Writer Alters Landscape of Christian Fiction

The success of Jerry Jenkins’ literary career has been like a meteor crashing into the world of Christian fiction, changing the landscape forever.

He co-wrote the apocalyptic thrillers of the “Left Behind” series that have sold 55 million copies in eight years. “Desecration,” written with the Rev. Tim LaHaye, like the rest of the series, sold more than any piece of fiction worldwide in 2002, publishing experts say. Such numbers have opened the eyes of readers, publishers and authors to the viability of the genre.

Now comes Jenkins’ first solo venture into prophetic fiction, “Soon: The Beginning of the End.” About 350,000 copies -- a high number for any type of fiction -- have been shipped to bookstores in its first month, according to Tyndale House Publishers.

“He pushes the horizon a little farther for all of us,” said James Scott Bell, a Los Angeles author who writes Christian legal thrillers. “His tremendous success has opened the eyes of readers who normally wouldn’t think about Christian fiction.”

Since 1995, the number of Christian novels has grown from 500 to close to 2,000, many now published by divisions of major houses such as Viking, Warner and Doubleday.

All have themes that reflect Christian values, such as the power of redemption through faith and the harm of sex outside of marriage. The fiction comes in almost every category, including romance, historical and children’s works. If the books were movies, they would be G-rated.

Critics say the quality of the once-dismal fiction has also risen, though, as a whole, it remains a notch below mainstream novels. The fact that the genre is on an upswing can largely be attributed to Jenkins, his boosters say.

“I think he will be remembered outside the industry as a writer who stumbled into a great and perennially fascinating topic,” said Jana Riess, religion book review editor for Publishers Weekly. “Within the industry, [he’ll be known] as a tremendously hard worker who remembered all the little guys who made him successful” and he’s “a mentor to many, many novelists in the industry.”

Jenkins, 54, is good-natured bear of a man who looks like a younger Santa Claus with his white beard and ample belly.

Friends and colleagues say he hasn’t been changed much by success. He still makes a 150-mile round trip on Sundays to attend a friend’s church in Littleton, Colo. He supports the same charities he gave to before his success -- “those who don’t ask” -- only with a few more zeros. They include Moody Bible Institute, Bethel College in Indiana, Colorado Christian University and Sammy Tippit Ministries.

And he continues to be a mentor to aspiring and published Christian novelists, primarily through the Christian Writers Guild that he runs. The guild offers classes, conferences, health insurance and mentors to fiction writers with a Christian worldview.

Jenkins this year created “Operation First Novel,” a contest with a $50,000 first prize and publishing contract for unpublished Christian writers. The entry deadline is February, and the winner will be announced in July. It was patterned after “Project Greenlight,” a contest for first-time screenwriters developed by actors and screenwriters Ben Affleck and Matt Damon.

“His writers’ guild has become an important vehicle to help new writers get started and established writers to improve their craft, which raises the bar for Christian fiction generally,” Riess said.

Jenkins wrote the “Left Behind” books from an outline by LaHaye, an expert in Bible prophecy. The series takes readers through a fictionalized but fundamentalist interpretation of the Book of Revelation, the final showdown on earth between God and Satan.

In between the “Left Behind” books, Jenkins has continued his prolific literary career that began as a newspaper sportswriter in Michigan.

Jenkins has written 150 books, including as-told-to sports biographies on Dodger pitcher Orel Hershiser, Texas Ranger pitcher Nolan Ryan and the late Chicago Bears running back Walter Payton.

He has written children’s books, self-help guides and mystery novels. Jenkins also was a ghostwriter for Billy Graham’s best-selling autobiography, “Just as I Am.”

But in 1995, “Left Behind” won him many fans among readers -- and made him a target of secular critics.

The books are usually blasted for their literary shortcomings or literal interpretation of Christian theology.

“Had these books simply found a small niche audience, we could ignore them as cultural flotsam, no more or less disturbing than Guns & Ammo magazine, militia survival guides and the Heaven’s Gate suicide cult,” wrote Zachary Karabell earlier this year for The Times, only the second time the books were reviewed by this newspaper. “But the ‘Left Behind’ series is not a fringe phenomenon, and the story is not treated as fiction by many of its readers.”

Jenkins said that his own maturity and the novels’ financial success have helped cushion the critics’ blows.

“I do the best that I can,” said Jenkins, who lives in Colorado Springs with his wife. “But I am offended for the readers. How can they all be wrong? Something has to be working.”

The last five “Left Behind” novels debuted atop major bestseller lists -- secular and religious. “Glorious Awakening,” the 11th of the 13 books, is scheduled to be published in March.

Jenkins cringes a bit when asked how long he takes to write one of his books. “Twenty-one working days,” he said.

He explains that he holes up at his Colorado mountain retreat -- he nicknames it “the cave” because it has no phone, no television, no radio and no Internet -- and doesn’t come out of his office each day until he has banged out 20 pages.

Jenkins’ new solo book, “Soon,” is a pre-apocalyptic thriller set in 2009, when a new international government votes to outlaw religion, deeming it the most serious threat to world peace. Leaders also vote to replace the calendar designation AD (the abbreviation for “in the year of our Lord”) with P.3 (post-World War III).

The protagonist -- a modern-day Paul -- persecutes people of faith until he has a dramatic conversion experience and becomes a leader of the Christian underground movement.

“I see it as a warning, not a prediction,” Jenkins said. “I don’t want to see World War III, and if I do, I don’t want to see a loss of the right to practice one’s religion.”

Jenkins got the idea for the novel after reading letters to the editor in Time magazine that proposed a post-Sept. 11 ban on religion if the world wanted to stop wars.

“I was thinking, ‘These are intelligent people who really believe this,’ ” Jenkins said.

Another motivation for the book was to encourage Christians to be more sensitive about how they spread the Gospel.

“I acknowledge that evangelicals have a divisive and inherently offensive message: We believe Jesus is the way to God,” Jenkins said. “If we don’t find compassionate, loving ways to express that, and if we can’t find ways to still love and respect and get along with those who disagree, it would be hard to blame people for wanting laws to keep them from even having to hear it.”