read. So yeah my two cents – I am all for deeply spiritual or religious characters in modern stories or historicals ( and in historicals of course it makes sense ) but I want their spirituality / religion to not treat a group of people worse than anybody else.
Trying to remember the exact title of KZ Snow’s story I think “In the god’s pocket” but I could be wrong where I found the exploration of religious themes as part of the characters to be deeply moving.
My memory is bad today because I also forgot the title of stand alone fantasy by Jay Bell where I thought he created some original twists on heaven and hell.
@Dusk Peterson – that’s really interesting. I’ve suspected that there is a desire not to offend readers – I don’t know if it comes from the authors or editors or publishers or a combination.
I certainly was raised not to discuss religion or politics in so called polite company and I still find myself reluctant to talk about my personal beliefs with people who may not share them. So I can see why some authors would feel uncomfortable putting that in their books.
Speaking of mm, as a long time romance reader, when I discovered mm, I actually felt like there was a lot more discussion of religion / spirituality / philosophy in contemporary mm than what I was used to in contemp mf.
@Moriah Jovan – “Who are these people and what have they done with their tribal affiliations?”
Yes.
I think that part of it comes down to people who grew up completely within the dominant culture not seeing themselves as belonging to a tribe. And therefore not thinking about why characters do or believe something – they’re like that because that is The Way It Is.
I see that on a very minor level in my life. I’m part WASP and part Italian / Croatian Catholic. Sometimes when I talk about my WASP cultural heritage, I get push back. Because being WASP isn’t necessarily seen as being a distinct sub-culture or tribe. But I see it that way. I was definitely socialized differently by my WASP mother and Croatian Catholic grandmother, and both streams are important to who I am now.
I remembered the book which can be a good example what discussion of religion I can and did find personally infuriating. And I also was torn because I loved the book otherwise. Marie Sexton “Between Saints and Sinners”. On one hand I really loved main characters, loved that Levi loved his family so much and that faith was such a big part of his life. On the other – as much as I felt that tiny improvement his parents made was probably as far as they would go, I felt that the narrative was excusing and justifying them. Hey we love our son, but our religion which considers him a sinner is still going to come first. We will just leave it to God to judge him. No thanks . Sorry, one of my hot buttons. In any event I am not keen on seeing more like this at all. I like pagan and neopagan themes come to think of it, I loved what Louis McMaster Bujold did in the “Curse of shalion” , will come back if I can remember more.
@Mzcue: But that is precisely what the essay is highlighting: while there may be mentions of religious occupations (like curates), in too many historicals the characters’ inner lives seem peculiarly unaffected by any sort of religion or religious philosophy. So you may be likely see an impoverished curate’s daughter, or there will be a scene with a hero and heroine attending a church service – but you are much less likely to see them pray. Even though it was a very common thing to do in the society. And even if it was hypocritical, it was still there, and you would expect someone attending church to do that at some point there, and it would likely to express something important about their inner state.
Also, you would expect a lot of characters to know biblical stories and make allusions to them – even if they are not particularly deep in their faith, this is part of the shared culture they hear about in church, and makes for some good reference points. Yet so few of them do. Courtney Milan does something great with this in “Unclaimed”, but that is an exception rather than a rule.
Even in modern life, these things come up. I am a person of faith. One of my closest friends is a convinced atheist. But she has a specific set of beliefs that guide her life, and she and her husband will mention their principles and consider whether their actions align. Again, maybe not to casual acquaintances – but these things do come up when you get to know someone closely, as the hero and heroine should when they are falling in love. I think it means something that it often does not.
@Mzcue: How many of those books are new, though? So many of the books people are mentioning are older, and that’s interesting in and of itself.
@MD: One of my closest friends is a convinced atheist. But she has a specific set of beliefs that guide her life, and she and her husband will mention their principles and consider whether their actions align. Again, maybe not to casual acquaintances – but these things do come up when you get to know someone closely, as the hero and heroine should when they are falling in love. I think it means something that it often does not.
Yes!! This is so much of what I’m trying to get at.
While there are certainly those who claim to live by no principles (although one could argue that is itself a principle), are those the people Romance turns into heroic characters? And for those who advertise themselves as without principle, how often does Romance “redeem” or “save” them? Just the language of that is significant, I think. Like someone above noted the connection between religious and sexual ecstasy (“rapture”).
Those principles (and any “redemption” portrayed) don’t have to be religious, and for the most part, all of us have many different layers of principles and values that guide our lives, including the decisions we make about and in our most important relationships. Professional ethics, community principles, institutional values, etc. — our lives are structured by belief systems or many different kinds. I just want to see that acknowledged and grappled with more often in Romance (and not in the form of more motorcycle club or military or sports books, for example).
@Anna Richland: The heroine of Dream a Little Dream by SEP (which was mentioned in Jovan’s original comment) is a widow of a televangelist (not sure if that’s what you mean by megachurch).
