St.
Luke addressed his Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles to a man named
Theophilos.
Who was Theophilos? Scripture scholars do not know, making him a fit
subject for Michael O'Brien's vivid imagination. In this fictional
narrative, Theophilos is the skeptical but beloved adoptive father of St.
Luke. Challenged by the startling account of the "Christos" received in
the chronicle from his beloved son Luke and concerned for the newly
zealous young man's fate, Theophilos, a Greek physician and an agnostic,
embarks on a search for Luke to bring him home. He is gravely concerned
about the deadly illusions Luke has succumbed to regarding the incredible
stories surrounding Jesus of Nazareth, a man of contradictions who has
caused so much controversy throughout the Roman Empire.
Thus begins a long journey that will take Theophilos deep into the war
between nations and empires, truth and myth, good and evil, and into
unexpected dimensions of his very self. His quest takes the reader into
four ancient civilizations - the Greek, Roman, Jewish, and that of
Christianity at its birth, where he meets those who knew this man that
some believe is the Messiah.
Though Theophilos is a man of the past ages, he is as familiar to us as
the men of our own times. Schooled in the empiricism of both medicine and
philosophy, Theophilos is well suited to speak to our age in which seeing
cannot be the basis for faith, but rather hearing the witness of those who
have been touched by God and opening ourselves to the possibility of an
encounter with the living Christ. This is a story about the mysterious
interaction of faith and reason, the psychology of perception, and the
power of love over death.
--Product description from the publisher
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