Saul: A Man Obsessed - A Christian Novel

JACK D. FOSTER, Ph.D. The Ohio State University, has published many professional articles and two books on education policy. His career includes minister of three protestant churches, assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice at Youngstown State University, and public policy consultant on education and criminal justice issues at the state and national levels. He served four years as a Cabinet Secretary for the Commonwealth of Kentucky. He has been a life long student and teacher of the Christian Bible. He is now retired and lives in Lexington, Kentucky. Saul A Man Obsessed is his first novel written out of an intense interest in the personal life of the Apostle Paul.



I have always wondered what Paul the man was like. All we have is a rough sketch of his life extracted from his numerous letters which have been preserved as holy scripture. But Paul the person is shrouded in mystery and speculation. Hundreds of books have been written about him, but few attempt to deal with his personality. My imagining of Paul began to form in my mind many years ago, but after I retired I thought it would be interesting to put those images into print in the form of a Christian novel.



Saul A Man Obsessed is not another book about Paul's theology or travels. It is not a study guide on the life of St. Paul. It is an attempt to take my personal thoughts about the kind of man I think he was and present them in a fictional retelling of his life story. My intent is to create something that is engaging and enjoyable to read, but not something that resembles a biography. While I have tried to stay true to what seems certain about his life, most of the dialog and subplots are pure fiction. Most of all I hope my readers will enjoy it without yielding to the impulse to get out their Bibles to check how factual the book is. Read and enjoy it as you would any other book of Christian fiction. Leave the fact checking to the critics.