@Moriah Jovan: Moriah: I believe we share a religion! Cool. My own experience with religion is very complex and has not been positive lately. For that reason, I’m more drawn to books where there is some kind of faith crisis or journey, and where faith isn’t always a constant comfort or certainty. That’s my preference. That being said, I know and love enough people whose faith IS steady and constant, and they’re certainly capable of being the heroines of their own love stories :)
I think you’re right about finding interesting treatments of religion and spirituality more in SFF than romance. Here are some in both genres that I love, and I do think that even though they’re about faith journeys/transitions, they don’t use straw man arguments for opposing viewpoints:
The Saint by Tiffany Reisz (all her books, actually)
The Last Hour of Gann by R. Lee Smith
The Girl of Fire and Thorns (trilogy) by Rae Carson
Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers
…and now I’m blanking. Coulda sworn I could come up with more titles than I did!
If anyone is interested in more on this topic, I know author Shannon Hale has talked about this same topic on twitter and tumblr more than once…wish I had links for you, but I don’t.
@Megan: Hey, shoot me an email! moriah at moriahjovan dot com
I think I fall with @Mzcue, I’m not looking for greater meaning in my romance. If a book has religion, I tend to avoid it. Same as my everyday life, really.
Reading the essay and the comments, I’m trying to decide whether characters who will do anything for their family or who value close friendships, fall into this idea of some kind of belief system. Those can be a source of conflict and I can get behind that.
That’s the great thing about the genre…there’s generally something for everyone.
Janet:
I am secular. I do not attend church–any church. And yet I was raised in a fairly faithful environment. To this day, my mother and sister attend mass at least once a week and on all holy days. I don’t talk about my beliefs with strangers, acquaintances or online.
I want to read about people like me, and the type of conflict that Janet talks about in the paragraph I quote above.
Like Mzcue, I’m on the other side of this issue, as a reader and as a person.
I’m loving this debate. I think faith (or any belief system) is an integral part of who a person is, and as such, plays a part in any intimate (emotional, spiritual, and/or sexual) relationship a person forms with another. No, it doesn’t have to be in your face like the “come to Jesus” moments in some evangelical inspirational fiction/romance. It can be quiet, like the celebration of holidays or life milestones, but those events (and how they incorporate a belief system) can speak volumes about who the characters are and what matters to them.
I’m a woman of faith, even though I’m not a Christian, and I try to incorporate some sort of belief system in most of my characters. It can be high priestess in a polytheistic fantasy world, a couple of Jewish medical officers on the front lines in WW2, or a heroine who uses the Rosh Hashanah tradition of the Tashlich to help the hero let go of his past regrets. But I think a character’s personal belief system is far more important than their occupation or eye color.
And perhaps traditional publishing prefers to shy away from bringing up religion for the fear of offending the reader, like you mentioned, but I hope that with the rise in self-publishing, we’ll see more novels that contain some faith elements without having to be squeaky-clean Christian inspirational books. People of faith are not perfect. They sometimes fall or struggle with their faith when confronted with a challenge. But if they find strength in within rather than waiting to be rescued, then that makes a more complex and engaging character, in my opinion.
@Crista McHugh: Your comment made me think about the popularity of holiday-themed Romances, especially those revolving around Christmas. Which is a good reminder of how normed Christianity is in the genre, even as so many authors are readers seem to be actively avoiding the more overt faith aspects of so many religious traditions. That’s definitely something to ponder.
@Robin/Janet: @Mzcue: “How many of those books are new, though? So many of the books people are mentioning are older, and that’s interesting in and of itself.”
I’m thinking of books from series that I enjoy, such as Mary Balogh’s “Survivors’ Club,” dealing with disabled veterans of the Napoleonic wars, Loretta Chase’s “Seamstress Series,” and Courtney Milan’s heroines in the Brothers Sinister. All three have published installments in the past several months, “The Suffragette Scandel” being the most recent. These novels have certainly grappled with issues of characters’ having to find and redefine themselves, of having to challenge existing mores and struggle with the belief systems underpinning the economic order of the period. They even hit on problems fomented by the colonial system that laid the groundwork for many of the global conflicts confronting us today.
While these are not religious issues, they do involve personal values, seeking to fit into life’s grand scheme in meaningful ways, being motivated by the desire to achieve and make a positive difference in the world. Occasionally I wonder whether the plots aren’t a bit anachronistic, but if so it’s not to a point to hamper my enjoyment.
In any event, these recent novels do provide me with that essence Janet wrote above that she was missing: “a sense of both purpose and purposefulness in the way people in Romance novels live – beyond, of course, the goal of ‘finding love’ or a generalized sense of happiness or ‘completion.’” It may not be religious or even spiritual, but I don’t think it’s absent.
I’m another one who doesn’t care for religion in my stories. I’m an agnostic/atheist, but I tend to keep quiet about it. I think (or I hope) most religious people don’t care about my lack of faith, but the few that it does offend tend to squawk the loudest. It’s the same with my veganism. The very act of declining a burger can be read by (again, the few and loud) meat-eaters as an attack on their diet. I actually just wrote a romance where my hero is a (non-preachy) vegan and I’m afraid he’s going to go over like a lead balloon. It just seemed right for him, though.
@JewelCourt: I would totally read about a vegan hero!!!
