Christian Fiction: 7 Common Subgenres of Christian Fiction

Christian fiction is a main, broad category of Christian books that incorporates a Christ worldview, emphasizing themes of faith, morality, and redemption. Although some Christian fiction is very pious and revolves around Christian virtues, spirituality, and religion, others use more subtle expressions of Christian values, such as hope, forgiveness, and perseverance. Nonetheless, all Christian fiction typically shares a number of similar Christian fiction tropes. However, there are seven common subgenres with Christian stories that have distinctive story elements and characteristics to identify them. Let's evaluate the subgenres below. 🔍

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WATCH THE EPISODE

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See episode 24 of season 2 of my Journey of a Christian Writer series, 7 Common Subgenres of Christian Fiction or continue reading the blog post below.

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7 COMMON SUBGENRES IN CHRISTIAN FICTION

Writing Christian fiction can be helpful and inspirational to readers, and even more so when choosing and adding specific subgenres for different types of readers in the book market. It also allows Christian writers to identify their ideal readers or target their reading audience.

The numbered bullet list is seven of the most common subgenres in Christian fiction:

1. AMISH FICTION

2. BIBLICAL FICTION

3. CHRISTIAN FANTASY

4. CHRISTIAN ROMANCE

5. CHRISTIAN SUSPENSE

6. HISTORICAL CHRISTIAN

7. CONTEMPORARY FICTION

All right, let's go over each one of them.

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AMISH FICTION

Amish fiction is one of the most popular and common subgenres of Christian fiction centers on the lives of Amish people in Amish country communities and towns. Some themes of this subgenre include faith, family, and simple living compared to modern society. These types of stories also often revolve around romance and traditional values in community. Some examples of Amish fiction are books by the well-known Christian author Beverly Lewis. Some of her written novels you maybe find of interest are her standalones "The Photograph," and "The Road Home," and "The Guardian," part of her Home to Hickory Hollow series.

OTHER CHARACTERISTICS OF THIS GENRE:

• Sweet, innocent romance

• Focused on faith and family

• Farm life experience and culture

• Clean reads without explicit sexual or violent content

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BIBLICAL FICTION

Biblical fiction is another common subgenre of Christian fiction that uses biblical characters, settings, or events for the inspiration of story narratives. Although I don't suggest it, some authors base their books of this type of fiction on biblical stories, adding details or filling-in- the-blanks of unknown information based on their created scenarios of how certain events might have taken placed. However, biblical fiction isn't meant to replace the holy scriptures or other religious text. Nonetheless, I recommend writers strictly write based on their own characters in biblical settings rather than writing about the real people mentioned in the scriptures. For example, if they want to write about a prophet or powerful queen in a biblical foreign native land, they can make them up and tell a separate imagined storyline to be on the safe side, so not to add anything non-existent in the scriptures. Some authors who write biblical fiction are Francine Rivers and Connilyn Cossette. An example of biblical fiction novels is Connilyn Cossette's trilogy the Out From Egypt series.

OTHER CHARACTERISTICS OF THIS GENRE:

• Considered a subgenre of historical fiction

• Not meant to replace the Bible, but creative interpretation and exploration of its stories, historical environments, or related characters

• Stays true to scripture with some variations

• Typically, clean reads but could have mild graphic material

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CHRISTIAN FANTASY

Christian fantasy is one of the least common subgenres of Christian fiction and combines Christian faith with fantasy fiction. This type of fiction includes fantastical storytelling and themes of Christian beliefs, such as good vs. evil, redemption, or spiritual growth and development, and often within narratives with magic, mythical creatures, or imaginary worlds. One popular example of Christian fantasy is the Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis.

OTHER CHARACTERISTICS OF THIS GENRE:

• Supernatural elements, such as magical powers or evil forces, and mythical creatures or living things, like dragons or exotic plant life

• Characters go through a spiritual journey and transformation

• Purpose to glorify Christ in the narrative, whether subtly or openly stated

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CHRISTIAN ROMANCE

Christian romance is one of the most popular subgenres of Christian fiction. This subgenre revolves around romantic relationships and explores Christian faith and values. Some themes consist of faith, true love, and redemption from past traumas, failures, and mistakes. These novels also focus on spiritual growth, a sense of morality, and take on wholesome and uplifting narratives. Some novel examples are my debut novel, Eva's Promise, and Karen Kingbury's novels Love Story and Just Once.

