What Christian inspired writing trope/cliche is best?

[CarburetorThompson]

This isn’t a thread to talk about religion, I’m only interested in which Christian inspired writing/story cliche is the most interesting/fun to read about.

If I missed anything comment it below.

 

[greyblob]

forbidden fruit

 

[Echimera]

What about corrupted/evil church?

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Hard to tell how many tropes in Christianity are uniquely Christian - over a dozen cultures around the world have flood myths, several have "man swallowed by giant fish" tropes, many have "feeding of multitudes" and even "self sacrifice to save others"
Further, some of those mentioned are not exactly Christian ones - Lilith is in the Torah but not the Old Testament; the Circles of Hell were first codified in the writings of Dante but they were probably adopted from elsewhere and never mentioned in the Bible itself.

Of the ones listed, the Seven Deadly Sins have had the most impact on pop culture, from the origin of Shazam! (Captain Marvel), to the plot of the movie Se7en, to (via kind of a reversal) the anime Seven Deadly Sins, so that one would get my vote of the ones listed.

My favorite though, is probably Job, the man tormented for his faith, a faith that never completely wavers, despite everything he suffers.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Four Horsemen. We even had those on SHF. On a side note, I don't remember a lot of Leviathans in fiction. Maybe I should read something other than the brainrot isekais, but those are rare as hell(heh) for me.

 

[Jemini]

Hard to tell how many tropes in Christianity are uniquely Christian - over a dozen cultures around the world have flood myths, several have "man swallowed by giant fish" tropes, many have "feeding of multitudes" and even "self sacrifice to save others"
Further, some of those mentioned are not exactly Christian ones - Lilith is in the Torah but not the Old Testament; the Circles of Hell were first codified in the writings of Dante but they were probably adopted from elsewhere and never mentioned in the Bible itself.

Of the ones listed, the Seven Deadly Sins have had the most impact on pop culture, from the origin of Shazam! (Captain Marvel), to the plot of the movie Se7en, to (via kind of a reversal) the anime Seven Deadly Sins, so that one would get my vote of the ones listed.

My favorite though, is probably Job, the man tormented for his faith, a faith that never completely wavers, despite everything he suffers.

All of this is so on-point.

I would have to say though that my favorite is Leviathan, because it's actually a cross-religion character. Leviathan is basically what Christians re-named Tiamat to. She makes her first appearance in the book of Job (ironically enough as that's the very one you called out,) when God describes the creation of the Earth and it's strangely different from the Genesis creation story. In fact, if you are up on your cross-religion lore, God is actually recounting the Enuma Elis in this passage, with him taking Marduk's role and Tiamat re-named to Leviathan.

Four Horsemen. We even had those on SHF. On a side note, I don't remember a lot of Leviathans in fiction. Maybe I should read something other than the brainrot isekais, but those are rare as hell(heh) for me.

You would have to really get into the weeds to see Leviathans in their true original manifested version in mythology. They are essentially eldrich horrors from before the days of Lovecraft.

They all share the quality of being larger than the earth itself and of incomprehensible power. They often appear as the primordial precursors that birthed the gods, or as some kind of major pillar that holds up the Earth.

He is never called as such, but if you compare qualities and match them to Tiamat, Bahamut from Hindu mythology ticks off all the same boxes to be considered a Leviathan.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

All of this is so on-point.

I would have to say though that my favorite is Leviathan, because it's actually a cross-religion character. Leviathan is basically what Christians re-named Tiamat to. She makes her first appearance in the book of Job (ironically enough as that's the very one you called out,) when God describes the creation of the Earth and it's strangely different from the Genesis creation story. In fact, if you are up on your cross-religion lore, God is actually recounting the Enuma Elis in this passage, with him taking Marduk's role and Tiamat re-named to Leviathan.

