Although this is a bit longer than some of the other Saint stories by the same author, my children have been enjoying this story very much as a read-aloud. The story is told in the first person – from the point of view of St. John Vianney himself. (My children have particularly enjoyed this perspective and found it a nice change from the ordinary.) The author also weaves a great deal of thoughtful commentary upon the importance and mystery of priesthood into the story as well as important concepts about the love of God and the need for prayer and penance. It is just the sort of book that could inspire a young boy to consider a priestly vocation in his future.

This book, together with its counterpart Lord of the World, is an early venture into the "speculative" genre of fiction. Written in 1911, it could be considered early science fiction with its descriptions of future technology, but it is really much more a religious and philosophical exploration of the effects of belief systems on society.

Msgr. Benson wrote the book, he comments in a preface, as a response to readers of Lord of the World who felt he painted too bleak a picture of a future where Christianity was marginalized and all but extinguished by the forces of Modernism. This book takes the opposite premise as a starting point – that the truth of Catholic claims have been almost universally recognized except by a few stubborn Socialists.

A dying priest of the turn of the century, who has lost his faith to the modern conceptual framework of science and psychology, slips into a coma and find himself, with no memory of his past, in a future world which seems strange and unsettling to his Modernist sensibilities. The science and psychology communities studying miracles under the authority of religion at Lourdes? An Ireland which has become basically a country-wide contemplative order? Learned men telling him pityingly that it is only the half-educated mind which can compartmentalize faith and reason rather than realizing they are both tools for the search for Truth? The USA government a monarchy, with Massachusetts a haven for a last remnant of earnest, earthbound Socialism?

The searching, intellectual, slightly distanced tone of these observations suits the character of the protagonist-priest. With his intellect, he sees the force of the Catholic claims; but his heart continues to resist. A crisis comes when he witnesses the trial and execution of a pure-minded but self-confessed heretic priest under the secular authority. How can this be right? Can this ascendant Church, whose supremacy is acknowledged world-wide, be truly the Church of its suffering servant Founder? In a world where societies punish heresy as a crime, and "freethinkers" are sent to exile, how can church leaders claim to be allied with He who is meek and humble of heart? The church has shown herself to have the Truth, but does she have a heart?

Monsignor Benson uses this projected future society to explore some of the criticisms of our past, historical Church and offer some perspective on the paradox of a Holy Church whose earthly work is carried out by weak, fallen man. I don't think it is any coincidence that the dying priest has lost his faith while co-writing a book about the popes. When a ferocious German socialist party, willing to annihilate the world rather than concede defeat, threatens Europe and kills Catholic envoys, it is a pope who show how meekness and courage can be reconciled with authority in one person, the person of Christ's Vicar.

Reading this book, the Catholic reader must examine his assumptions and think about profound topics. Though the reading and interest level is suitable for a ninth grader, I think the novel should be read under supervision, with some care to explain to the student the genre and intentions of the book. I think it would be more profitably read along with the companion novel Lord of the World and possibly as a starting point to a study of various ideologies and how they affect the day to day details of society.

As he made his way into the city, Bethlehem thought of the donkeys seeking comfort in one another, the woodcutters struggling to make a living, the village children looking for fun, the farmer helping him find strength, the peasants hoping for a bountiful future, the merchants pursuing riches, the vagabonds entertaining the villagers, the students seeking knowledge, and his family searching for safety...

The donkey's sadness, pain, and weariness left him. With joy, Bethlehem went to Him and His promise of peace, goodwill, and a new beginning for all.

"Freedom is not a license for chaos" is my son's signature below his email messages. It was written by Norton Juster, of The Phantom Toolbooth fame, and it comes from our almost-17-year-old's favorite book.

The phrase is the turning point and premise of this amazing, simply delightful little Math book. Math? That is our son's most disliked subject. Wait, The Dot and the Line is not a Math book! It is a hilarious comedy! But is that all? It is a romance, a story of love deeply felt, pursued, capable of provoking great things in the soul. In a little math book? Is it possible? Yes, it is.

Our classic languages-loving son reads it aloud every time this book visits us from the library. He suffers with the straight, dull and unbending line when driven to the "edge" (of the paper— the line is drawn on the edge of the page) as the "perfect by every measure" dot flirts around with the anarchist, slothful squiggle. Moved by great love, the line at first attempts to show its own grandeur by asserting its importance in art, world politics, sports. To no avail: the dot is not impressed. Then the unimaginable happens: when almost giving up, the line, using great concentration, becomes able to make angles!

What follows next is what makes this little book a great book: the enthusiastic line makes more and more angles in a chaotic frenzy, until... it realizes that chaos without order leads nowhere. It stops, straightens itself again and it discovers that freedom is not a license for chaos. From then on, life changes for the line: exercising great control and virtue, it discovers a new world:

For months he practiced in secret. Soon he was making squares and triangles, hexagons, parallelograms, rhomboids, polyhedrons, trapezoids, parallelepiped, decagons, tetragrams and an infinite number of other shapes so complex that he had to letter his sides and angles to keep his place. Before long he had learned to carefully control ellipses, circles and complex curves...

Ah, the virtue of Mathematics! The beauty of its exact angles and dimensions. The rhythm, art and music of what it is able to create, using exercise and order! I will refrain from spoiling it completely for the new reader, but let me repeat the "moral" of the story: to the vector, the spoils.

The back jacket, after telling us that the author, among other things, runs "a support group for negative numbers" (one can glimpse Mr. Juster's opinion of the state of the culture in the 60s) mentions an award winning film, and I found it on You Tube. I was happy to see that that the screenplay was also written by the author but I warn you that the book is much better. This new 2001 edition has wonderful graphics and some different pictures as well.