Some of you may be surprised to learn that it was the mighty Harlequin empire, not any of the Christian publishing houses, that coined the phrase “inspirational romance.” Harlequin gave us Steeple Hill Books, which launched the Love Inspired line in the fall of 1997. Less than one year later, the words “Heartwarming Inspirational Romance” began appearing on the cover of every Steeple Hill Love Inspired book. The term took a few years to catch on, but is now widely used by Christian writers, editors, and publishers to describe the spiritually uplifting love stories they produce.
Yes, “inspirational romance” nearly always means “Christian.” Specifically, evangelical protestant. But should it?
According to Romance Writers of America (in language adopted for entry qualifications for their RITA Award for Best Inspirational Romance), inspirational romances are “romantic novels in which one or more characters’ religious or spiritual beliefs (in the context of any religion or spiritual belief system) are a major part of their developing relationship, not merely a minor element or subplot.”
That’s some pretty inclusive language there. RWA certainly doesn’t believe inspirational must always mean Christian. But the fact remains that virtually all inspirational romance novels are Christian.
There’s currently a huge and still rapidly expanding market for Christian romance. According to a recent Romance Writers of America survey, 61% of all romance readers say they are “interested” in inspirational novels. That’s more than the number interested in historical romances set in Scotland or in England (including regencies), and it’s way more than the number interested in paranormals. In fact, the only subgenres to beat out inspirationals in terms of reader interest were the long-established romantic suspense, contemporary romance, novels set in exotic locations, and historicals. For a subgenre that wasn’t even on the charts eight years ago, inspirational romance has seen some phenomenal growth.
Although it’s possible to find romance novels in which the faith of, say, American Indian or Jewish characters is richly depicted, those stories don’t typically include a spiritual issue that must be resolved before the couple can move on to “happily ever after.” Yet all Christian romances contain that element: in addition to the usual internal and external conflicts, there’s a spiritual one keeping the couple apart until the story’s end. It’s that unique feature that makes inspirational romance a distinct genre — you can’t build an inspirational by taking a “regular” romance and throwing in a bunch of religious references.
I don’t believe “inspirational romance” is an adequately descriptive term for what I write, but for now it’s what I have to work with. Believe it or not, telling people I am a Christian writer creates unnecessary confusion. Am I saying that I’m a Christian who writes, as is John Grisham (a staunch Southern Baptist), or that I’m a writer of Christian stories? And by “Christian,” do I mean Catholic or Mormon or Methodist or Pentecostal or something else? It seems that whatever I call myself, there’s still quite a bit of explanation required.
In the romance community right now, “inspirational” is generally taken to mean something fairly specific, so I’ll continue to use that word. But if someone of another faith wants to sit on this bench, I’ll scoot over. I wouldn’t be outraged to see a novel celebrating some faith other than (evangelical protestant) Christianity win a “Best Inspirational” RITA. RWA is a secular organization and its intent was never to promote Christianity; it simply recognized a rapidly-growing subgenre of romance that merited its own award category. So if authors writing about other religions can meet RWA’s criteria for inspirational novels, they certainly deserve to share the “inspirational” label. I suppose I could start calling myself a Christian inspirational romance novelist, but then we’d be back to the question of whether that should be taken to mean I’m a Christian who writes inspirational romance or a writer of Christian inspirational romance.
I’m interested in hearing what you all think. And I’d love it if you’d share the titles of some non-Christian romance novels that you believe satisfy RWA’s definition of an inspirational romance.
No related posts.
The inspirational market is quite limited in what publishers are buying. An author acquaintance could not sell her Catholic-based inspirational because it was Catholic. Even though she’s a best-selling author, they wouldn’t touch her book. Probably because they thought the market demands would not support it.
Some evangelicals do not consider Catholics to be Christian. I know this for a fact, having experienced this kind of prejudice.
Interestingly enough, an RT reviewer classified one of Monica Jackson’s books as inspirational AND paranormal. I haven’t read it yet, but it sounds like the underlying theology is Christian.
When RWA says “any religion or spiritual belief system,” I wonder if that includes imaginary religions. In my medieval fantasy series, faith is a major aspect of three of the stories. Maybe as an experiment I should enter two of them in the Golden Heart this year, one in Paranormal and the other in Inspirational.
It was interesting to learn where the term inspirational romance came from. Someone told me Bobby Smith’s inspirational from Leisure was Catholic-based. I’m not sure. Does anyone know?
I am a transplanted Yankee who still experiences regular culture shock here in the Bible Belt of central Virginia. It took me a long time to understand that here the phrase “Are you a Christian,” means: “are you a born-again, evangelical Protestant who believes in the literal interpretation of the Bible.” Although I became an Episocopalian when I was in my 20s, I haven’t attended church in years and am actually exploring Judaism (so I don’t fit in to the cultural norm of where I live). I don’t read Christian inspirational romances and I have not been able to find any that deal with other religions, so it is a genre that really can’t count me in its possible readership. And, yes, I think inspirationals are primarily aimed at the person who fits the Southern view of “what is a Christian.”
I would love to see other varieties of inspirationals being published: Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, etc. But since Christians are the biggest religious group, there’s a pretty large built-in reader base who aren’t resistant to or wary of the theological messages in the story. Frankly, I have a gut feeling that Muslim inspirationals aren’t going to meet with much welcome in the current political climate, and something like Hindu inspirationals, while not quite as charged, would find only a relatively small readership here in the US.
Gotta wonder what a Scientologist inspirational would read like, tho
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Bravo, Brenda! I for one would like to see more faith based stories, of any faith. But I don’t really see it happening under the term “inspirational.” As has been discussed before, there’s enough dissension within the Christian community about the content of inspirationals- will books have to have a sticker or an icon telling readers which particular religion is in the book? Sorry, but I can just see an irate reader demanding their money back because they wanted a Christian story and wound up with a book celebrating Buddhism.
