Biblical Fiction's Comeback Is Riding 'The Chosen'

Biblical fiction was a sleepy subgenre in Christian publishing for most of the 2010s. Lynn Austin and Tessa Afshar kept it alive with strong work that didn't reach much past their existing readership. The Chosen changed that.

Dallas Jenkins's series has reached an estimated 280 million viewers across its seasons. The audience effect on Christian publishing is specific. Readers who watched Jonathan Roumie play Jesus for four seasons want more first-century, Roman-occupation, gospel-adjacent storytelling than print Christian fiction was producing.

Angela Hunt's The Daughter of Rome sits squarely in that lane. It's a Nero-era novel about a Roman woman's encounter with the early church, written for readers who came to the genre through The Chosen. It's also one of the better-selling biblical fiction debuts in years.

What's selling in the wave:

• Roman-era settings. First-century Rome, Judea under occupation, Nero's persecution, the early church spreading through Asia Minor.
• Female protagonists. Most of these books center women whose lives are touched by Jesus or the apostles, often peripherally. The Chosen used this device with Mary Magdalene's storyline. Hunt and others have followed.
• Series potential. The Chosen audience is conditioned to follow characters across many hours of story. Single-novel biblical fiction underperforms series in 2026.
• Theological care. Christian fiction readers are sophisticated about doctrine. A first-century novel that gets the geography or the messianic expectations wrong gets called out.

The ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) biblical fiction category has grown for three consecutive years. That's measurable, and it lags actual sales by about 18 months, so the trend probably has runway through 2027.

For authors writing biblical fiction in 2026, this is a moment when Christian publishers are actively looking. Hybrid presses like Morningstar are taking debut authors in the genre that wouldn't have made the cut three years ago. The bar isn't lower. The market is bigger.