|
Publisher:
Xulon Press |
Release
Date: January 2003 |
ISBN:
1-591603-89-7 |
Awards:
|
Format
Reviewed: Softcover |
Buy
it at Amazon |
Read
an Excerpt |
Genre:
Christian – Inspirational |
Reviewed:
2004 |
Reviewer:
Kristin Johnson |
Reviewer
Notes: Reviewer,
Kristin Johnson, released her second book, CHRISTMAS COOKIES
ARE FOR GIVING, co-written with Mimi Cummins, in October 2003.
Her third book, ORDINARY MIRACLES: My Incredible Spiritual,
Artistic and Scientific Journey, co-written with Sir Rupert
A.L. Perrin, M.D., is now available from Publish America. |
Copyright
MyShelf.com |
|
Peculiar
People
By Richard Soule
Indiana
Jones gets a new female counterpart, but young archaeologist Tess
Swift is lucky she didn’t try to steal the Ark of the Covenant
from the first Indy movie. Tess is spiritually disconnected from
just about everything---family, husband, relationships, God---except
for a mysterious recurring dream about discovering an ancient scroll.
The dream never included any advice for Tess to steal the relic…or
did it?
Tess
is less thrilled by the scroll’s potential religious implications
than by the money she can get for a priceless early Christian document
dating from the time of Paul the Apostle in Ephesus. Like some modern
academics, who are skewered wickedly in one of Tess’ flashbacks
when a “feminazi” college professor ridicules one of
Tess’ classmates for her Christian beliefs (don’t you
just hate it when someone who actually practices academic freedom
speaks up to defend the patriarchal hegemony and potentially blow
your tenure track?), Tess hopes to debunk the Christian religion.
However, God has another plan in mind for Tess.
Tess
translates the scroll and learns the fascinating story of Aquila
and Prisca (who in a tolerable coincidence is nicknamed Priscilla,
which is Tess’ middle name), the only married couple prominently
mentioned in the New Testament. As it happens, they also had a love
that few people could hope to attain, but which Richard Soule suggests
can only happen in the Christian faith. To be fair, Tess’
life and Prisca’s pre-Christian life as a spoiled wealthy
daughter of Rome (she makes Nicole Kidman’s Ada in Cold
Mountain look worldly) seem empty. When Prisca is brought to
God, she faces a life more fulfilling and terrifying than any she
could have imagined as she and Aquila build the Christian church
in decadent Rome. Even more astonishing, her destiny intertwines
with Tess’s in Richard Soule’s plausible, inventive
finale.
We
all know about Jimmy Swaggart and the televangelists, but the modern
ACLU assault on religious expression and Pledge of Allegiance controversy
with the Ninth Circuit in California, are equally reprehensible,
echoing the persecution of the early Christians. Soule’s work
will undoubtedly provoke thought, debate, and soul-searching.
|