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Sto caricando le informazioni... Cross Examineddi Bob Seidensticker
Nessuno Sto caricando le informazioni...
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In 1906, three men share a destiny forged by a prophecy of destruction. That prophecy comes true with staggering force with the San Francisco earthquake and fire, and young assistant pastor Paul Winston is cast into spiritual darkness when his fiancée is among the dead. Soon Paul finds himself torn between two powerful mentors: the charismatic pastor who rescued him from the street and an eccentric atheist who gradually undercuts Christianity's intellectual foundation. As he grapples with the shock to love and faith, Paul's past haunts him. He struggles to retain his faith, the redemptive lifesaver that keeps him afloat in a sea of guilt. But the belief that once saved him now threatens to destroy the man he is becoming. Paul discovers that redemption comes in many forms. A miracle of life. A fall from grace. A friend resurrected. A secret discovered. And maybe, a new path taken. He realizes that religion is too important to let someone else decide it for him. The choice in the end is ... Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
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I enjoyed this book, but it has a little trouble being both a narrative and a fair-minded examination of belief and atheism. The traits that make the characters more vivid unbalance the intellectual argument.
The central character is Paul Winston, a young man with a criminal background who has been taken under the wing of of the Reverend Stephen Hargrove, whose church specializes in apologetics. He has found peace and purpose as the pastor's assistant. When Hargraves predicts a disaster that seems to be fulfilled by the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, his church becomes famous and attendance swells. Hargrove sends Winston out to do some door-to-door evangelizing, and he encounters the recluse Jim Emerson. Emerson counters all of Winston's apologetics with arguments that Winston cannot refute. Hargrove urges him to keep trying, and Winston is reluctant to admit that he is losing the argument with Emerson. It is here that things get complicated. It turns out that Hargrove and Emerson (and it is revealed, Winston), have a messy history, and Hargrove has feet, if not legs and knees of clay. On the other hand, perhaps as balance, Emerson's isolated life does not argue for the benefits of unbelief. In the end, both Hargrove and Emerson change for the better, which may also be an attempt at balance. I found the ending rather odd; for one thing, Winston is not, really a prodigal, but I suppose that it bespeaks forgiveness, but surely he isn''t going back to either of his earlier lives. While this all makes the characters more interesting, it also risks making the intellectual arguments more emotional as the reader reacts to them.
A secondary plot is that of Winston's fiancee, Athena Farber. She is believed killed in the earthquake, but was rescued and taken in, along with other survivors, by Buddhist monks. The experience makes her rethink her religious beliefs, her engagement, and what she wants for a future. This actually works better than Winston's story, although we don't know the ending. (