Someone once asked Madeleine L’Engle if her Christianity influenced her writing. She said quite the opposite was true—that her writing affected her Christianity. And my own experience has mirrored L’Engle’s in that way. Writing novels with bioethical themes has forced me to look at my own beliefs and to fine-tune areas where I find inconsistencies in my thinking—whether failures of logic or failures of love. It has also made me more open to others’ experiences.
The world of story requires us to move from the arena of “sound bites” and snap judgments to the space of people’s hearts and complex lives. To “do unto others as we would have them do to us,” we must engage our imaginations and consider, “What is it like to live in the shoes of someone else?” As you read these works, I hope that you will have a wonderful time living vicariously in other worlds through characters you meet. And if, through this “edutainment” you happen to emerge with greater love for others and a stronger commitment to justice—love lived out in public—so much the better.
