Of Demoniacs and Graphic Novels

Holy Christian Hedonism Batman! Check out this great new resource from Desiring God Ministries.

Christian comic books leave me queasy, having been scarred as a child by things like this and this. And what child of the 1970s and 1980s growing up in conservative evangelicalism can forget when Archie and Jughead were Christians (wait, with perseverance of the saints, I guess they still are, but…).

This is different.

Titled "The Gadarene," the graphic novel is an adaptation of a John Piper poem about the demonized man's encounter with Jesus.

Several years ago, a man with years of experience in youth ministry told me that the story of the Gadarene demoniac is the Bible story, he'd found, that unconverted teenagers most identified with, as he was taking them through the biblical narrative. Like the man of the tombs, they found themselves feeling "out of control" and abandoned.

The fictional element of this book, imaginatively told from the basis of the biblical story, touches on just this kind of problem. Matters of father/son relationships, alienation, and the steps toward rebellion are all in here.

This graphic novel could be a good resource for your ministry, especially in starting conversations with teenage boys.