In Defense of Fiction CHRISTIAN LOVE FOR GREAT LITERATURE by Leland Ryken
https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/in-defense-of-fiction
Why J. I. Packer Reads Mystery Novels (Or, In Defense of Light Reading) by Justin Taylor posted NOVEMBER 28, 2018 on thegospelcoalition.org
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/j-packer-reads-mystery-novels-defense-light-reading/
Did Paul Oppose Fiction by John Piper
https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/did-paul-oppose-fiction
I found this quote of Packer on Facebook. I'm not sure how accurate it is:
Why J. I. Packer Liked Detective Stories
“I started young, ingesting my first Agatha Christies when I was seven. Since then I have read, among others, all the Sherlock Holmeses, Father Browns, and Peter Wimseys; all the Ellery Queens, Agatha Christies, and Carter Dicksons; all the John Dickson Carrs and Dick Francises except one; all the full-length stories of Hammett, Chandler, James, and Crispin; and all the work of new arrivals Amanda Cross, Antonia Fraser, Simon Brett, and Robert Barnard; not to mention most of Margery Allingham, Austin Freeman, Freeman Wills Crofts, Erle Stanley Gardner, Rex Stout, Ruth Rendell, and Julian Symons.”
“What I enjoy,” he explained, “is the poignant perplexity of the puzzle, the sleuth’s superior brainwork, and the doing of justice by clearing the innocent and exposing the guilty.”
They are the kind of stories, he believed, that would never have existed apart from the gospel. “Culturally, they are Christian fairy tales, with savior heroes and plots that end in what Tolkien called a eucatastrophe—whereby things come right after seeming to go irrevocably wrong. Villains are foiled, people in jeopardy are freed, justice is done, and the ending is happy. The protagonists—detectives, Secret Service agents, noble cowboys and sheriffs, or whatever—are classic Robin Hood figures, champions of the needy, bringers of merited judgment and merciful salvation. The gospel of Christ is the archetype of all such stories. Paganism unleavened by Christianity, on the other hand, was and always will be pessimistic at heart.”
—J. I. Packer, “From the Senior Editors: ’Tecs, Thrillers, and Westerns,” Christianity Today (1985), 12.
