It's "a thought-provoking exploration of religion in today's world, and of historic fact versus faith..."

What it is it? A work of non-fiction? A documentary? An article in a newspaper or magazine?

No, it's The Last Templar, a novel (and a poorly written one, judging by the excerpt) by Raymond Khoury. The novel's website explains:

On one level, The Last Templar is a fast paced contemporary adventure/thriller set in New York and in various settings around the Mediterranean, intercut by five epic chapters set during the closing years of the Crusades in which the last Templar of the title, entrusted with the Order's secret, escapes from the burning city of Acre and struggles to make it back to France. On another level, The Last Templar works as a thought-provoking exploration of religion in today's world, and of historic fact versus faith, particularly regarding the origins of the Catholic Church. Through the investigation into the Templars' history and their mysterious discovery, and though the interplay between Tess - the agnostic, scientific skeptic - and Reilly, who turned to the Church after his father shot himself when Reilly was just a boy, the book presents a spirited look at the early days of the Church and invites the reader to question matters which most of us take at face value.

"Invites the reader to question matters which most of us take at face value." But don't you dare question the "facts" and claims found in The Last Templar. After all, it's just a novel!

Comments

[Sandra Miesel]

I wonder if the Templar fantasy series by Katherine Kurtz is being reprinted, too?
One feels terribly sorry for the Templars but they were clods who failed to find a new mission after losing the Holy Land. For an accurate account of their sad story and its afterlife, see Peter Partner, THE MURDERED MAGICIANS: THE TEMPLARS AND THEIR MYTH.

[Cristina A. Montes]

One of the gifts I received for Christmas was a 2006 calendar that gives a review of one book for every day of 2006. Printed by the PowerBooks chain of bookstores here in the Philippines, it's supposed to be an ideal gift for book lovers that shows them what new books they might want to buy throughout 2006. I looked through it and saw that some books that I would, indeed, want to buy. But guess what? The very first book it features for 1 Jan 2006 is...our favorite. =) And it features many other books which, judging from the synopses, imitate TDVC intentionally or unintentionally -- the synopses mention murders and secret codes and religious groups. It confirms what I read in a newspaper recently: TDVC has popularized a new genre. The article even has a name for it: "religious thriller."

[Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP]

I wonder what's sparking this broad cultural interest in things Occultishly-Catholic? I suppose one slightly paranoid way of looking at it is to see these novels/movies/plays as way of diminishing the credibility of the Church as a serious spiritual source for people seeking faith and understanding. The same moves allows faithless, angst-ridden academics and intellectuals on the Left to feel OK about not taking our 2,000 year history of intellectual achievement seriously. I mean, who can take Aquinas, Bonaventura, Edith Stein, et al seriously when you have albino priest killers running around trying to hide stuff from the press!? :-)

[John Powers]

Piers Paul Read has a very fine history of the Templars in print. Titled, "The Templars: The Dramatic History of the Knights Templar, the Most Powerful Military Order of the Crusades", this book skips the speculation and shows that the facts are much more interesting than the nonsense.

JBP

p.s.
Read also wrote a fine biography of Alec Guinness.