Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
Politics and Religion
A Lutheran Thriller

A Lutheran Thriller

Last updated on: July 14, 2022 at 9:33 am by Gene Veith

0 Comments

A Lutheran Thriller 2022-07-14T09:33:40-04:00 Gene Veith

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Summer is a time for reading. Light reading, especially. That is to say, fun reading. (See Monday’s post). But if you are like me, even fun reading needs to have at least some substance; otherwise, it fails the requirement of stimulation.

In our post If James Bond Became a Lutheran Pastor, we discussed the Pastor Stephen Grant novels, thrillers about a CIA agent who enters the ministry but still gets called upon to do violent battle against global evildoers. The author, Ray Keating, is an LCMS Lutheran and an economist by trade. In fact, he recently published a lively primer on the subject entitled The Weekly Economist: 52 Quick Reads to Help You Think Like an Economist.

But fans of his Stephen Grant books will be happy to learn that he has started another series of thrillers, The Alliance of Saint Michael novels. These novels, set in the 1930s, are about a shadowy organization that seeks to defend Christianity from the attacks then underway from both Communism and Fascism. The main characters are a Lutheran pastor, a Catholic priest, and an Anglican laywoman, plus a supporting cast of German Lutherans, Russian orthodox, and other operatives taking on Stalin’s apparatchiks and Hitler’s brown shirts.

In the inaugural novel, Cathedral, we learn the backstory of the characters and how they came together, first into an academic think tank, which then added a secret operational arm–named after the archangel known for warring against the devil–to carry out the action required by their mission.

With lots of depression-era local color, from the automat in New York City to the retired Calvin Coolidge, the story in this first book of the series centers on the efforts to save the lost manuscript of a translation of the Bible into Russian. It has been discovered by an orthodox priest, who has hidden it in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, which is being looted and demolished by the Soviets. (That part is true.) The Alliance of Saint Michael has to infiltrate the Soviet Union, find the manuscript, and get it out of Russia, in hopes of publishing and distributing it when the time is right.

The translation is described as the work of Johann Ernst Glück (1652-1705), a Lutheran theologian who lived in present-day Latvia and translated the Scriptures into Latvian. I could find no reference to a lost translation into Russian, so I assume that part of Keating’s novel is fictional, but I was glad to learn about Glück. [UPDATE: Thanks to SKJam for this: “Per our friends at Wikipedia: ‘Tsar Peter the Great felt that the Russian people needed a Bible in the vernacular and authorized Pastor Johann Ernst Glück in 1703 to prepare such an edition. Glück died in 1705 and nothing is known of his work.'”]

Not only was his theological and translating work significant, Pastor Glück had a significant impact on history. He took into his home a three-year-0ld peasant girl whose parents both died of the plague. He raised her in his household as a foster child. To make a long story short, she eventually found a position as a servant girl in the household of a Russian officer. Eventually, she caught the eye of Peter the Great, Czar of Russia, who fell in love with her. She became his mistress (I’m not saying she is the best role model), but then the Emperor Peter shocked the world by marrying her. She converted to Orthodoxy (again, not the best role model), whereupon Peter made her Catherine I, the Empress of All Russia. After Peter died, she actually ruled the entire realm, until her death two years later.

Catherine I is not to be confused with Catherine the Great, a Lutheran princess who also converted to orthodoxy and deposed her incompetent and brutish husband Peter III, the grandson of Peter and the first Catherine (a scion of one of their 12 children). But Catherine I had a great influence on her husband, including pushing the reform that she herself embodied, bringing in commoners to the government, as opposed to relying on the aristocracy. She may be, in fact, the greatest example of social mobility in history. She deserves a historical novel of her own. [UPDATE: Thanks to Amaryllis for pointing out that she already has her own series, evidently in the genre of historic romance.]

At any rate, many of you will enjoy Cathedral and the new series that it launches. It isn’t for everybody–there is some obscenity, non-pornographic sexual references, and lots of violence–and some readers dislike thrillers on principle. But Ray Keating is working with an explicitly Christian moral and theological framework, demonstrating the freedom that Lutheran novelists have in their vocation.

Photo: Ray Keating via Amazon.com

Previous Post

July 12, 2022

How to Save College Football

Next Post

July 14, 2022 A Novel of the Reformation by Bo Giertz

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"While she worked for Trump she was a tool's tool!"

reg

Luther on Tools

"I know wired earbuds are making a comeback (I never stopped using them as I ..."

reg

Luther on Tools

"VCRs, tape decks, and cassette players are all having a revival among a segment of ..."

Tom Hering

Luther on Tools

"As a (retired) lawyer I see potential liability from sharing things like power or sharp ..."

reg

Luther on Tools

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category America Apologetics Art baseball Bible Blog Christ Church crime Culture Economics Education Ethics Family Food Football Government History Holidays Holy Week Humor International Islam Language Law Life Issues Literature Media Medicine Movies Music Nature News Personal Philosophy Politics psychology Reformation Religions Sacraments Science sex Social Science Sports technology television terrorism Theology Uncategorized Vocation war

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How many days did the Israelites march around Jericho before the walls fell?

Select your answer to see how you score.

40 days 3 days 12 days 7 days

Books by This Author Books by Gene Veith

See All Titles »