Midwest
Book Review
Set
at the end of this century, Father Elijah is an apocalyptic novel exploring the
state of the modern world and religious scene by following the experiences of
Fr. Elijah Schafer, a Carmelite priest on a secret mission for the Vatican
which embroils him in a series of crises and subterfuges affecting the ultimate
destiny of the Church. Father Elijah is a convert from Judaism, a survivor of
the Holocaust, a man once powerful in Israel. For twenty years he has been
"buried in the dark night of Carmel" on the mountain of the prophet
Elijah. The Pope and the Cardinal Secretary of State call him out of obscurity
and give him a task of the highest sensitivity: to penetrate into the inner
circles of a man whom they believe may be the Antichrist. Their purpose is to
call the Man of Sin to repentance, and thus to postpone the great tribulation
long enough to preach the Gospel to the whole world. In this richly textured
tale, Father Elijah crosses Europe and the middle East, moves through the
echelons of world power, meets saints and sinners, presidents, judges, mystics,
embattled Catholic journalists, faithful priests and a conspiracy of traitors
within the very House of God. This is an apocalypse in the old literary sense
and written in the light of Christian revelation. Father Elijah is an engaging,
can't-put-it-down novel! --