Religious fiction

Inspirational fiction is a sub-category within "inspirational literature," or "inspirational writing," defined in various ways in the United States and other nations. More and more bookstores (including online booksellers, such as Amazon) and libraries consider inspirational fiction to be a separate genre, classifying and shelving books accordingly.

Organizations like LYRASIS, the nation’s largest regional membership organization serving libraries and information professionals, have begun holding classes for library workers to "explore the explosion in recent years in popularity of Inspirational Fiction and how it has blended in with all other genres to become appealing to more than its original target audience.

Libraries are increasingly recognizing and using the categories of inspirational writing and inspirational fiction. In the larger category of "inspirational writing," there are some books that easily and obviously fit, such as the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, clearly written for the purpose of providing anecdotes that provide inspiration to the readers. Finding a good definition for the subgenre of inspirational fiction is a little more difficult. However, while acknowledging that it is not a "rigorous category," many libraries do identify and list some works in such a category, using some working definitions to explain their choices.

For example, one library list of "inspirational fiction" books begins with the statement:

Any good book can be an inspiration, but many of these books highlight people overcoming adversity or reaching new levels of understanding. Whether they pull themselves up by their own bootstraps or have help from a higher power, these books will uplift and entertain you.

While it is true that many novels involve a positive change in the lives of some characters, this library definition might help limit the books that fit into this category to those whose main purpose, if not their entire purpose, seem to be using the example of the change in the life of a major character to inspire readers to think that such changes are possible in their lives, as well. Also, the fact that this definition includes those who learn on their own and those who have help from a "higher power" allows the category to embrace both religious and non-religious works of fiction.

While, as the above definition shows, "inspirational fiction" is a category and genre larger than religious writing, in the United States and Canada it is often used only to refer to "religious fiction," "faith-based fiction," or more narrowly (and perhaps most often), "Christian fiction". Some inspirational fiction is written to appeal to a general Christian audience, but more often in the United States "inspirational fiction" (and especially "inspirational romance") that can be classified as Christian is written for the Evangelical Protestant market. Although American literature has always been infused with religion, the popularity of Christian romance dates to the 1940s, as leaders of the Evangelical movement attempted to bring their faith into the mainstream both religiously and culturally. Some works of inspirational fiction have also been written to appeal to Roman Catholic or Orthodox Christian readers.

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Wikipedia