I am sadly lacking in knowledge of the Babylonian and Sumerian mythoi, having just found bits and pieces, many of them contradictory, over the years. Completely missed that point (and that makes at least three different Creation Stories in The Bible - Genesis has two, the poetic "one day at a time" one and the Creation of Life/Garden of Eden narrative one.

 

[Jemini]

I am sadly lacking in knowledge of the Babylonian and Sumerian mythoi, having just found bits and pieces, many of them contradictory, over the years. Completely missed that point (and that makes at least three different Creation Stories in The Bible - Genesis has two, the poetic "one day at a time" one and the Creation of Life/Garden of Eden narrative one.

It is a complete WTF moment the first time you catch that one. Just read the Enuma Elis, and then immediately after read the passage in the book of Job where God talks to him. It's wild.

Also, according to what I heard talking to an elderly Jewish woman I cared for for a while (I work in healthcare,) it seems that in some of their really advanced classes that dive deep into the Torah, they also study Babylonian/Sumerian mythology in order to compare the parallels... because there are a LOT of them, and the Jews apparently do not ignore this fact and instead embrace it in their studies in order to understand what's written more deeply.

 

[georgelee5786]

Seven deadly sins

 

[Deleted member 84247]

I like the 9 circles of Hell and the seven sins. I am not biased or anything about the sins.

 

[melchi]

I kinda liked how Hellsing used the catholic / protestant schism to add another layer to the Irish vampire hunters.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

I kinda liked how Hellsing used the catholic / protestant schism to add another layer to the Irish vampire hunters.

word

 

[BouncyCactus]

Not quite Biblically canon, as the church considered them Apocrypha, but the monstrous angels, whose catchphrase of "Be not afraid" finally makes sense, and the beautiful devils who use their charms to charm women and turn them into witches.

One of my favorite stories of this is actually about the statue Genie du Mal, or Lucifer of Liege, which was a commission by the Liege Cathedral of Belgium. The first iteration had to be removed soon after its installation because the statue of the devil was "too alluring and too distracting" to the nuns, and a second version was commissioned, to the brother of the first sculptor. Who makes him even hotter, and puts a chain on him too.

 

[ThrillingHuman]

Snek.

 

[Vnator]

Tiamat, Bahamut from Hindu mythology

Pretty sure those two are from Mesopotamian myth, definitely not Hindu lol.

But there are a ton of Hindu myths that have influenced modern day Christian ones and even a lot of fantasy, but nobody ever realizes it

 

[Sabruness]

Four Horsemen. We even had those on SHF. On a side note, I don't remember a lot of Leviathans in fiction. Maybe I should read something other than the brainrot isekais, but those are rare as hell(heh) for me.

huh, i've seen a few leviathans but dont think i've ever really seen 4 Horseman... unless the generic 'Demon Lord's 4 generals/subordinates/"insert X title" trope counts.

 

[BouncyCactus]

Demon Lord's 4 generals/subordinates/"insert X title" trope counts.

I thought that one is more Buddhist-Chinese going what the Four Heavenly Kings/Guardians Beast?

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

None among the listed, but I did integrate the Christian pantheon in my isekai work, with Jesus (implied) governing the Earth and Gaius Julius Caesar governing my MC's universe.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Pretty sure those two are from Mesopotamian myth, definitely not Hindu lol.

But there are a ton of Hindu myths that have influenced modern day Christian ones and even a lot of fantasy, but nobody ever realizes it

My senior year in college I had an Armenian girlfriend, and she pointed out (was only really barely aware of herself, but more was amused by) how Indian mythology shaped both her homeland's faith (and, even more, colored their "version" of Christianity when they adopted it) but also the Celtic mythology.

 

[ChronicSleeper]

My favorite has to be angels. I like angels of all kinds, whether they are really powerful fodder for the MC during the later chapters, extremely strong "demi-gods", or the scary "biblically accurate" ones. Maybe it's just the wings I like, but I fuck with the white-gold theme the angels got going with them. (Yes the sexy ones are cool too)