@Isobel Carr: Awesome! He started as a secondary character in my previous book so the veganism (and some other less hero-esque qualities) was already established before I decided he was getting his own story.
@MD: “Also, you would expect a lot of characters to know biblical stories and make allusions to them – even if they are not particularly deep in their faith, this is part of the shared culture they hear about in church, and makes for some good reference points. Yet so few of them do.”
I have a terrible memory, so I can’t speak to how often biblical references are made by characters in the historicals I read. I’m pretty sure that the prodigal son and the good Samaritan are often mentioned though. It makes me wonder about biblical references to be found in the novels of Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters, even Dickens. They would provide a good baseline for your assertion that they are missing from contemporary historicals. I can think of specific Austen characters who quote liberally from the Bible, but to my recollection, those are the parsons and vicars not the main characters.
I’m actually hoping to write my final major paper for my masters on this topic by comparing inspirational romances to non-inspirational romances in the same sub-genres. I’d argue that there are certainly some non-inspirational romances, especially some historicals, that do reflect an underlying worldview quite strongly even if they aren’t checking off all of the inspie trope checklists. “The Duchess War” by Courtney Milan comes to mind: the whole social justice movement of the 19th century in England that she’s writing about comes out of specific interpretations of the gospels and… I’ll stop before I let myself geek out too much. :) All that to say, thanks for all the contributions to this thread- they’ve already spurred some new thoughts about where I can go with things!
@Mzcue: Excellent point.
@Mara: Is “The Duchess War” the book with a cameo appearance by William Blake? I’ve been trying to remember. Since Blake was addressing the spirituality of his era, his inclusion in the book would seem to contradict the sense that such concerns are omitted from Historical Romance as a genre. I admire the literary acumen of many of today’s romance novelists, as I’ve discovered that quite a few are professors of literature in addition to being authors.
I delight in encountering period quotes and allusions included in the stories of Balogh, Pam Rosenthal, and Jo Beverley, among others. There are both those that would have been considered classic authors even during the18th century, like those of Shakespeare, Marlowe, Donne and Dante, as well as contemporaries of the Romantic Era such as Byron and Shelly. I’m reading Rosenthal’s “The Slightest Provocation” at the moment, and Shelley is even given a speaking role.
Good luck on your final paper. I hope you post it somewhere that lovers of romantic fiction can find it.
@Dusk Peterson: You might be interested in Kate Sherwood’s Mark of Cain. One of the heroes is an Episcopalian priest, and in the story he’s struggling with his church’s position towards him (he feels he’s being grudgingly tolerated, rather than fully accepted). It’s also a really sweet romance, and one that explores themes of forgiveness and redemption. There’s a review here at DA, I believe.
@Mzcue: Austen is actually a great example, because as the daughter of Reverend George Austen, the Church is very much a part of her novels. Much has been written about her relationship with Anglicanism and its presence in her fiction (here and here, for example). Also, for me, at least, it’s not so much about main characters being religious or talking about religion, or inventorying who talks about it and what is said — it’s about reflecting the social norms of the time, of which religion was an important one. By contrast, I remember a Julie Anne Long historical in which the vicar seemed more about providing comic relief than meaningful social context. I think that vicar got his own book at some point, but as the series dragged (and dragged) on, and the sometimes egregious editing errors were left uncorrected, I lost interest, I lost interest and have not read it. But in any case, I would not characterize Long as substantially focused on historical accuracy or authenticity, even though I’ve enjoyed a number of her books.
Still, I don’t need religion in any Romance, including historicals, to have meaning. As a non-religious person, I’m not even looking for it. What I’m looking for more of (because, as you noted, nothing is absent from the genre) is ANY driving philosophy, including veganism or atheism or secular humanism or a passion for the arts or for a professional pursuit. Courtney Milan is a great example of this (disclosure: I’ve contributed editing to a number of her books). I would also cite Carolyn Jewel’s new release, A Notorious Ruin (and full disclosure again: Carolyn is a friend and I contributed editorial feedback to the manuscript), features boxing, which was a very popular pursuit in Regency England, and one that plays a very important role in Jewel’s book. I loved that aspect of the story and found so many layers of meaning in the way she uses the sport and certain facets of the way society viewed and engaged with it.
One of my favorite Lisa Kleypas books is Smooth Talking Stranger, and in part it’s because of Ella and Jack’s culture clash, as well as the way Ella’s growing attachment to her sister’s baby shapes her own character development. And I don’t usually like babies in Romance novels! But that novel worked for me from id to intellect, in large part because of the ways in which Ella was testing her own limits and perceived ideas about who she was and what she wanted in life. I know that a number of readers felt that Ella’s veganism is given short shrift, but again, I felt that it was all part of her own development into a person who could decide for herself what she wanted and needed, regardless of what she thought she *should* be and do. And that’s the kind of holistic reading experience I crave more of in Romance.
I feel like quie a few of the books I read have that kind of philosophy/faith underpinning them. Certainly the MC books do – the 1%ers have a definite philosophy that informs their view and the books I’ve enjoyed in that genre show the clash between a modern woman and the MC culture and how the couple navigate that.
