I would venture to say that the superstitiousness of Macfarlane is almost laughable. He appears to have very little knowledge of the historic Catholic faith and oversimplifies a very complex and rich faith tradition. I picked up this book for free from the local Catholic church and I guess the price was about right! Let me just start by saying that the theological positions the writer of this book apparently takes are horrible. It is far more compelling than anything you will read in 'Pierced by a Sword.' This scenario is actually an episode from the life of the author, Bud McFarlane Jr. The man then uses his large salary to hire divorce attorneys who remove her sons from her and force the divorce settlement against his wife who wants to preserve their marriage despite her husband's adultery.

Consider a novel in which a director of a large Catholic non-profit organization, a man who makes hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, should violate Church teaching by divorcing his wife and the mother of his four sons for another woman. There are much better works of Christian religious fiction out there. Does anyone else find it bizarre that a work of Catholic religious fiction should advocate the drinking of hard liquor and smoking? He has a naive view of the world in which the good guys hang out on the campus of Notre Dame, eat at McFarlane's favorite campus pizza joint, drink his favorite brand of whiskey (Maker's Mark) and smoke his favorite brand of cigarettes (Marlboro). The plot of this book is a struggle between the Marian Catholics as represented by McFarlane, against the enemies of religion as personified by Mormons, liberal Catholics and a bizarre cast of Russian Generals typecast from the old 1950s Cold War novels. This is not orthodox Catholic teaching, although it is presented as such in this novel.

McFarlane discusses Mary in this novel as though she were a goddess, actually performing miracles and personally answering prayers without God. This school emphasizes the role of Mary almost exclusively, largely ignoring the role of the Saints, the Church or even the Trinity. McFarlane was an advocate of the 'Marian Movement' in US Catholicism in the 1990s. The Catholicism in 'Pierced by a Sword' is not the same Catholicism that you probably practice personally. The characters are instantįor Catholics who read 'Pierced by a Sword' and are confused, let me clarify something. One of the great features of religious fiction is the believer's struggle with their own sinfulness as well as society's rejection of Christian values. The main characters of this novel were drug abusers, materialists and womanizers who miraculously are converted to perfect Christians overnight. There is no character development in this novel.

The dialogue was completely unbelievable, using 1950s slang in a 1990s context.

Pierced by a sword bud macfarlane