OTHER CHARACTERISTICS OF THIS GENRE:

• Priorities Christian values of love, faith, and overcoming obstacles with a clean, healthy perspective

• Relationship-focused while exploring Christian principles of godly love, friendly relations, commitment, and marriage

• Avoids explicit content with a modest and clean approach to romance

• Characters' spiritual journeys and their relationships with God are woven together in the romantic narrative, adding emotional depth or symbolic meaning

• Stories close with happy endings of genuine relationships and lasting commitment like marriage and provides a hope, inspiration, and encouragement

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CHRISTIAN SUSPENSE

Christian suspense is a subgenre of Christian fiction that combines suspenseful narratives with Christian themes and values. It may feature story elements of crime, mystery, and or thrillers with positive character arcs, redemptive narratives, and worldviews inspired by the Christian faith and values. Some novels that fall under this subgenre category is the If I Run series by Terri Blackstock.

OTHER CHARACTERISTICS OF THIS GENRE:

• Elements of suspenseful storytelling, such as plot twists, high stakes, red herrings and other clues to keep readers intrigued. It may include some situational irony as well

• Christian themes of faith, hope, redemption, and spiritual warfare

• Characters experience personal growth, overcome adversity, and find redemption through faith

• Intricate mysteries, investigations into criminal activity and suspenseful chases

• Clean content with no swear words or overly graphic violence but focused on storytelling integrated with Christian values

• Hopeful conclusions that provide story resolution of characters finding redemption and overcoming challenges

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HISTORICAL CHRISTIAN

Historical Christian is a subgenre of Christian fiction that combines historical fiction with Christian themes, characters, and worldviews. These stories are set in a historical period and features characters whose lives and actions are shaped by their Christian faith, often exploring themes of faith, doubt, redemption, and spiritual growth. Stories of this subgenre also typically avoids explicit content and focuses on inspirational themes and positive values. Whether it's the post-antebellum era in the Deep South during slavery time, or World War II in the 1940s, this genre weaves in Christian virtues and spiritual lessons, and is oftentimes based on real events that happened according to whenever the story takes place. Two examples of historical Christian fiction are my novel, The Pact of Freedom and Francine Rivers' standalone novel, Bridge to Haven.

OTHER CHARACTERISTICS OF THIS GENRE:

• Historical accuracy to details of a specific time period

• Explores difficult themes and offers emotional depth

• Character growth and transformation is significant to the story narratives

• Stories are based on characters who are Christians or of Christian faith

• Clean content with no strong language or overly graphic violent or sexual content

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CONTEMPORARY FICTION

Contemporary fiction is the most popular subgenre of Christian fiction that's written within the present-day or recent past, typically from the late 20th century to the present-time. It often has narratives of current social, cultural, or political contexts and explores themes related to modern life experiences in realistic settings with a focus on contemporary issues. Two examples of contemporary Christian fiction are the standalone novels The Reason and The Sinner's Garden by William Sirls.

OTHER CHARACTERISTICS OF THIS GENRE:

• Prioritizes realistic portrayals of characters and situations

• Encompasses a broad range of genres, especially romance

• Deals with events and situations that are current or have happened in the last few decades

• Reflects the social, cultural, and political landscape of the time period in which stories are written

CLOSING REMARKS:

As you can see, there are different avenues Christian writers can take for Christian fiction based on the seven subgenres mentioned above; whether it's Amish, biblical, romance, fantasy, suspense, historical, or contemporary. If you're a Christian fiction writer, it may be a good idea to use one of these subgenres to narrow down to your reading groups or choose based on what's popular within the book market. For more writing videos or tutorials, subscribe to my writing channel Journey of a Christian Writer series. Okay, that's it for this post. If you liked it, please, give it a (heart❤️), take part in the poll 🤔, and share your thoughts or comments 💬 below.)  

Happy Writing! 😊✍🏽💻

🤔Hey, writers, what is your favorite Christian fiction subgenre listed below?

• ❤️ Christian Romance
• 🔍 Christian Suspense
• 🧭Historical Christian

Check out the mentioned books in the list below on Amazon:

• The Photograph by Beverly Lewis

•  The Road Home by Bevery Lewis

• The Guardian by Bevery Lewis

• The Out From Egypt series by Connilyn Cossette

• The Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis

• Eva's Promise by M. L. Bull

• Love Story by Karen Kingsbury

• Just Once by Karen Kingsbury

• The If I Run series by Terri Blackstock

• The Pact of Freedom by M. L. Bull

• Bridge of Haven by Francine Rivers

• The Reason by William Sirls

• The Sinner's Garden by William Sirls

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