In m/m there are the Deputy Joe books by James Buchanan – Deputy Joe is a Mormon who is gay and his faith is very important to him. Also, Between Sinners and Saints by Marie Sexton which Sirius mentioned above.
I think many Kristen Ashley books (at least, the contemporaries) have a kind of family/community/hearth and home philosophy underpinning them.
The SFR I read usually has religion and/or philosophy as a huge part of it. Shifter romance usually has pack loyalties and dynamics; arguably, BSDM romance has an underpinning philosophy, military romance (and I’d include police and other emergency services here) often have a brotherhood/code of honour and breaches of that code are treated very seriously – and a lot of small town romance has a strong sense of community and family.
A lot of that isn’t directly about religion but I often have a clear sense of what drives a character and their core beliefs.
@Kaetrin: I totally agree with you about Kristen Ashley’s books, and I think that’s one of the reasons they’re so popular, despite the history of editing issues. In fact, I’ll add another philosophy that’s incredibly strong in her books: friendship and loyalty, especially among women. In a genre where heroines are so often isolated from friends and family, Ashley’s books celebrate both, and her heroines always have a great deal of independence in who they choose as their friends and freedom in pursuing those relationships.
Beyond Motorcycle Man and the MC, a number of the books I’ve liked by her (The Gamble, At Peace, The Will) feature a kind of culture clash between protagonists, or in some cases, a power dynamic that forces each partner to re-evaluate their own priorities and values in light of a challenge from the other. And the incredibly detailed narration that some readers hate helps pull that off, I think, too, not only by digging deep into the characters’ psyches and personalities, but also by highlighting the negotiation that goes on between them.
@Robin/Janet: Yes, I think that’s right Robin. She often goes into incredible detail about the everyday lives of her protagonists so by the end, you know all the ways they have negotiated a happy ever after.
A very interesting discussion, and certainly relevant to me as both a Christian and a writer. I think putting any concrete belief system in a novel can be polarising for readers who don’t share it. I have seen it done well, but the risk is that readers will disagree with some element and disconnect with the book–something that happens a lot anyway, without authors putting in driving principles. There have been discussions on DA and plenty of bad reviews over books that seemed to champion (or passively permit) something readers disagreed with. I’d like to see more books with faith/driving principles as an element of the characters; I’d like to both read and write more books like that. However, I think it is very difficult to do convincingly without losing readers, and a watered-down version is far less appealing to me. My trouble with many inspirationals is that they present Christianity as nothing more than church going and an occasional ‘Father, help me’ fired heavenwards, which is not an accurate reflection of true Christian belief. I don’t write books with explicitly Christian characters, but the themes of love, forgiveness, sacrifice, and redemption are [I think] in all of my books, because those are the themes that speak to me as both a Christian and a writer.
@Kaetrin: A friend of mine said she couldn’t read The Gamble because Nina seemed too realistic, especially in her insecurities. I thought that was a fascinating insight on the broad spectrum of reader responses to Ashley’s books. Even the more cartoonish books (the Rock Chick series) present a level of character detail you rarely see in the genre, which may be part of what made some of them more readable to me.
@Kaetrin: (and Robin) I haven’t read Ashley, but these comments make complete sense to me, because I was thinking that part of the reason I often miss a larger sense of “meaning” or values in a romance is the narrow focus on the couple.
Sure, questions of guiding philosophy/religion can be conflicts in romantic relationships (and sometimes are, like whether you care about family or not), but for many of us they are also/even more at play in our work lives and our engagement (or not) with public life–as citizens, voters, etc. And those parts of life are often sketched only lightly in genre romance. Military/cop heroes may have a purpose-driven attitude to their work (loyalty, service) but heroines are much less likely to be driven by a passion for jobs. In that discussion last week about sacrifice, I was thinking how it’s often not a sacrifice for a heroine to give up her job, because she didn’t care much about it anyway. In contemps where work is important to the heroine–like Julie James’s books–it often seems more about personal ambition than about a passion for justice or doing good work. Courtney Milan’s heroines definitely have philosophies–but the historical religious context for social justice movements is largely absent from her books, as it certainly is not from Victorian novels, like Elizabeth Gaskell’s, that treat some of the same themes. (I just listened to NORTH & SOUTH and THE TENANT OF WILDFELL HALL and they are absolutely full of religion, which shapes many of the characters’ actions, attitudes, and romantic choices).
Of course there are exceptions, but when the larger community context is a vestigial part of someone’s life as represented in ficiton, so many things that matter to people in real life get dropped out.
I don’t think this is true just in genre romance, though. With some notable and wonderful exceptions, a lot of general/literary fiction has a very individual focus and shies away from characters with a religion or guiding philosophy beyond a quest for personal satisfaction or happiness.
Great discussion!
@Liz Mc2: Of course there are exceptions, but when the larger community context is a vestigial part of someone’s life as represented in ficiton, so many things that matter to people in real life get dropped out.
