Hi, everyone! I’m your lovable manga writer, Dakota Love, and I’m writing this week about why a Christian perspective is important to me, as a historian, and as a writer.
A Christian perspective on history is viewing the world with God’s word in mind. For a Christian historian, history isn’t just a bunch of random events all thrown together that somehow made today. History is about people, the beautiful people God created in His image. It’s also about our Creator, the one who breathed life into us all. In Cherokee, we call God Unelanuhi, which basically means “our author”. He’s the one recording this amazing narrative, with all the choices we make, all the things we discover, all the friends we find. God cares about every detail, and that’s why it’s important to me as a historian and writer.
The other reason a Christian worldview is important to me is because it helps me find common ground between cultures. Following in the multi-disciplinary footsteps of St. Augustine, I like to use history and apologetics at the same time. I write about a group of superheroes from many different cultures.
And here they are! I’ve got a Cherokee shapeshifter, a french vampire, two Dakota Indian wind spirits, and a French-Viking Paladin. What makes them all work together? Their faith! I researched all these cultures, perhaps unhealthily. The most interesting story is about this guy, The Cleric, also known as Krishna Patel.
Here he is with his mom. I love watching Bollywood movies, and I love India. I have a lot of friends from India. I love the magic and the culture, and I wanted to share that culture with people here in America. I wanted to include actual Indian culture and mythology, which is using my historian skills, and also show that the major Indian mythologies don’t have to conflict with Christianity. Looking through the lens of God’s word, and the wonderful examples of people in the Bible finding common ground between cultures to share God’s word, like Paul’s sermon on Mars’ Hill, I exhaustively researched for this character.
I used the name Krishna, the most beloved of Indian mythology characters, and had him being protected by Mother Shakti, the Hindi angel who protects the innocent. Shakti rescued Krishna (as a child) from a natural disaster, loosely based on the 2004 tidal wave. She protected him from evil, just as she had rescued the mythological Krishna from an evil king in the legends. With these two characters, I was able to use both history, mythology, culture, and apologetics to find the common ground between our belief systems. And you know what? My mom eventually ran into people from India who believe the same way I do, and my books were absolutely perfect for them. I could show that this Krishna
The guy who loves animals, cares for the poor, and helps people, has a lot in common with this Krishna,
a superhero who carries his faith with him as he helps the innocent, and works to save the day. And incidentally, both Krishnas have a healing ability. Yeah!
The point of it all? I love having a Christian worldview in history. Following the examples in the Bible, I like to pay attention to the details, the people that make the world what it is. I also love to utilize apologetics along with my historian skills to show that we have a lot of common ground, if we take the time to look for it. Yes, I might go a little crazy sometimes – The shiny online Hindi course offered by Liberty University a few years ago is what got me into college. I wanted to learn more Hindi to make the character better. And it worked! Now, the books are doing what I wanted them to all along – show people that we are all important, and that we can all make a difference in this world.
I hope all of you have a super great day. This post was from my heart, and I hope it inspires you to take the time to look at the beautiful details all around us. If we look hard enough, we can find common ground, and God can help us use our skills to help others all over the globe.
May Unelanuhi Guide You!
Dakota Love
TheForwardsBackwardsBlog 
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