A 2021 Gallup survey found that less than half of Americans now claim membership in a religious congregation for the first time in history. I Am Sophia, a new novel by Episcopalian author J. F. Alexander, imagines a not-so-distant future in which organized religion is gasping its last breath.
When a mysterious and charismatic woman insinuates herself into a fringe religious group, its dozen members wonder whether she is a lunatic, a con artist, or a messiah. Sophia quickly upends the routines and expectations of the group—the last Christians in the inhabited solar system—while Peter, their struggling leader, becomes increasingly obsessed with her. Before long, Peter finds himself following Sophia on a perilous interplanetary adventure which may cost both of them their lives.
Bishop Mary Gray-Reeves, managing director of The College for Bishops of The Episcopal Church, calls I Am Sophia “beautiful, poignant, and theologically insightful . . . it uncovers eternal truths by engaging with real life in all its grittiness.” The Rev. Dr. Jann Aldredge-Clanton, author of In Search of the Christ-Sophia, writes that Alexander “combines the gifts of a compelling storyteller, religious scholar, and visionary.” Half of the novel is set at a future version of San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral.
J. F. Alexander is writer-in-residence at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in San Jose, California. Raised in the Texas panhandle, he earned degrees at Austin College, Tufts University’s Fletcher School, and Stanford Law School and was a U.S.-Germany Fulbright fellow and a Newbigin fellow in theology. He has worked in law, business, and NASA’s human spaceflight program.
Receive a 25% discount on I Am Sophia at wipfandstock.com. Order before June 6, and enter the discount code SOPHIA.
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I Am Sophia, A Novel by J. F. Alexander
Resource Publications, an imprint of Wipf & Stock Publishers (released spring 2021)
Paperback ISBN 978-1-7252-9186-7 / 232 pages / $22
Now available in paperback, hardcover, and digital formats at wipfandstock.com and from booksellers around the globe. Find more information at jfalexander.net/i-am-sophia.
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