The Pilgrim's Digress: Why Christians Should Avoid the Fantasy and Horror Genres by Benjamin Szumskyj

In The Pilgrim’s Digress, former editor and literary critic Benjamin Szumskyj details the time he spent writing and working in the genres of fantasy and horror literature. Biographically reflecting on the years he spent as a teenager and young adult, Szumskyj realized that his newly-discovered Christian faith was inconsistent with his involvement with secular fiction. Upon leaving the field of literary criticism, he was concerned to discover that many Christian readers embraced the genres that he once studied. To counter this, Szumskyj began writing The Pilgrim’s Digress as a work of discernment in order to expose these genres as not being credible instruments in living out the Great Commission, to rebut claims that secular literature should be celebrated and read by Christians, and to admonish so-called Christian fantasy and horror authors and their novels. Unlike many other Christian books that condone such genres, Szumskyj’s The Pilgrim’s Digress is a labor of love that seeks to promote a high view of Scripture, redeem the time spent reading works not born of the Kingdom, and inform Christian readers of the dangers in reading both Christian and secular literature that are labeled fantasy and horror.