Incorporating religious faith late on in a series

[HannaC]

Book 1/7 in my thriller spy series introduced a collection of respectable agents without inappropriate language, behavior, or past and yet none of them were explicitly Christian and God wasn’t even mentioned. Fast forward to the end of book 2/7 and my MC, Will, was just given a gift by a Christian: a Bible. Nothing obvious comes from this . . . Nothing aside from the other agents mentioning that “He’s not quite the same agent” and “there’s something different about him”. In a later book (one where Will’s sidekick is the new MC), the only reference to this new “change” in Will is when the new MC says to Will, “You wanted to tell me something that was really important. What was it?” And of course, it’s not clearly explained in that book. All that to say, Christianity is not blatant, and yet I wanted to very slowly introduce it so that when I got to the last book, it wouldn’t be a shock.

Now that you have the backstory. . . I’m finalizing the plot of book 7/7 of the series. The problem is, when I finally get around to saying that it’s Christianity that changed Will and write about Will being a wise, patient witness to his friends, it seems so out of place. The bigger problem is that since I’m finally bringing out his faith in God, I feel like I need to have his faith somehow impact the climax. This is especially difficult since the agents’ strength and courage has been the winning factor of every previous book, so to randomly say that God was the reason they succeeded just seems too random and the readers would be confused and upset I’m sure.

I want to give the plan of salvation in these books and I want my characters to have a conversation about salvation. I had planned for it to come out in the last book for a long time but now that I’m here, I’m wondering how I’m going to sum it up and glorify God all while making the agents seem just as incredible as before.

I know this was a long post and I apologize if it’s confusing. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hanna

 

[Hugh]

How about strength and courage becoming tempered by a new perspective of compassion/forgiveness?

NB: I suggest being careful in further discussion. Religion is off-limits here for good reasons.

 

[msstice]

This is especially difficult since the agents’ strength and courage has been the winning factor of every previous book, so to randomly say that God was the reason they succeeded just seems too random

To be honest, I don't see the problem here ...

 

[tinkerdan]

I too have struggled with this...
Still am.

In the interest of not closing this discussion down I am putting the next part of this in a spoiler, because I am not sure what might trigger someone, although I tried to keep it as neutral as possible.

If you want it to come off in a subtle yet strong way, what I might suggest, is that sometime after moments of strength and courage, possibly with the MC off by himself, you might have him holding the book and prayerfully just say... "You, are my strength and my courage."
There is a combination of humility and attributing the glory to the God of the bible that is a key throughout the book and I think that ,at the very least, that will put your point across to some readers who are familiar with this.


Message me if you want any further discussion.
I am not opposed to discussing this further--but right here, in the open--so to speak--is a bit dicey.

Oh wait--I bet you can't message me. maybe I can message you.

BTW--welcome to Chrons.

 

[The Big Peat]

I'd suggest that perhaps the final triumph comes after a friend comes through, and the friendship is one that was previously strained due to a lack of patience and was repaired through Will's change in character. That means the alert reader can see it was the change in Will's character that mattered.

 

[Parson]

Without further knowing the story I have to say that the way you've described it sounds good. Sometimes others recognize something has changed more than the individual him/herself.

I've also got to say that your series sounds intriguing to me.

 

[ColGray]

Hey, welcome to Chrons!

I'm going to answer in story terms, because it sounds like that's the crux of your question: Can i have a character grow in a specific way that the audience may find either jarring or off-putting. First, yes. Of course. Authors do it all the time. Write your story!

Second, I think the answer probably lies in asking yourself some pointed questions and moving from there--and I say that because the "right" answer is dependent on your goal.

A deft, gentle hand is nearly always superior to a firm one. Readers read because they connect with the characters and their struggles. The world building, the killer twists, the macro plot and tiny details; they're all great, but no one will know about them if the foundational characters don't grab the audience.

Readers not only like to see characters grow and change, they expect it. With any story, the right question is, How do i make this character's growth natural, grounded and engaging? How do i make the growth integral to the story and in dialogue with the plot? What that character's growth is, specifically (and it could be anything), should be subservient to telling a good story.

If the goal is to highlight the character's growth (in philosophical terms, in temperament, world view or faith or literally anything), then showing the evolution, and influencers of that evolution, makes total sense. If you've breadcrumbed it over the course of multiple books, the audience should not be surprised when subtext becomes text.

If the goal is to explore a philosophy or theology, having a character explore it (the good and bad, open questions, struggles, etc.), that is a path to character growth and evolution and (if sufficiently breadcrumbed) shouldn't jar readers if their viewpoint in book 1 would have act one way, but by book 4 they act another way. R. Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing series deeply explored various philosophical outlooks in a dark fantasy setting and we see one character

Spoiler: Prince of Nothing

evolve from being "good" to "bad" due to a change in macro-circumstances (NB: this is a huge oversimplification, but, that's a whole other bag of weasels)

I will follow @tinkerdan's example here and tag this last bit for spoiler.

Spoiler: Spoiler

If the goal is to elevate a philosophy or theology, or to denigrate other philosophies or theologies, then it stops being about the character and starts being about the author--which is nearly always jarring to the reader because suddenly the story and the characters aren't the point.

Also happy to chat in messages.