KIRKUS REVIEW
One
Christian’s account of being a biblical-style seer in the modern day.
In 1967, while Santos (Seers in the Kingdom, 2014) was in Japan during an earthquake, he says, he had his first “visible angel encounter,” although he’d previously seen the ghostly auras of some of the older boxers at the U.S. Marine Corps boxing camp. In this debut memoir, the author, a former Marine, asserts a reality in which he and some other fellow Christian evangelicals do mundane things such as charter buses and attend faith conferences while also seeing visions, healing the sick and commanding legions of angels to combat the forces of darkness. The result seems like a cross between Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins’ Left Behind series and Carlos Castaneda’s Don Juan series. Santos’ storytelling is personable and energetic throughout. He and other spiritual road warriors travel to exotic locations such as India and South Africa, which he describes in some detail, where they thrillingly battle demons and lay hands on the sick. As his story unfolds, the author presents a picture of a feverishly active spiritual world, albeit a strictly Christian one. Some parts of the picture, however, may strike even his most credulous readers as a bit of a stretch. At one point, for example, an airline official tells him the charge for extra carry-on luggage, but he mishears it; when he’s told the charge again at the airport, he tells a friend that because the quote is familiar, he must have “supernaturally heard” it the first time. The book also portrays a God that’s interested in the smallest minutiae (as when Santos gets a free upgrade on a rental car); however, as is customary in such faith-narratives, God is unwilling to simply and unambiguously appear to everyone.
For evangelical Christian readers, Santos offers a lively account of being a spiritual force in a darkness-haunted world.
In 1967, while Santos (Seers in the Kingdom, 2014) was in Japan during an earthquake, he says, he had his first “visible angel encounter,” although he’d previously seen the ghostly auras of some of the older boxers at the U.S. Marine Corps boxing camp. In this debut memoir, the author, a former Marine, asserts a reality in which he and some other fellow Christian evangelicals do mundane things such as charter buses and attend faith conferences while also seeing visions, healing the sick and commanding legions of angels to combat the forces of darkness. The result seems like a cross between Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins’ Left Behind series and Carlos Castaneda’s Don Juan series. Santos’ storytelling is personable and energetic throughout. He and other spiritual road warriors travel to exotic locations such as India and South Africa, which he describes in some detail, where they thrillingly battle demons and lay hands on the sick. As his story unfolds, the author presents a picture of a feverishly active spiritual world, albeit a strictly Christian one. Some parts of the picture, however, may strike even his most credulous readers as a bit of a stretch. At one point, for example, an airline official tells him the charge for extra carry-on luggage, but he mishears it; when he’s told the charge again at the airport, he tells a friend that because the quote is familiar, he must have “supernaturally heard” it the first time. The book also portrays a God that’s interested in the smallest minutiae (as when Santos gets a free upgrade on a rental car); however, as is customary in such faith-narratives, God is unwilling to simply and unambiguously appear to everyone.
For evangelical Christian readers, Santos offers a lively account of being a spiritual force in a darkness-haunted world.