Which seems so ironic to me when I think about all the historicals that are focused on marriages of convenience and perceived social unsuitability, and all the contemporary boss/secretary Romances, because all of these set-ups are steeped in institutional and cultural norms that at some level drive the conflict. I do think, too, that in this era of shorter books, the narrower focus on the couple and on courtship as almost sui generis in some cases has given short shrift to those broader issues.
@JewelCourt:
I have a plot for a vegan hero too! An Immortal Viking doctor hero – turned to veganism as a way of exerting control on a world he views as out of control, basically. But I bumped it down the writing queue b/c I was so astounded by the ebola crisis and piss-poor world response (the hero is a Doctors without Borders type) so I really wasn’t sure where to set the story. I couldn’t see setting it in one of the countries having the ebola outbreak, without having to tackle the issue in the story, and I wasn’t ready to do that right now.
Where I live (Seattle) veganism does seem to be a belief system for some. There was an interesting NPR piece about a month ago on veganism among guys in NYC. They were apparently a lot of body builders, and it was very manly to be a vegan b/c it was … control. It made me totally think of BDSM as I listened to the radio piece.
(Ah, now I’m worried that I’m chasing trends …)
@Anna Richland: I really want to read that. (makes grabby hands)
It’s funny that you mention the control thing, because food can be wrought with control issues. I’ve been a vegan for a long time to the point where it’s just how I eat- meat doesn’t actually register as food anymore, but my sister used veganism as a cover for a dangerous eating disorder. I never thought I’d ever urge someone to eat a steak.
I realized with a start that I have responded in this thread as if only historical romance was under discussion. Of course, that’s only part of the story when it comes to fiction that includes, using the article’s words above: “sense of both purpose and purposefulness in the way people in Romance novels live – beyond, of course, the goal of ‘finding love’ or a generalized sense of happiness or ‘completion.’”
There are a number of authors of contemporary romance whose work I’ve especially enjoyed that I feel bound to mention. I’m thinking of Laura Florand, Mary Ann Rivers, and Ruthie Knox, to name a few to emerge in recent years. (After reading “Beauty and the Mustache” by Penny Reid, I feel I should add her to the group.) Their stories go beyond finding happy ever afters. The characters confront challenges created by societal inflexibilities, clashing value systems, health and family crises—those situations in which personal philosophy and systems of values are essential to survival. The heroines’ values often clash with the shortest path to HEA endings expressly because they would be required to sacrifice some important aspect of personal potential, professional goals or the greater good. It’s in the resolution of those conflicts through compromise and creativity that the authors’ ingenuity shines.
I wonder whether the folks bemoaning the absence of “sense of purpose or purposefulness” in romantic fiction today are actually seeking more traditionally faith-oriented stories, or are they just reading different books than I am?
“In my hierarchy of tradeoffs, I’ll often choose a more global sense of purposefulness over historically authentic engagement, although certainly both would be ideal.”
Thank you for this insight! My tastes/feelings align very much with yours, and that helps explain to me why I’m not that bothered by certain aspects of “ahistoricals.” I’m always drawn to passionate and committed characters in literature.
@Mzcue: I don’t remember specifics from Austen, but the author who comes immediately to mind for me is Louisa May Alcott. Her books are chock full of quotes and literary allusions that were baffling to me, as most of them are quite obscure now. It was interesting to get an annotated edition.
Well, I’m late to this conversation, but oddly enough, this has been on my mind a lot lately. My latest book features a preacher’s son, and the successive books (siblings) also address living in a small Southern town as the children of a Presbyterian minister. My editor gave me some push back in the initial draft because it’s a Superromance and thus a secular book, but I felt in order to ring true to the people of that particular region, mentioning my character’s faith was important. There are scenes in church…and scenes in the bedroom. My books aren’t inspirational, but I felt strongly about keeping that element in the book(s). I took out anything that someone might find too “preachy” but wanted the authentic aspect in the book.
Oddly enough, JewelCourt, my second one has a sexy hippie vegan falling for my preacher’s daughter. I love writing characters that are different, and thankfully, my editor lets me write stories that challenge me and my readers.
Excellent post!
I think this is a fascinating conversation. I like to read about a character whose spirituality has been tested and how real life takes over sometimes and challenges core beliefs. I do draw a fairly hard line between religion and faith in my mind and in my life. And it’s the religion I shy away from in books, not the faith.
The first book I wrote was a historical romance and it had virtually no sex scenes (although reviewers have called this book sensuous.) The heroine, a spinster librarian, was a faithful person. I think it would have been typical for that time period for her to be a church goer, but she was also a believer. I didn’t realize it at the time I published it, but the book became very popular with Inspirational readers and church cliques on GR and other sites. When I released my second book, which included some sex scenes, I got a considerable amount of push back from the Religion people. It was a bit of an eye opener for me. While some characters in other books of mine speak or think about faith, some do not. The Religioners were particularly vocal in comments and reviews about how much I had disappointed them.
