Robert Elias

A nice surprise came the other day. I found out that my new novel, The Deadly Tools of Ignorance, is a finalist for the DARK OAK MYSTERY AWARD.

It hasn’t been the only surprise.

In the month and a half since my novel was published, I’ve done several book readings (see below), and several radio interviews—including KUSF (“Forum”) in San Francisco, KBNP (“Daybreak USA”) in Dallas, and KFRC (“Right Off the Bat”) in Oakland. Among the three major settings of my book, I’ve expected (and gotten) questions about academia and baseball. But I’ve been surprised how many questions I’ve also gotten about my third setting: the Catholic Church.

Of course, this has happened in part because the release of my book has unexpectedly coincided with a major transformation at the Vatican, as one pope has died and as another has succeeded him. That would have been enough to put the Church in the spotlight, and to focus some additional attention on those aspects of Catholicism that I explore in my book.

Yet this changing of the guard may be more controversial than first predicted. For many Catholics, the impending death of Pope John Paul II offered the hope that a new conversation on Church teachings and policies might be launched. It would be an opportunity, arguably long overdue, to reconsider some of those doctrines.

Thus, many Catholics were disappointed, even shocked, to discover that John Paul would be succeeded by Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, the new Pope Benedict. Perhaps nobody in the Church better personified just the opposite of what many had sought: a resistance to change and a quest to shore up many of the Church’s most conservative policies. After all, Ratzinger has taken strong stands against abortion, birth control, women in the church, priests marrying, liberation theology, multiculturalism, interfaith dialogue, and same sex marriage and adoptions. He’s downplayed the child abuse scandal in the Church. His office, held under the previous Pope, cracked down on moderates and liberals—the most recent example of which was the firing of Father Reese, the Jesuit editor of Americas magazine, for printing some debates about Church teachings.

Ratzinger has railed against “relativism” in the Church, arguing that any reconsideration of Catholic teachings is, by definition, wrong--if not blasphemy. It’s a view that assumes that Church doctrines have always been the same. Yet this isn’t true. The early priests, for example, could and did marry. It was only later that the Church decided that priests could only be married to the Church. Thus, if doctrines could change to prevent priests from marrying, then why couldn’t they also change in the opposite direction? Not only is change possible, without destroying the faith. Such change could also be a tremendous boon for a Church whose members and whose clergy are rapidly declining in many parts of the world. They could also make the Church a much more positive force around the globe. If Pope Benedict pursues the same policies as Pontiff as he did as Cardinal Ratzinger, then an important opportunity will have been lost.

As everyone knows, Dan Brown’s book, The DaVinci Code, has generated much controversy about important aspects of Church history. Aside from stirring a debate about Brown’s implicit claims (i.e., where does the fiction leave off, and the facts take over?), The DaVinci Code has also provoked legal action by another author, Lewis Perdue, who claims that Brown stole ideas from Perdue’s earlier book, The DaVinci Legacy. Just as provocative, however, is the news about Perdue’s previous mystery novel, Daughter of God. That novel features an ultra-orthodox, ultra-right wing, religious “heavy.” Perdue claims that he modeled the character after Cardinal Ratzinger. It should be interesting to see whether that novel suddenly surges into prominence.

While my novel, The Deadly Tools of Ignorance, features no such character, it nevertheless presents (as a background to events occurring in the worlds of academia and baseball) various debates and questionings about Church policies. Readers can decide for themselves as to which side is the more persuasive. Either way, the implicit message is that at least the Church ought to have the conversation. While the Vatican’s new leadership makes that discussion far less likely, perhaps we should at least hope for the unexpected.

Regardless of one’s views about the Church, or of religion--in the first place, it’s hard to ignore the connection many have made between religion and another of my novel’s major themes: baseball. This relationship emerges repeatedly in The Deadly Tools of Ignorance, even though my protagonist is clearly a skeptic of organized religion. Of course, many have observed that for some people, baseball IS their religion. Earlier in our history, Herbert Hoover argued that aside from religion, baseball had a greater impact on American life than any other institution. Former Red Sox pitcher, Bill Lee, claimed that one ought to enter a ballpark the way one enters a church: piously. But perhaps most revealing, former Giants catcher Wes Westrum once observed that baseball is like church: many enter, but few really understand.

If you doubt the links between religion and the national pastime, then consider that a Catholic rosary has 108 beads—exactly the same number of stitches in a regulation baseball.

Intrigued about these connections? If so, then I have a novel for you . . .The Deadly Tools of Ignorance—available online and at enlightened bookstores around the country.

UPCOMING BOOK EVENTS!

I’ll be talking about The Deadly Tools of Ignorance, as well as doing readings and book signings at the following venues in the next few weeks. I would be very happy to see you at one of these events:

Thursday, April 21, 7 pm: M Is for Mystery Bookstore
86 East Third Avenue
San Mateo, CA 94401
www.MforMystery.com
650-401-8077

Wednesday, April 27, 4:30 pm: University of San Francisco
University Center 400, USF
Golden Gate Avenue
San Francisco CA 94117
415-422-6671

Thursday, May 12, 1 pm: Walden Books, Embarcadero
4 Embarcadero Ctr,
San Francisco, CA 94111
415-397-8181

Tuesday, May 17, 7:30 pm: Black Oak Books
1491 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94709
www.BlackOakBooks.com
(510)486-0698

Saturday, June 11, 1:30 pm: Walden Books, W. Portal
255 W Portal Ave,
San Francisco, CA 94127
415-664-7596

Friday, July 29, 7:00 pm: Book Passage, Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Blvd.
Corte Madera, CA 94925
(415) 927-0960