Fiction: Pastor Stephen Grant: Short Stories & Faith Alone: Giertz' Prequel to Hammer of God

Keating, Ray. Past Lives: A Pastor Stephen Grant Short Story, From the pages of Pastor Stephen Grant's Journal. Long Island: Keating Reports, 2021. 67 Pages. Paper. Kindle Available. $9.99. (Also available signed and in bundles at author site) https://raykeatingonline.com/products

Keating, Ray. What's Lost? A Pastor Stephen Grant Short Story, From the pages of Pastor Stephen Grant's Journal. Long Island: Keating Reports, 2021. 91 Pages. Paper. Kindle Available. $9.99. (Also available signed and in bundles at author site) https://raykeatingonline.com/products

Giertz, Bo. Translated by Bror Erickson. Faith Alone: The Heart of Everything. Irvine: 1517 Publishing: 2020. 271 Pages. Paper. $14.95. https://www.amazon.com/Faith-Alone-Everything-Bo-Giertz/dp/1948969351

I can read a reference book in about the same time as a theological tome. Non-fiction is laid out logically, whether topically or chronologically. 

Fiction takes me much longer to digest. Much longer.

Fiction engages me in a way that mere ideas do not. The best fiction leaves me wanting more. The characters and situations I find in good fiction enter my dreams and daydreams. I am engaged. Like other readers, I rejoice to finish a good book or short story, and then I grieve that there is no more (especially when I'm caught up on a series).

The fiction titles I present to you today had me engaged, intrigued, interested, and waiting for more. 

Below, you can see the entire run of the Pastor Stephen Grant series. We're up-to-date. 

Both titles are short stories in the range of 50-75 pages and both were released in 2021.

Past Lives: A Pastor Stephen Grant Short Story

Torn from pages of his own journal, Pastor Stephen Grant tells about threats, murder and puzzling people from his past. It’s a compelling mystery involving action, unexpected turns, lost innocence, and twisted revenge. 

This is the first Pastor Stephen Grant story told from Grant’s own viewpoint, unfolding each day in the pages of his journal.

What's Lost? A Pastor Stephen Grant Short Story

From the pages of his own journal, Pastor Stephen Grant tells a riveting mystery involving deception, betrayal, sacrifice and friendship, along with plenty of action and questions about what we truly can know about others. Grant takes us on a personal journey across decades and around the world, from Long Island to Vietnam.

This is the second Pastor Stephen Grant story told from Grant’s own viewpoint, unfolding each day in the pages of his journal.

(Publisher's Website)

I'm a reviewer that wishes to avoid spoilers. That said, let me focus on the impact both books had on me. 

Past Lives is a reminder that everyone has a past, including you and especially Stephen Grant. Even he needs pastoral care: 

So, he added, "Stephen, you can't save everyone. You can't do it -  save all people from physical harm, no matter what your SEAL and CIA impulses might be. And you certainly can't save anyone's soul - that's all about Christ. But you know that you can help, and make a contribution in each case. You need to put it all into perspective, stop beating yourself up, and realize that you can make a difference" (48).

That paragraph was a piece of comfort I needed for a rough season. It's a great payoff to an interesting journal-based short story.

The first-person perspective gives the Stephen Grant universe some freshness while we wait for the main plot to continue. The wrap-up to What's Lost? gives the reader valuable insight into the man behind Grant, author Ray Keating:

....For some reason, [redacted character's] comments about not knowing ourselves and not knowing others bugged me...[I know my friend, Paige....] I know my wife.... And best of all I know that I'm a Christian, I'm blessed to be a pastor, and that I have the love, forgiveness, redemption and salvation offered by Jesus Christ.

Like Jen said, not of this means that I won't have doubts along the way, nor does it mean that people will not surprise me, for better and for worse. Yes, we're all sinners. But I have the confidence of knowing the Lord, and yes, of knowing who I am (73).

In his Stephen Grant short stories, Keating shows a depth of understanding of the human condition, our need for honest self-evaluation and correction under God's law, and our need for Christ's gift of forgiveness. His pastoral protagonist gives and receives pastoral care. The character development of Grant and that of his family and friends avoids the "reset" trope of so much literature and television. The humanness of the novels and short stories is striking, memorable, engaging, and comforting. We grow along with Stephen.

We look forward to future fiction titles by Ray Keating!

