An Apostle Thru Time
“The Ground of Being is a simple timeless awareness. God has always been and always will be…The Universe is an everlasting succession of events, but its ground is the timeless now of the Divine Spirit.”
Matt Moreau struggles to translate the ancient language of the recently discovered document.
Matt’s disillusionment with the rigidity of church doctrine causes him to leave the seminary, become a professor of ancient language and seek spirituality through mysticism. In 2008, his old friend David Shapiro calls him to Jerusalem to help unravel the mystery of the document two students found in a Qumran cave.
Matt meets and falls in love with archaeologist Leslie Mueller. Together with David and Leslie’s father Jack, they deepen their spirituality and knowledge through meditation and study.
As he translates the text, Matt sees the possibility of time travel to the first century. With the hope of answering his life-long questions on faith and spirituality, he grabs the opportunity.
When he arrives in Palestine in the first century, the first person he meets is Mary, the wife that David has mourned since her disappearance five years earlier. Mary is now a friend and follower of Yeshua (Jesus) of Nazareth.
Together, Matt and Mary follow the last days before Jesus’ crucifixion with their twenty-first-century knowledge of what is to come. They enter Jerusalem with Yeshua on what will be known as Palm Sunday and follow him throughout the week as their dread of forthcoming events consumes their every thought. They live the history of Holy Week with Yeshua and his followers. They find both verification and discrepancies in the Biblical accounts.
Following Yeshua’s arrest, Matt wakes in the courtyard. “As I opened my eyes I heard a rooster crow. The sun had risen. I looked over at Peter. He was clenching his eyes shut and his lips were moving. Tears were streaming down his face.“
On the premise that over the centuries the church modified much of the Bible’s translation concerning Jesus’ life and message, the author gives a fictional alternative to church dogma—one sure to garner a response from readers of diverse faith backgrounds.
Author Adriane St. Clare is a psychotherapist who writes from a well-researched knowledge of the culture, languages, places, and times of the beginnings of Christianity. In the dedication, she notes that the story is an attempt to answer both her mother’s and her own faith questions.
There is no copyright page, and I found a few typos in an otherwise well-presented book and cover. The characters are intriguing, the setting is historically accurate and the plot flows smoothly. For the reader who is willing to check out this book with an open mind, St. Clare presents a well-told story with a plot that will keep the pages turning.
Reviewed by
Pat Avery
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
