: Re: How to write a sincerely religious protagonist without preaching or affirming or judging their worldview? I am writing a book in which one of my main characters is a devout Catholic. His struggles

@Megan928

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I just have some miscellaneous observations:

Secular people were much rarer then than now. What makes your character different in the England of that era is his Catholicism more than his piety.
It will be important to think about how the Church views magic. Is it, in their view, all witchcraft and hence the work of Satan? Or can they come to view it as a kind of natural philosophy; just using a set of natural principles that are part of God's creation? Do Catholics and Anglicans view this differently? How about Scottish Presbyterians?
In your world, is one of these views actually correct, or do you want it to be ambiguous?
As a case study of this sort of thing, Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomican depicts the experience of converting to Catholicism in a sympathetic light without tipping his hand about his own religious beliefs.
This may not be helpful, but The Simpsons shows some sympathy for Flanders' religiosity even while mocking him. If there's any part of this you can use, it's that his religion actually motivates him to try to be a good person. (Not saying this is always true in the real world!)

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