Episode Details

Today’s next Fantastical Foe doesn’t look that villainous. Instead she dresses up as whimsical kittens, cozy cottages, or obvious heroes and villains. He will approach you with pleasant platitudes, from a church, or even from that smiling popular fantasy author. She will shine like an angel of light, telling your heart beautiful lies such as, “Everyone is basically good, and you only need to fight something else.” Beware this second Fantastical Foe: Sentimentalism.

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Episode sponsors

1. Enclave Publishing: Enhanced by Candace Kade
2. Once Upon a Ren Faire by A. C. Castillo
3. Realm Makers 2023 conference

Concession stand

• This episode isn’t so much about the “clean fiction” debate (episode 81).
• Our focus is not on old sentimentalities, but modern sentimentalities.
• We’ll not accuse Christian sentimentalists, but will make general allusions.
• Some villains attack “sentimentality” because they hate virtue and goodness.
• We don’t refer to healthy sentimentalism—a love for good things or memories.

Quotes and notes

• The Kinkade Crusade, Randall Balmer in Christianity Today, Dec. 24, 2000
• Brandon Sanderson Is Your God, Jason Kehe at Wired.com, March 23, 2023
• Thomas Kinkade’s Cottage Fantasy, Joe Carter at First Things, June 16, 2010
• “The Bob Newhart Show,” YouTube clip: “Stop it!”
• The Therapeutic, Ctd., Jake Meador at Mere Orthodoxy, March 22, 2023
• The Chosen Succeeds Where Woke Stories Fail, Jenneth Dyck at Lorehaven, Feb. 2, 2023
• Jon Acuff on “toxic empathy,” Jan. 17, 2023 tweet:

Toxic Empathy: When someone I love is headed toward a health, financial or relational train wreck and instead of telling them the bridge is out I encourage or even celebrate the decisions that are slowly destroying them because I want them to like me.

1. Old sentimentalism: People are mixed, church is good, world is mixed, Jesus is good (yet optional)

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