The Student Prophet: Going Home

Logue (The Student Prophet: New Partners, 2010, etc.) offers another globe-trotting thriller with Christian themes.

This final installment in the Student Prophet trilogy brings readers back into the world of Jeff Fitzpatrick, a Penn State University psychology professor who, as a young boy, realized he was a prophet of God; he later teamed up with the FBI to use to his visionary powers to protect the world from forces of evil bent on destroying it. In this book, 50-year-old Jeff finds himself on a strange beach on his birthday, apparently experiencing a dream covering the big events of the past 30 years of his life. His old nemeses the Dragon and the Leader are back, still set on hunting down and destroying Jeff, his family and friends, and fellow prophets Fatima and Rachel. Scenes of high drama stand alongside touching domestic moments, including family tragedy, which make the story an emotional page turner. Unfortunately, at some points, the dream framework works against the narrative; when Jeff skims over roughly three decades of life events to catch up to the present day, for example, readers are given an immense amount of information. As a suspense novel, it has a tendency to show its hand too soon, and the prose is occasionally awkward, including dialogue that too often reads like exposition: “You know, Raphael, even though we are archangels, we still have limitations in what we can do.” Despite these missteps, the story has a real depth of feeling, and the smaller moments between Jeff and his family and friends present appealing images of Christian life. The book’s take on theodicy and the power of God, although never addressed head-on, may also interest some readers. Christians who enjoy James Bond will certainly find something to sink their teeth into.

An intriguing, if uneven, take on Christian fiction.