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It was a book many publishers rejected before one gave it a chance—then watched in amazement as a tiny trickle of sales grew into a steady stream and finally cascaded in a mighty torrent.

It was a book that made it okay for Christian men to read fiction, once mainly the province of women and sometimes condemned from the pulpit as evil or at least a distraction from more productive pursuits.

It was a book that proclaimed specific positions on a host of complex and often controversial theological issues concerning the ways of God, humanity, and invisible spiritual forces. But this book did so not by biblical exposition or logical argumentation, but by means of fictional characters that work out their linked destinies in an engrossing, fast-paced adventure story.

And it was that rare cultural phenomenon—a book that millions of people knew and talked about, whether or not they had read it, or its sequel, or the other books that followed in its wake.

The book was This Present Darkness, Frank Peretti's hair-raising 1986 novel about the struggle between Bible-believing Christians and New Age cultists who battle each other and assorted supernatural forces for control of their once quiet town.

That spine-tingling novel paved the way for a growth spurt in Christian fiction that continued with Left Behind, the end-times novel by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins that appeared nine years later. Left Behind unleashed an unprecedented publishing tsunami of nine adult novels (thus far) with sales of 30 million copies. More than a dozen related titles have sold over 20 million copies.

At the same time Left Behind books claimed top spots on fiction bestseller lists, Bruce Wilkinson's breezy and inspirational The Prayer of Jabez has taken up a lengthy residence on the major nonfiction lists.

In fact, the trade magazine Publishers Weekly announced in its March 18 issue that Jabez and Desecration, the latest Left Behind novel, were the publishing industry's best-selling nonfiction and fiction books in 2001. "This is the first time that two Christian titles have headed our annual charts," said the magazine.

"Now Christian publishing is a force to be reckoned with by the world and by the media," says Carol Johnson, vice president of editorial at Bethany House Publishers. "We are no longer considered a small, insignificant ghetto."

"Left Behind and The Prayer of Jabez are to Christian publishing what Tiger Woods is to golf," says Bill Anderson, president of CBA (formerly the Christian Booksellers Association). "They have raised the profile and increased the word of mouth and 'buzz' for Christian books."

Profound changes during the last two decades have transformed the way books are conceived, published, and marketed. From large commercial enterprises to smaller houses specializing in academic or theological works, publishers have endured more plot twists and gut-wrenching moral dilemmas than readers encounter in a stack of Christian novels.

Frank Peretti was an unpublished novelist and former associate pastor who worked in a ski factory when he sent an 850-page manuscript called The Heavenlies to Crossway Publishers. Today, many editors won't even consider books not represented by literary agents. (Peretti later hired a literary agent and left Crossway for a multimillion dollar, multibook deal with Word Publishing, now called W Publishing Group, a division of Thomas Nelson Inc.)

This Present Darkness sold 4,000 copies during its first six months, at the time quite a respectable figure for a first-time novelist. Today, most larger publishers won't work with authors who don't already have significant public platforms. Few publishers will sign projects unless convinced they will sell at least 5,000 copies in the crucial first few months of a book's release. In the early '80s, Christian fiction was still an upstart genre. Today it is the most popular genre in Christian retail stores.

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April 22 2002, Vol. 46, No. 5