I loved this essay and the many follow up comments–particularly all the book recs. I’m a romance reader who is also a religious professional (I’ve been an ordained minister for 24 years and currently serve as a hospice chaplain). I’ve said for years that one of the reasons I love romance novels so much is that they de facto seem to deal with so many themes that could be seen as “spiritual” if not “religious”–love, death, meaning, trust, betrayal, redemption, self-sacrifice, reconciliation, cruelty, kindness, generosity of spirit. I mean, I can tease out any number of those from the fluffiest Julia Quinn historical and close the book with a happy sigh, whether there’s overt mention of religion or spirituality in the book or not. I do enjoy fiction that includes substantive religious/spiritual characters or practices or questions of ultimate meaning and purpose, whether Christian or non-Christian (I count Bujold’s “Curse of Chalion” and “Paladin of Souls,” where the religion is completely fictional, among some of the most spiritually moving books I’ve ever read)–but it can be painful for me if it’s not done well. I’ve felt “burned” by inspirationals and tend to avoid them now, as many that I have read in the past seemed theologically unsophisticated and facile to me. I will also admit that sometimes the very last thing I want to read is something with overt “religious themes” because I do that at work all day, thank you, and I need a little break from all that meaning stuff. Books I have enjoyed lately include Julie Anne Long’s “The Notorious Countess Confesses,”and Noelle Adams’ “Married for Christmas,” both of which felt “just right” to me in terms of their presentation of spirituality and the life of a religious professional. Thanks again for the great essay and the many thoughtful comments about a topic that is close to my heart.
There have been so many wonderful comments and recommendations in this thread! Reading through, it struck me that this discussion managed to avoid conflating “morality” or good v. bad with driving philosophies/belief systems, and I’m so happy about that. We know that there is a lot of ideological baggage in Romance (the “value” of virginity, all sorts of gender double standards, etc.), and of course, driving philosophies are not free of those, either, but they’re still not the same thing, and this discussion reflects that.
This article crystalized why I enjoy certain tropes so much. I gravitate toward books with a sense of community: large families, small towns, and packs in PNR.
As a Jew, I have no problems reading books in which the characters go to church. Thinking about honor and learning to be a better human being crosses religious and secular barriers and makes a character more interesting. However, I too don’t need a character to have religion to have a driving philosophy. In fact, I find it more interesting to read about a character who doesn’t have that structure come into their own.
Maybe the lack of a driving philosophy is why some romance characters fall flat and seem so similar. Why is he an alpha? What does he consider important about who he is? Alpha males are often a complete mystery and they should be really interesting. We generally hear about the need to protect, but that’s not a philosophy. Beta males are usually fleshed out more. Even the romance characters who go to church seldom talk about how they feel about the support that community gives them or how the prayers help them examine their lives.
Books about returning soldiers often have the theme of someone re-evaluating their life and where they fit in with the world. They are in the process of merging their old philosophy into a new one and it is a great read.
I also love Sheri Tepper. I started with her True Game books and read right through to the more recent ones where I felt her agenda overshadowed the story. I also love Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
One thing that I think a few of the commentators may have missed is that the original post isn’t talking about *religion*; it’s talking about characters’ meaning of life. An atheist’s meaning of life isn’t just made up of an absence of religious references; it’s a philosophy unto itself. If a romance novel included an atheist character without showing that character being influenced by whatever that character’s particular take on atheism was, I’d find this just as odd as a historical novel set in Europe in the Middle Ages not taking into account the influence of Christian belief on the characters. Ditto for an agnostic character, or a secular character, or whatever other variety of freethinking we’re talking about.
As @MD says, “One of my closest friends is a convinced atheist. But she has a specific set of beliefs that guide her life, and she and her husband will mention their principles and consider whether their actions align.”
@Anna Richland and Jill Shultz: Amish romances seem to be an industry unto themselves. Maybe Quaker romances are next?
@Sirius, thanks for the story recs. You said, “if I know that this religion treats LGBTQ people as sinners, I absolutely do *not* want to see more of such religion shown in the romances I read.” Later you commented, “And I also was torn because I loved the book otherwise. Marie Sexton ‘Between Saints and Sinners’. On one hand I really loved main characters, loved that Levi loved his family so much and that faith was such a big part of his life. On the other – as much as I felt that tiny improvement his parents made was probably as far as they would go, I felt that the narrative was excusing and justifying them. Hey we love our son, but our religion which considers him a sinner is still going to come first. We will just leave it to God to judge him. No thanks.”
I haven’t read that novel, but the way you describe it, this is a thematic problem, isn’t it? Not a problem with the fact that the parents’ religious views are mentioned in the first place.
I’m afraid that prejudice is a reality in our world. Asking writers of contemporary m/m novels to leave out references to religiously based prejudice against homosexuality (in reference to their religious characters) is like asking writers of contemporary black novels to leave out references to racial prejudice. The writers would either have to present an unrealistic portrayal of what it’s like to live as a gay Christian or a black American, or they would have to stop writing about gay Christians or black Americans.
But if your concern is simply to not have writers dwell on (or actively support) anti-homosexuality views, there’s plenty of ways to do that. For every religion that condemns homosexuality as sinful, there are lots of dissenters. There are pro-gay conservative Christians, pro-gay Catholics, pro-gay Muslims, etc. And there’s no reason why a romance story with religious references should have to revolve the plot around religious prejudice, any more than a romance story with racial references should have to revolve the plot around racial prejudice.
