Pursuit of the Christian Killers
Walter Goraski
Type: Beta project
Genre: Historical fiction, mystery, early Christianity
Word count: 103,000
In the Roman Empire, if slaves kill their master and are not turned in, all other slaves must die. Governor Pliny must find the true killers of a brutal slave master or 400 farmhands will be crucified. Many of these are Christians, and Pliny has fallen out of Emperor Trajan’s favor because of his executing Christians based on anonymous rumors.
Most books on early Christianity tend to be extremely pious and the shining souls of Christians stand out. They describe a faith about two or three hundred years after their time period of the early AD 100s. In truth, early Christianity was a hotbed of competing views of Jesus and his kingdom to come. The ink on the gospels was still wet and the role of Paul was open to debate, as was the relation between Christians and Jews after Rome destroyed the great temple. This book reflects the separation of rich and poor in the Empire, and how philosophers and medical doctors helped shape thinking about miracle cures and other feats that all religious figures were expected to perform.
I am mainly a writer of technical books, but I am also published as a classical scholar and have won awards for my fiction. For many years, I have been a Eucharistic Minister and Lector in my local Catholic church. I have given out ashes on Ash Wednesday and was asked to become a Deacon. I have taken all of my experiences with the faith of regular people, along with many years as a college professor, and put events into this book. I want it to be a fresh look at the relations between the early church and the Empire.
Registration closed early due to overwhelming demand.
Only beta team members can give feedback.