A Landscape With Dragons - Tha Battle For Your Child's Mind

Product Description

What is the difference between acceptable fantasy and dangerous fantasy? What makes stories such as The Chronicles of Narnia recommended reading, while other magical tales are labeled as evil?

In this study of the pagan invasion of children's culture, O'Brien, the father of six, describes his own coming to terms with the effect it has had on his family and on most families in Western society. His analysis of the degeneration of books, films, and videos for the young is incisive and detailed. Yet his approach is not simply critical, for he suggests a number of remedies, including several tools of discernment for parents and teachers in assessing the moral content and spiritual impact of this insidious revolution. In doing so, he points the way to rediscovery of time-tested sources, and to new developments in Christian culture.

Our society has shifted from a Christian world view, and the pagan message is being packaged to appear "Christian" in many books and films. If you have ever wondered why a certain children's book or film made you feel uneasy, but you couldn't figure out why, this book is just what you need. This completely revised, much expanded second edition also includes a very substantial recommended reading list of over 1,000 books for kindergarten through highschool.

Michael O'Brien is a professional artist, and author of the best-selling novels Father Elijah, Strangers and Sojourners, Eclipse of the Sun, Plague Journal, and A Cry of Stone.

Table of Contents:

Foreward
Acknowledgements

I. Encounters With Dragons
- An Early Encounter
- The Natural History Museum
- The True History of the Universe

II. The Shape of Reality - Seeing the True Form
- Just a Fairy Story?
- Dragons in Myth, Legend, and Faerie
- Answering the Critics of Fairy Stories

III. A Child's Garden of Paganism
- Culture and the SEarch for Truth
- The Incarnation and the Image
- The New Gnosticism

IV. The Mortal Foe of My Children
- The New Illiteracy
- Invasion of the Imagination
- Vigilance, Paranoia, and Uncle Walt
- Where is it All Leading?

V. Neopagan Liturature For Children
- Why Has the West Become Neopagan?
- Madeleine L'Engle's "Christian" Neopaganism
- The Gray Zone
- Some Notes on Spiritual Discernment

VI. The Resoration of Christian Storytelling
- Tolkien's Middle-earth
- C.S. Lewis' Fantasy Novels
- George MacDonald and the Baptiszed Dream

Conclusion: Are Christians Intolerant?

Recommended Family Reading
- Picture Books
- Easy Readers
- Short Chapter Books
- Books for Intermediate Readers
- Adult Titles