@Cleo said, “Because being WASP isn’t necessarily seen as being a distinct sub-culture or tribe. But I see it that way.”
Ditto here. I’m English-American, not so much because of my ancestry (I’m a quarter Italian and a quarter Norwegian, with the rest mixed), but because I was *raised* that way, visiting England periodically with my family. In our multicultural world, I don’t think WASP can necessarily be treated as default.
@Rosario, thank you too for the rec. As it happens, I was raised Episcopalian, so that’s an apt recommendation.
@Robin/Janet said, “Also, for me, at least, it’s not so much about main characters being religious or talking about religion, or inventorying who talks about it and what is said — it’s about reflecting the social norms of the time, of which religion was an important one.”
This. I’ll give a non-religious, anti-social-norms example: An atheist who was trying to decide how to judge a mortally ill friend’s desire to commit suicide would likely be influenced by a lot of factors. However, it’s unlikely the character would be influenced by the traditional Christian belief that suicide is wrong, which has strongly influenced modern societal attitudes toward suicide. That’s a case where you simply *can’t* leave out references to strong religious or philosophical beliefs, because the character’s views on a friend’s suicidal desires are being influenced by their overall belief system.
@Kaetrin wrote, “In m/m there are the Deputy Joe books by James Buchanan – Deputy Joe is a Mormon who is gay and his faith is very important to him.”
Echoing this rec. You know, it’s sad that I can think of so few romance novels that allude to characters’ religious beliefs. I just went through my collection of m/m novels, and all I could find was the following:
Rolf and Ranger’s “Falls Chance Ranch” series (warnings: domestic discipline and dubious consent) has a number of references to Native American religious beliefs.
http://fallschanceranch.blogspot.com/
Jesse Hajicek’s “The God Eaters” (warning: prison fiction, with all that implies) has a monotheism-versus-polytheism plot.
http://chartreuse.studiowhippingboy.com/g_e_index.html
https://www.fictionpress.com/s/2610279/1/The-God-Eaters
I’m sure there must be others, but I’m simply blanking.
As for “tribe” fiction, that’s why I ended up reading a lot of leather fiction: because of the subculture, which of course is descended from motorcycle culture.
@Liz Mc2 wrote, “I was thinking that part of the reason I often miss a larger sense of ‘meaning’ or values in a romance is the narrow focus on the couple. . . . Of course there are exceptions, but when the larger community context is a vestigial part of someone’s life as represented in fiction, so many things that matter to people in real life get dropped out.”
Yes, yes, yes. I did a survey a long time ago of D/s slash stories, and I was struck by the lack of reference to the outside world, or even to BDSM subcultures. It was as though these characters lived in a vacuum.
@Mzcue said, “It makes me wonder about biblical references to be found in the novels of Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters, even Dickens.”
Oh, dear. I was afraid somebody would start asking questions like that.
(*Goes and checks.*) Given that the bible in literature is such a big educational topic, I found surprisingly little online. But here’s what I found.
“The Influence of the King James Version on English Literature.”
http://www.bible-researcher.com/mcafee4.html
“Anchor Point: The King James Bible and English Literature.”
http://www.campbellsville.edu/anchor-point-the-king-james-bible-and-english-literature
A bunch of books at the Internet Archive and Google Books on the bible in literature.
http://archive.org/search.php?query=subject%3A%22Bible+in+literature%22
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22bible+in+literature%22&btnG=Search+Books&tbm=bks&tbo=1&gws_rd=ssl
Leland Ryken’s book, “The Legacy of the King James Bible,” has several chapters on the literary influence of that translation and apparently includes this quotation: “It might be expected that the literary influence of the King James Bible would wane as we move into the modern era. . . . But this is not what we find. Even in the modern era, the Bible is the most referenced book in English and American literature.”
I found an article within Google Books (not easy to link to) which says that Jane Austen was influenced by the Bible but rarely quoted from it.
There seem to be lots of articles and books about the influence of the bible on the Brontes.
“Dickens alludes to the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer more often than to any other texts.”
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/larson/1.html
Also, here’s some stuff about the aforementioned Book of Common Prayer (a prayer book used in the Church of England and related denominations, such as the Episcopal Church), which is so heavily quoted in English literature that the “Oxford Dictionary of Quotations” gives it 396 entries.
“Jane Austen and the Book of Common Prayer.”
http://austenonly.com/2012/08/28/the-350th-anniversary-of-the-1662-book-of-common-prayer-jane-austen-and-the-prayer-book-part-one/
http://austenonly.com/2012/09/02/jane-austen-and-the-book-of-common-prayer-part-two/
“The Book of Common Prayer at three hundred and fifty.” Skip down to “Jane Austen”.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/10/22/god-talk
Norman Taylor’s “For Services Rendered: An Anthology in Thanksgiving Book of Common Prayer.” Described as, “An anthology of passages from English literature referring to the Book of Common Prayer . . .” (I actually own this, but it’s packed away at the moment – I just moved house – and I haven’t read it yet.)
