Reception: "A Distorting Mirror"
Reviews
Not reviewed in many mainstream review sources upon first release, unless in Christian book sections.
Mixed reviews in both mainstream and religious publications.
Booklist Nov. 1, 1995
“LaHaye and Jenkins… flesh out such prophecies as the rise of an Antichrist, but the question they really pose is: How will good but unbelieving people fare in the aftermath of the rapture?”Christian Science Monitor August 22, 1996
“The plot and characters are satisfying, and the tone is more fiction than preaching. As the book ends, the reader hopes struggling individuals will succeed in their new mission, to rejoin loved ones taken into heaven. Based on the ending, there will likely be a sequel.”Library Journal June 1, 1996
LaHaye and Jenkins “have written a gripping thriller that captures the anxiety and fear that interpretations of Revelations often inspire. For most libraries.”Christian Century May 22, 1996 (Comparing Left Behind to Pat Robertson’s apocalyptic thriller End of the Age)
“For years Pat Robertson and Time LaHaye have been articulating conspiracy-laden theories about the last days, mostly in gloomy nonfiction… Now they’ve added sizzle to their apocalyptic visions by casting them as pop fiction.”“Though full of diatribes and unflattering portrayals of women, liberals, Jews, Californians and the media, Left Behind is suspenseful and surprisingly well written. The characters think and act like real people.”
As book and series grew more popular, more in-depth commentary arose.
What does the book mean for Christians?
Christianity Today Sept. 1, 1997
“ [Left Behind] creates a distorting mirror in which American evangelicals can see their community reflected…The Christians in these end-times are individualistic, suspicious of the church, and strongly committed to evangelism and their Bibles. They like Jews and Israel and they want to like Catholics but are afraid of being too inclusive”
For Americans?
Free Inquiry Spring 2001
“The Harry Potter books are read by kids who …understand that the witchcraft stuff is make-believe. The Left Behind books are consumed by grownups who receive them as deadly serious instruction about soon-to-come cataclysmic events. The mainstream media miss that essential difference, and treat the Left Behind books as cheerful Sunday school curiosities. They are a lot darker than that. Coming as they do from a prominent figure on the politicized Religious Right, the real-world ramifications of the series ought not be let pass unnoticed.”The author goes on to point out that although the religious right tends to tout patriotism as conservative Christian values, that Left Behind actually depicts a world in which public figures are corrupt and irrelevant and that democratic establishments have no value.
What does the book mean for Catholics?
National Catholic Reporter June 15, 2001
“Great literature the books are not. They are awkwardly written, if occasionally effective in conveying the chaos of the end times. They are bogged down by endless plot ruts. You can skip 50 pages (in a 375-page book), and nothing new will have happened.”The series has a “mean-sprited vision of faith” and “a certain clubbiness with other believers, a rather smug ‘We’re in on the truth’ attitude. … “I found myself slipping into the books’ mindset and making a mental ‘heaven or hell’ note any time a character died.”
Author argues that Catholic biblical scholars do not treat Revelation as “a kind of biblical Nostradamus” like Protestants do.
William Portier (Mount St. Mary’s college): Concerned that “more Catholics have contact with things like biblical prophecy as understood by evangelical Protestants and mediated by things like books and movies” (So, the vision espoused by popular media has more and more usurped scholars and theologians in interpreting the Bible, and in influencing how people understand it)
For American politics and foreign policy?
Time 3/27/06
Kevin Phillips, author of American Theocracy, says that when Bush decided to invade Iraq, he “was ensured a cheering section from those elements of the Christian right fascinated by ‘end times’ theology—the belief in Christ’s imminent return, and the prospect of Armageddon beginning in the Middle East—popularized in brimstone best sellers like Time LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins’ Left Behind novels.”Is there a “LaHaye factor” on Middle East policy? Polls suggest that 50% of those voters who voted for Bush in 2004 believe in word-for-word accuracy of the Bible.
Much of the reception, especially as sales soared, was asking the question of how and why these books became so popular.
Who is reading these books?
Newsweek May 24, 2004
- 71% from South and Midwest (just 6% from Northeast)
- “core buyer” = 44 year-old born-again Christian woman, married with kids, living in the South
- 1 in every 8 Americans is reading the series
Also, check out this blog
Satire:
With such prominence in mass media, there are bound to be satires of Left Behind.
Here’s one… “Left Below”