Bright/Cavanaugh Fiction Calls Holy Spirit to Courtroom Witness Stand
by Randall Murphree
June 21, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Calling the Holy Spirit as a witness in a New York courtroom? That's just one of the creative devices in Proof, first of four novels in "The Great Awakenings" series. Author Jack Cavanaugh is one of today's most gifted authors of historical fiction. This current quartet of titles is co-authored with Campus Crusade for Christ founder Bill Bright. It's impossible to imagine a better team for the task. Cavanaugh is master of the genre, and the late Dr. Bright was a passionate advocate of revival. The first two titles, Proof (Howard, March 2005) and Fire (Howard, June 2005), are gripping accounts of two distinct periods of revival in the United States. Though qualifying as a series because of the revival theme, the novels are not sequential, so each is a stand-alone story.
In Proof, attorney J. K. Jarves calls the Holy Spirit to the stand as a witness to the spiritual revival sweeping the nation at the time. Jarves is a celebrated and powerful man in New York's legal and social circles in the 1857-58 setting. His courtroom opponent is Harrison Shaw, a young, aspiring attorney whom the arrogant Jarves is determined to discredit for two reasons.
First, Jarves selected the unlikely Shaw over brighter, socially-adept and well-connected Ivy Leaguers for a coveted internship at his prestigious firm. However, circumstances soon forced Shaw to reject the internship when assignments begin to conflict with his Christian faith.
Jarves doesn't take rejection well, and he is further chagrined to discover that Shaw is forging an uneasy romantic relationship with Jarves' beautiful, independent daughter. Proof is a captivating chronicle of the time, with characters of depth and appeal, and clever and suspenseful storylines.
Fire is no less gripping than the first title. It is set in Havenhill, Connecticut, in 1740-41, the period of revival when George Whitefield was known as the "Trumpet of the Great Awakening." Jonathan Edwards was another notable pulpiteer of the period. Both of the great preachers make fictional guest appearances in Cavanaugh and Bright's gripping narrative.
Twenty-six-year old Josiah Rush is the unlikely protagonist as he returns to pastor his home church in Havenhill. Unfortunately, the young pastor returns under the same dark cloud that followed him out of town seven years earlier. He had fled town as a teenager being blamed for a warehouse fire that took the lives of two children.
His return strains old friendships, awakens smoldering bitterness, and finds him implicated in new tragedies -- mysterious accidents, murder and more fires. With authentic, historical detail and spiritual depth reflecting the revival periods, Bright and Cavanaugh offer a readable, instructive and masterful overview of American revival.
Of his collaboration with the late Dr. Bright, Cavanaugh says, "When we started we knew that he would probably be in heaven before the books came out. We got together for a couple of intensive sessions, which resulted in four storylines set in four different historical periods. He signed off on them and left me to do the actual writing."
It is a partnership that works to great advantage for readers. As a minister, founder of Campus Crusade and prolific speaker and author, Bill Bright produced more than 100 books and booklets. The best known is probably the evangelistic booklet "Have You Heard of the Four Spiritual Laws?," which has topped 2.5 billion in print.
Author of 21 books, Jack Cavanaugh pastored Southern Baptist churches before he began writing fulltime in 1993. He has been recognized with the Silver Medallion Award from Evangelical Christian Publishers Association for The Puritans, first volume in the "American Family Portrait" series. His novels While Mortals Sleep and His Watchful Eye won Christy Awards for excellence in Christian fiction. Both are part of his "Songs in the Night" trilogy set in Hitler's Germany.
Storm, the third "Great Awakenings" title was released in Spring 2006. and Fury is scheduled this fall.
An interview with author Jack Cavanaugh will be posted on Thursday, June 22
Randall Murphree, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is editor of AFA Journal, a monthly publication of the American Family Association.
