Attribution in Fiction: How ?

On page 262 of The Discipling of Mytra, I paraphrase some material from John Piper’s What’s the Difference?

Before publication I kept wondering how to acknowledge the wording I had borrowed from Piper. Novels don’t have footnotes, after all. Then I forgot about the issue entirely. Only after publication did I remember that I had never found a solution. So unfortunately in the current edition there is no attribution given to Piper for his very helpful teaching on gender. This blog will have to do for now.

I want to fix this in the next printing. My question is how? Do I mention Piper’s work in the introduction? On the acknowledgements page? Somewhere else? Any advice you can give would be much appreciated.

Christian Science Fiction: Spoiling the Egyptians

Non-Christians invented the science fiction genre. Does this mean Christians should avoid it? Hardly. To reject an idea because of who thought it up is to commit the genetic fallacy. Unbelievers come up with good ideas all the time. We should incorporate and use these good ideas (after all, do they not labor to store up wealth for the righteous?).

The Israelites spoiled the Egyptians on their way out of Egypt (200 years back-wages, plus interest). What did they do with these treasures? They used them to build the tabernacle. (They also made the golden calf, but we’ll save that for another time.)

In capturing the science fiction genre and using it to build Christ’s kingdom, we are spoiling the Egyptians. We are taking their wealth and using it to make the kingdom of God bigger and more beautiful.

Spoil the Egyptians!