The Sword—Book 1 of a planned trilogy—is not your typical Crossway book. But then again, Bryan Litfin isn’t your typical theology and patristics scholar!
How to describe it?
It’s fiction, but theological. It’s a medieval setting, but set in the future.
Confused? This video will likely help explain it a bit more:
In a recent interview (see part 1, 2, and 3) Dr. Litfin was asked if he thought it filled a gap in the literature:
First of all, I see it filling the man gap. I think I’ve written a book that men will like. And I wanted to. It’s a story that has lots of adventure, and a strong masculine character—Teo—and a strong, beautiful, female heroine—Anastasia. So there is a sense it which it fills a gap by writing to men. And not just to women, who get all the prairie romances, and all the women in the Civil War pining for their Christian [lovers]— all the chick lit stuff. So, yes, it will fill that gap.
I think also, I don’t want to be presumptuous, but I am a theologian by trade and a fiction writer by night. So I wanted it to be theological. There’s all kinds of allusions to Scripture, and references to theological themes. It may or may not be seen by all the readers. But there’s a theology that’s woven into it.
And it’s a theology of God’s sovereignty. It’s a theology of admitting sin. It’s a theology of trusting God and taking a step of faith. Not to say other Christian writers don’t have those themes, but I think readers of this book will sense that it’s written by a theologian church historian. It’s a tone that’s there. Hard to describe.
You can find out more about the book at the official website, which includes a number of more videos talking about the purpose, the characters, the theology behind it, the writing experience, etc.
