Jerry B. Jenkins with James S. MacDonald. I, Saul. Worthy, 2013.
Jerry Jenkins is a prolific author who struck it big with the Left Behind series. These novels were fun at first but soon became repetitive and formulaic. I, Saul has some of the same formulae, but it is original enough to move the reader.
The title suggests the Robert Graves classic I, Claudius, the novel presented as a memoir of the Roman emperor Claudius, a contemporary of St. Paul. Indeed, part of I, Saul consists of a cleverly imagined backstory to the apostle. I was expecting something like Sholem Asch’s The Apostle, a novelization of Paul’s life that would be hard to top. I, Saul, though, is really like neither one of those books.
The memoir of Saul of Tarsus (a.k.a. St. Paul) is interspersed with the the story of his final days in a prison in Rome. Inspired by II Timothy 4:11, we see Dr. Luke the evangelist (Lucanus in Latin) tending to the aging and infirm Paul. Although a Christian during Nero’s persecution, he is given permission to help Paul because he is a licensed physician and has also been ministering to the injured and sick victims of the great fire of Nero.
Every other chapter takes place in modern times. The modern portion is the more formulaic part of the novel. A struggling seminary teacher in Texas has a friend in Italy who has partnered with a man who has discovered the manuscript of Paul’s memoir. He sends brief text messages telling the young professor that he needs his help.
Professor Augustine “Augie” Knox is dealing with his emotionally distant father in hospice and trying to maintain a long-distance relationship with Sophia, a Greek woman whose family runs an antiquities business. She is a Christian believer and one who also knows something about ancient artifacts.
Roger, Augie’s friend, received a cryptic note from a friend who apparently had the manuscript. Before Roger can follow through, someone murders his friend. When Sophia’s antiquities dealer father gets wind of this, he notes that such a manuscript could bring the finder millions, if not billions, of Euros.
A finder could not practically sell such a manuscript. One would probably break it up, as is often done with old Bibles, and sell the pages individually. Of course, Italian antiquities law states that any such find on Italian soil would not be sold at all but becomes property of the state for all to study.
At times the interludes with Augie, Roger, and Sophia seem like intrusions. Just as the Left Behind books had people traveling back and forth across Chicago ad infinitum, so it seems our modern protagonists are doing the same in Rome. As their story develops, however, we begin to get more interested in what is going on with them. The real meat of the story, though, is the Pauline memoir.
Some readers might recall the film Paul, Apostle of Christ that came out a couple of years ago. This has some similar sequences in the prison with Luke, though I have found nothing that says there was any connection between that film and this book.
This book is by Jerry Jenkins; therefore, there is a sequel [smile]. The memoir portion of I, Saul ends shortly after his conversion. We get a sense of the character of this intense and strict Pharisee who was also a Roman citizen. Jenkins handles this quite believably. Clearly, there is more of the memoir to follow.
While I, Saul works as a standalone novel, the epilogue concerning the modern characters opens the door for more action. Now, Jenkins milked the popularity of the Left Behind books to a repetitious extreme. Originally something like four to six books were planned. There ended up being sixteen plus at least another dozen or so spinoffs. Hopefully, in this case the sequel will end the series.
One interesting note. Augie Knox teaches at a small and struggling (fictional) seminary in Arlington, Texas. This is near both the largest Southern Baptist seminary which is in Fort Worth and a very influential dispensationalist seminary in Dallas. Jenkins himself worked for years for Moody Press in Illinois. Christianity Today would write of the powerful “Dallas-Moody Axis” and its influence on American theology and publishing. Jenkins seems to have a little fun with that idea. Arlington Seminary manages to barely survive, overshadowed by its two monstrous neighbors who are at one of the hubs of that axis.