I echo the first poster’s frustration: Not only are the “inspirational” romances just Christian, but they are only a very narrow stripe of Christian: conservative Evangelical Protestant. Catholics and other high-church Christians — not to mention liberal Christians — need not apply.
I think it is because only conservative Evangelical Protestant publishing houses have been on the forefront of the movement — something which the secular houses tapped into but did not create — and so the market is driven by conservative Evangelical Protestants.
Catholic and mainstream Protestant publishing houses are simply going to have to enter the fray and create a market. The same holds true for non-Christian religions as well. If the market is proven to be there, you can be sure that secular houses will try to sell to it.
I’ve found this and Robyn’s earlier blog on inspirational romance very interesting. I knew that inspirationals were Christian, but I always assumed that they included various Christian faiths not just evangelical/fundamentalist. So this was an eye opener for me. Obviously they’re popular, but it would seem to me that publishers are missing the broader spectrum here. Of course Robyn does make a good point about how you would label the individual books.
Speaking as an Evangelical Southern Christian, I’d love to see other religious faiths explored in romances, and I have no problem with them falling under the umbrella of “inspirational” romances, as long as the cover copy makes it clear what the book is about (to be fair to readers).
Unfortunately, most Inspirational lines are constricted by the CBA guidelines, which means there’s not really a slot for such books. It’s a shame.
Hello, everyone. I’ve been following these comments with great interest, but today I’d rather “listen” than join in the conversation. I just popped in to thank you all for reading my column and for taking the time to post these thoughtful responses.
You’re right in that inspirational almost always means Christian, and in a lot of cases, ANY mention of faith no matter how slight, mention of God, spirituality etc somehow translates to “Christian.”
I’m not complaining, merely offering an observation. My last novel was said “to cross over many genre lines, fantasy, Christian, etc..”
In fact it was fairly obvious that my characters were not “Christian” though it was never stated exactly what if any denomination was described. But there was talk of God, good and evil so I’m guessing that’s what earned me the Christian tag
“You’re right in that inspirational almost always means Christian, and in a lot of cases, ANY mention of faith no matter how slight, mention of God, spirituality etc somehow translates to “Christian.””
I think the assumption because of something this very simple reason:
The three main monotheistic religions, Islam, Christianity and Judaism, all refer to God in different ways.
In Islam, God is almost always referred to as Allah. *Sometimes* the word God can be understood as referring to Allah, but I’ve yet to meet a Muslim who called the God of Islam anything other than Allah.
In Judaism, especially the more orthodox/conservative branches, the name of God can’t even be written or spoken, right? Hence G_d and the like.
The word God, with a capital G, usually refers to the Christian deity.
If I’m not mistaken, all the other major religions tend to be polytheistic, like Hinduism and certain types of Buddhism (especially the Chinese-style Mahayana Buddhism which incorporates Confucianism and Taoism), in which case the specific god or goddess would be referred to by name, e.g. Siva, Ganesh, the Goddess of Mercy/Kuan Yin, etc.
I don’t write inspirational romances, but I do like inspirational threads in my novels, both what I read and what I write. What I dislike are stereotypes.
A good friend of mine who a practicing Catholic married a practicing Jew. To me, that would make a fabulous story–they dated 11 years because they weren’t sure they could reconcile their devotions. They ended up marrying and agreeing to raise their children in both faiths. (their kids are still young).
I think “Protestant Christian” when I hear “inspirational”, and that’s probably not fair, but the limited inspries I’ve picked up are all in that vein–as a practicing Catholic, I don’t get a lot out of them unless they are an exceptionally good story and I ignore the preaching (if any).
I’d love to see stories of a real exploration of faith and challenges characters face.
I love reading both CBA and ABA books (mostly historicals) so when I had to decide what sorts of books I wanted to write, that took a little while. I am a Christian, go to a nondenominational freaky church which I adore, with a lot of other creative types. At the moment, I’m writing historicals with inspirational threads — faith is a part of my characters’ lives, like it is in my own, and affects their decisions, as do other factors.
I have not read very many inspirationsals because,being of a more pagan frame of mind, I do not relate to the conservative, rule-laden “born again” philosophy.. (just doesn’t work for me, but I respect others beliefs..) I AM a very spiritual person and I absolutely LOVE reading about characters who have a strong spiritual center.. my FAVORITE BOOKS in this vein are FAYE KELLERMAN’S crime novels.Kellerman weaves in a very inspirational and modern day struggle that RINA and her cop-husband Decker have overcome in the earlier books, before they could live HEA.. and in all her books, Decker and Rinia’s spiritual ife and how it plays into their marriage, their parenting, their own careers and day to day struggles, is INSPIRATIONAL!
The faith involved is strict Judaism, and I have learned a lot about the beauty and details of another faith–
If you love inspirational work, and can handle the crime, try FAYE KELLERMAN!! Especially her earlier books.. they set the tone and history for the later work..
Actually, Brenda, the term “inspirational” being applied to Christian romances goes back much further than 1997 and Harlequin/Steeple Hill. RWA awarded Inspirational Gold Medallions (the award given before the RITAs) to Christian fiction in the mid 1980’s.
Robin Lee Hatcher
http://www.robinleehatcher.com
You’re right, Robin. I should have said Harlequin popularized the term rather than “coined” it. My point was simply that the Christian houses never called their romance novels “inspirational.” It took Steeple Hill to get that ball rolling.
Again, my thanks to everyone who has read and commented on this post.