Caught
in the Winds
Detailed
Description
In
this dark-comic novel, Morrie Schiller is a new philosophy student at
an evangelical college in Milwaukee. Try though he may, he just
doesn't fit into the Christian campus scene.
The girl he
loves sees
him only as a ‘brother’, (themes about sexuality here.) and he’s
in the crossfire as radical fundamentalists rage against the school
with extremist views. Add to mix, he's haunted by an obsession to
become a Roman Catholic.
Enter
(antagonist) Jack Joplin, a mysterious, larger-than-life stranger,
who lures Morrie to embrace a spurious brand of philosophy, which
promises to "transcend beyond religious conventions".
Morrie takes the
bait and his lack-luster love-life is catapulted
into Faust-like adventures that go beyond his wildest dreams. He goes
from a nobody to one who can allure the hearts of the most beautiful
(and posh) girls on campus, even threatening the power of the
school's authority and the entire religious establishment on campus.
This
is not your ordinary "Christian novel" and you probably
won't find it in most church libraries. Aimed at the reflective
reader, it challenges the bedrock of conventional,
evangelical
religiosity. However, as a coming-of-age novel, Morrie also comes to
a higher place of faith after passing through the fire of
testing.
Here you will
find a backdrop of liturgical spirituality
that should also appeal to Catholic readers. Morrie passes from a
grossly underdeveloped sexuality (ladened with religious shame),
through Jack's misogyny, to a place of authentic maturity.
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