Contains:
In Warsaw, Poland, during the Nazi invasion, bookseller Pawel Tarnowski takes in David Schäfer, a Jewish youngster who has fled from the ghetto. He conceals David in the bookshop's attic, despite his trepidations of being discovered. During the winter of 1942-1943, the two debate good and evil, sin and redemption, literature and philosophy, and their differing theological conceptions of reality. Decades later, David converts to Catholicism and becomes Carmelite priest Fr. Elijah Schäfer, who is summoned by the Pope to meet the Antichrist in Michael O'Brien's best-selling novel,
Father Elijah: an Apocalypse.
In this prequel, the author addresses the meaning of love, religious identity, and sacrifice from two different perspectives. The quirky ensemble of side characters include the infamous Count Smokrev, a literate Nazi Major, a French author, a frightening Polish bear, the Russian icon painter Andrei Rublev, and Pawel's beloved Kahlia, the elusive figure who glides through the tale as an invisible presence.
As the novel progresses, the loss of spiritual fatherhood in late Western culture is shown to be an issue of misunderstood language in the heart and soul, as well as one of our times' most serious problems. The narrative indicates the road to the rediscovery of our heavenly Father, as well as the path to the rebirth of human fatherhood. This is a story of how minor decisions may change the course of history.
Paperback. 488 pages.
In Father Elijah, Michael O'Brien has written a gripping apocalyptic thriller about the Roman Catholic Church at the end of time. It investigates the state of the modern world, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the contemporary religious scene, by sending his central character, Father Elijah Schäfer, a Carmelite priest, on a secret mission for the Vatican, which entangles him in a series of crises and subterfuges affecting the Church's ultimate destiny.
Fr. Elijah is a conversion from Judaism, a Holocaust survivor, and a previously influential figure in Israel. For the last twenty years, he has been "buried in the black darkness of Carmel" on the prophet Elijah's mountain. The Pope and the Cardinal Secretary of State now summon him from obscurity to assign a critical mission: to infiltrate the inner sanctum of a man they believe to be the Antichrist. Their goal is to convict the Man of Sin and therefore postpone the great tribulation long enough to spread the Gospel to the entire globe.
In this intricately nuanced narrative, Father Elijah travels over Europe and the Middle East, meeting saints and sinners, presidents, judges, mystics, besieged Catholic journalists, devoted priests, and a conspiracy of traitors within the very House of God. This is an apocalypse in the traditional literary sense, but one written in light of Christian revelation.
Paperback. 597 pages.
The long-awaited sequel to the best-selling novel Father Elijah: An Apocalypse continues the saga of a Catholic priest sent to confront a powerful politician who may be the Antichrist prophesied in the Bible.
Now a Bishop, Elijah has found himself framed for a murder he did not commit. Despite the authorities on his trail, he is resolved to meet with the President again. He enters Jerusalem, accompanied by his fellow monk Brother Enoch, just as the President arrives in the holy city to begin a new stage of his journey to global dominance. This time, Elijah aims to expose him as a spiritual threat to humanity. As the tale progresses, individuals from all backgrounds meet the renegade priest, revealing the state of their souls in the process.
Even while under mounting pressures of forseeable doom, Elijah persists in his mission. The dramatic conclusion emphasizes that God works all things for the benefit of those who love him.
Paperback. 288 pages.