Having Faith in Thrillers

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Questions of faith are a universal part of the human experience. Why am I here? What does my life mean? Is there a God and if so, what is His role in the universe and in my life? These are big and fundamental questions and how writers and readers tackle them matters. Yet themes of faith, doubt, crisis, and belief are not typically found in the pages of thriller fiction. Recently we had the honor of launching a new thriller series for Tyndale House—the leading Christian publisher in the industry—and the journey has us thinking a lot about the changing face of faith in fiction and in the world at large.

In our mind, the new series is not a departure from what we’ve always done—writing gritty, realistic, and heavily character-driven thrillers. Instead, we view the addition of a faith element as simply another compelling layer to our characters and stories. If our challenge is to write realistic and exciting thrillers that resonate with readers, then having characters who experience something so universal would seem not only appropriate, but appealing. Why and—more to the point—how do we think faith elements belong in thrillers? To answer that question, let’s look at the road map we used for writing Dark Intercept, the first book in the Shepherds series, and how we wove faith elements into the story.

Faith Is Real. Faith Matters.

We mentioned it at the onset, but it is worth repeating. Questions of faith and spirituality are fundamental to the human condition. Writers tend to shy away from these questions in thrillers, perhaps not wanting to take a side and alienate readers. But other themes—regret, loss, guilt, love, redemption—are found universally in all genres of fiction. Why not faith? We don’t worry that readers will reject our work because our characters resolve these issues differently than they might. In fact, as storytellers it is sometimes more interesting when characters reach different conclusions from what we have as authors in our personal lives. Difference of opinion is the bedrock of discourse and expanding one’s thinking.

In our minds, questions of faith are just as universal and important as finding purpose, deciding who to love, and one’s political ideology. We believe that when faith is contemplated as an explanation for life’s mysteries, it provides for deeper and richer characterization. But to succeed on this front, we have to weave the questions organically into the narrative so readers don’t feel pressed by an agenda. Which leads us to our second point.

Our Job Is to Entertain, Not to Preach

Readers love to learn, but oh, how they hate to be taught! Our job as thriller writers is to entertain, not to preach. We recognize that our fans are not buying our novels to be “educated” on our worldviews, politics, and spiritual belief systems. And to that end, we give our readers permission to dislike or disagree with our character’s choices and conclusions. We trust our readers to decide if and how far they want to go on the journey of spiritual discovery with our characters.

All of our novels explore thorny moral and geopolitical topics. If we had an agenda, we’d only present a single viewpoint and hammer that viewpoint home ad nauseam. But we don’t because our only agenda is to lay the groundwork for the reader to decide. We strive to write a diverse cast of characters that represent different opinions and life experiences, and hopefully some of their opinions and experiences will provide a new lens for the reader to view an issue or topic they thought they’d made their mind up about.

We Try to Show and Not Tell

Who hasn’t had this pearl of writer’s wisdom hammered into them as an author? It is one of the central tenets of good storytelling and may be more important when it comes to faith in fiction than anywhere else. This point is very much linked to both one and two above, but here the idea is that we need to share our characters’ questions or struggles with faith through their actions rather than in using the narrative as a platform.

In Dark Intercept, our main character, Jedidiah Johnson, has a profound crisis in faith after experiencing a terrifying event as a teen—something hinted at repeatedly throughout the book. However, nowhere in the narrative does Jed say or think: “I ran away from my life because my faith was shaken by this terrible thing.” Instead, we show Jed’s internal crisis by his choices and actions after the event—turning insular, abruptly leaving home, abandoning his plans for a career in ministry, leaving his friends and family, and enlisting in the Navy to become a SEAL. His actions show, rather than tell, the reader everything they need to know.

4. Faith Is a Journey of Discovery

Spirituality is not static. A person’s relationship with God (or lack thereof) is not a fixed or monolithic thing. Faith ebbs and flows with the events and experiences in a person’s life. Faith is challenged. Faith is tested. As a result, a person’s beliefs change, grow, and morph over time. This is fundamental to the narrative in Dark Intercept and our guiding principle for incorporating faith into the story.

Questions of faith and belief cannot be asked and answered in a single dialogue exchange. They simmer for the duration of the narrative, boiling over in the moment of greatest crisis . . . just like unattended problems tend to do in real life. We worked hard to tie the questions and the answers into the plot, weaving the thread deeply into the tapestry of the story and character relationships. What this means, however, is that readers who pick up Dark Intercept are not given the option to opt out of considering questions of faith and their own beliefs. It’s like riding Space Mountain at Disney World—once that bar comes down and locks you into your seat, you’re going on the ride whether you like it or not. As Jed goes on his journey of self-discovery, his crisis in faith and beliefs takes many twists and turns—just like a roller-coaster ride. Only when the ride is over can the reader fully appreciate Jed’s choices and conclusions!

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