Bob Seindensticker's Cross Examined is an interesting read. It is a compelling and simple work of historical fiction, loosely based on the events of the 1906 earthquake and rumors of prophecies of the event (A reporter in Los Angeles printed a prophecy of destruction given at the Azusa Street revival on the day of the earthquake with Frank Bartleman releasing a tract trumpeting the earthquake as the judgement of God soon after, and Adventist prophetess Ellen G. White retroactively claimed a vision of the same). Mr. Seidensticker's first foray into novel writing uses the lives of a few affected by and taking advantage of this momentous event as a vehicle for a very competent discussion of both the personal journey of reflection upon divine power and theodicy always created by such events, as well as a thorough examination of many common tropes invoked by Christian apologists and their answers from an atheistic or agnostic sources.
In many ways, this book fills a niche that has needed to be filled for some time. While at places almost trite in its trotting out of arguments used by both sides of the Christian/Atheist debate, it manages to build a comprehend-able and coherent story line of spiritual quest, despair, and discovery that will feel eerily familiar to many children of evangelical boomers who have found themselves disillusioned with Christianity-as-they-know-it and dissatisfied with the answers provided by their confident and self-righteous leaders and elders. Cross Examined uses a comfortingly familiar fiction - similar in style to many works by writers of Christian drama and romance - to seriously question the assumptions and/or pat answers that many of us heard across pulpits or at conferences in our formative years. In doing so, it provides an understandable, concise, and shareable answer to the question of "how did you stray so far so quickly," a question that, I can state from experience, is a hard one to answer.
This is, perhaps, the book's greatest strength. At times, the only way to explain the journey so many of us have taken seems to be to take someone down a path already traveled by oneself - a patent impossibility. This book covers a lot of territory in that journey, couched in historical fiction, and allows the opportunity to either offer the book itself as an answer, or perhaps more importantly to open discussion on one's own journey. In that regard, the book can also be used as a simple way to bring ideas related to apologetics and debate into churches or study groups that are willing and open to having their views challenged in a productive way.
The book promised a "surprise ending," which I will not give away. Suffice it to say that the ending at first felt a bit like a let-down, and quickly became the high point of the book for me, in that it provided the most room for thought and the greatest opportunity to map the ideas of the book onto the life and angst of emerging Christians in our time. Don't skip to the end, though... it doesn't make sense without the rest of the book, and at any rate you would miss out on a entertaining and thought-provoking read.
(Full disclosure: I received this book for free in order to review it. I
was not required in any way to give it a positive review. If I did, it
was because I genuinely enjoyed it :)
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