Author Waterhouse presents his diligent study of the Holy Bible and his conclusions based on that scriptural exploration. He opens his narrative with the fable of a safe, friendly little town where children could roam the streets without fear. Then a teenage boy in a new car drives through, running into and killing a deaf boy on a bicycle. The incident has far-reaching consequences, as the town begins to institute regulations, with those in power often riddled with corruption.

This fantasy illustrates how readily one may assume that evil has always dominated the human character. The author sets out to prove otherwise, asserting that even after yielding to sin, mankind possessed an innate, God-given “light.” One powerful illustration given is that when God called Adam after his fall, Adam was ashamed to answer because he was naked. It was precisely this conscience that proved the presence of Adam’s new, reconciled, God-endowed nature. Jesus then came to sacrifice his human self and remind and revive this conscience, through which God speaks to his creation.

Waterhouse, a Vietnam veteran and retired laborer, discovered the gospel of Jesus Christ in his later years and began writing about it in fiction and now in nonfiction. His ability to organize extensive spiritual truth with well-drawn, human-scale analogies supported by biblical quotations and historical and other references establishes his skill as a purveyor of wisdom in an intelligent religious context. His central message can help readers understand how to use the faith God has given them by realizing that God speaks to their inner, redeemed spirit, not to a fallen nature. Waterhouse’s tenet can provide an intriguing context for discussion among Christians encountering Waterhouse’s ideas for the first time and all who seek a wider scope of religious possibilities.

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