But as Robin/Janet said, I don’t think it’s so much bible quotes as subtler things. I showed a friend an m/m novella I’d written once, about an unrepentant convict who undergoes a change of heart, and he said, “I can see the influence of Christianity here.” Honestly, I hadn’t, till he mentioned it. But I’d certainly had in mind the *character’s* religious background; he belongs to a religion whose central belief is that everyone is offered an opportunity at the time of death (and before) for transformation of character. Although the guard who helps to transform the prisoner mentions this religious belief several times, the protagonist never does. It’s not at the front of his mind. But the influence is there, unspoken.
@Dusk Peterson:
Yes. +1000
I keep going back to Robin’s word choice, “holistic.”
I’m sad to come so late to this excellent conversation. My day job as an Episcopal Priest has been all-consuming of late. Tiffany Reisz, Christa Soule (Samhain Editor), Alice Gaines and I did a panel on this topic at RT, and it was so well attended, because I think many readers are hungry to see this critical aspect of human life developed in characters, and many writers long for others to understand how writing about sexuality and erotic love does not conflict with our spiritual convictions.
I agree with others who have said above that the publishing industry is very afraid to touch matters of religion for fear of alienating readers. I certainly understand that fear from a business perspective–American society is so divisive on this issue. But to me, this is a challenge as a writer to craft characters who are so sympathetic and well-drawn that it doesn’t matter whether a reader SHARES the character’s beliefs because the reader can immerse themselves in the character’s world view and understand the motivations.
And I hold out the hope that reading changes our hearts and minds, makes us more open to difference, so that we should be willing to read about people whose values or faith differ from ours. (This gets to a question about identification vs. empathy in the way we read, and I’ve begun to suspect romance readers are just one way or the other on that issue.)
Lastly, I will hold up Flowers from the Storm as an excellent book where a character’s religious convictions drive the plot and internal conflict. I disagreed with Maddie’s theology at places in the book, but I thoroughly believed it was authentically hers and historically accurate. All of which makes the ending of that book one of the most satisfying of all time.
The book holds a special place in my heart because the heroine is religious, rather than a sexy male priest (though I do like those too!). I have a novella releasing this fall from Entangled about a woman going off to seminary, who is afraid she is never going to get laid again. I am very curious how a female cleric will play out for readers!
@Dusk Peterson: I apologize for responding to just one part of your post, but I feel the need to clarify. Of course my concern was about seeing a possible support for homophobic views based on some religious teachings, not anything else. And I did not say that I had any problem with parents’ religious views mentioned per se, so yes, it was a thematic problem for me.
Sure there are dissenters and there are Episcopalians who even accept gay priests and I know that at least one more branch of protestants who does that, but I do not remember who. And I also want to qualify that I am fully aware that Robin was not just talking about the religion as underlying reason for characters’ world views, of course atheists also have it and she was arguing about actually exploring any philosophies which are at the core of how characters view the world. I get all of that. My worry is however specifically about exploring more of *religious* POV in m/m if such religion exists in reality and teaches homophobic views. As I also said before I love the made up religions, I love to see any of the real religions who does not teach that show casted more in the books. I loved “God eaters” for example that you mentioned.
And of course I am not arguing about not showing the actual homophobia based on what some religions teach in the negative light – as you said it is a part of the reality unfortunately. I do feel that this IS actually shown and a lot and I have no problem with it and I really do not have a right to have a problem with it, because I am an outsider. But yes, unless the character actually questions and abandons the part of religious homophobia I am not interested in seeing such character in a positive light.
I tend to ramble and I am sure you can see that I am ESL and it is late here, so double and triple apologies for awkward turns of phrase.
@Amber Belldene: “I am very curious how a female cleric will play out for readers!”
Julia Spencer-Fleming has been extremely successful with hers. (Though they’re not strictly genre romance, I think many of her readers are romance readers.)
@Willaful Yes! Those are such great books, and widely read by my female colleagues, but they are definitely mysteries with “strong romantic elements.” Many of those same colleagues of mine would never have read a romance for all the same tired reasons we’ve all heard, until they learn I write them. At which point, I tell them all my favorite authors and they’re hooked.
I’m not sure how the Rev. Claire Ferguson would fly (ha ha, since she’s a helicopter pilot!) with more traditional romance readers. But thanks for this comment–it’s a reminder to me romance readers’ tastes are as diverse as the theological and spiritual convictions people hold.
I’m enjoying this discussion:
Two books come to mind that include religious belief as an integral part of the main characters lives and influence the plot. Both are very well done in my opinion.
* Cara West’s “There is a Season” where the hero is an locum Pastor and the heroine is a divorced agnostic single mother. This one is a contemporary.
* Betina Krahn’s “The Wife Test” where the hero was raised as and intended to become a monk. He was forced by royal decree to wed the heroine (raised in a nunnery). He struggles throughout the book with his conflicting desires. I thought it was very unusual.
It is important to me that my books are religion free
I think everybody like detailed books or books with more dept but “driving philosophy” is a wide term and I am afraid that some authors will lose their common sense and try to give in to preaching
It is a huge turn off