Giertz' Hammer of God was required reading at the seminary in our very first class. It left us wanting more. 

Hammer of God prepared us well to put into practice both patience and tact, as well as reading C. F. W. Walther and properly distinguishing Law and Gospel in our preaching, teaching, and pastoral care. For too long the last section of Hammer of God was missing. 

In recent years we have been blessed to read and review other books by Bishop Giertz translated from the Swedish by Rev. Erickson. 

What is Faith Alone?

Bo Giertz wrote Faith Alone in 1943. It is a prequel to his better-known novel, The Hammer of God. The novel begins in 1540 and ends in 1543, during which time the largest peasant revolt in the history of Scandinavia occurred under the leadership of Nils Dacke. The Dacke Rebellion, as it is known, started in the county of Småland but bled over into the Ydre district on Östergötland's southern border with Småland.

The plot follows the story of two brothers, Anders and Martin. It was the wish of their mother that these two brothers would become priests in the Catholic Church, and so they were both sent to study for the priesthood in the town of Linköping, Sweden, when they were quite young. It was at this time that the Reformation began in Germany, and Sweden fought for independence from Denmark, breaking the Kalmar Union. German mercenaries hired by King Gustav Vasa to fight Danish troops brought Reformation literature with them. So, Martin became a Lutheran and left for Stockholm to work for King Gustav Vasa as a scrivener. His brother Anders continued with his studies and became a Catholic priest.

When the king has to pay his debt to Lubeck for the mercenaries he hired for the war, he confiscates the church's land, bells, silver, and gold to do so. With this he firmly declares his cause with the Reformation doctrine of Martin Luther. However, the people of Småland are fond of Roman Catholicism and chafe at Lubeck's measures. So, they rebelled. Anders takes up with their cause and joins with Nils Dacke and his men. Martin stays with the king, before becoming disillusioned and falling in with a group of Schwärmerei, or pre-Pentecostal legalists. As the war comes to an end both brothers are brought back to the Reformation faith through the patient shepherding of a Lutheran priest named Peder.

This is Bo Giertz's masterpiece-written with the doctrinal clarity and purpose of G.K. Chesterton and C.S. Lewis, the historical acumen of Bernard Cornwell, and the psychological insight of Kafka. The result is a Scandinavian Noir that cuts open the soul and lays it at the foot of the cross. (From the Publisher via Amazon)

It took me far too long to pick up this title. It took my far to long to get into this title. Yet, once I did, the prequel paid off.

What Hammer did for defending true Lutheranism against pietism, Faith does for defending the Lutheran Reformation against Roman Catholic teaching and practice and what I can only describe as a proto-pietism that leads to the pietist practices that endure in some places yet today. We read Hammer for our first seminary class. I recommend that Faith be required reading for a fourth year course on pastoral theology.

Too much of Bo Giertz has been missing from the shelves of English-speaking and -reading Lutherans and other Christians. Bror Erickson is virtually single-handedly improving things for the better. 

My favorite details in the novel are when the translator retains Swedish words and cultural practices within the text that are explained with a simple footnote. This is artfully done and is respectful of the original material and the reader.

Rev. Erickson, please keep translating! We thank the Lord that you learned Swedish!

Dear readers, my prayer is that these works of fiction may be edifying, inspiring, and comforting to you.

Rev. Paul J Cain is Senior Pastor of Immanuel, Sheridan, Wyoming, Headmaster of Martin Luther Grammar School and Immanuel Academy, a member of the Board of Directors of the Consortium for Classical Lutheran Education, First Vice-President of the Wyoming District of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and a member of its Board of Directors, Rhetoric Teacher for Wittenberg Academy, and Editor of Lutheran Book Review.   He has served as an LCMS Circuit Visitor, District Worship Chairman, District Evangelism Chairman, District Education Chairman/NLSA Commissioner, and District Secretary. A graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Rev. Cain is a contributor to Lutheran Service Book, Lutheranism 101, the Hymnal Companion hymn and liturgy volumes, and is the author of 5 Things You Can Do to Make Our Congregation a Caring Church. He is an occasional guest on KFUO radio. He has previously served Emmanuel, Green River, WY and Trinity, Morrill, NE. Rev. Cain is married to Ann and loves reading and listening to, composing, and making music. He dreams of running his own publishing house some day in the Lord's timing.