A Modern Christmas Carol

Book excerpt: In a thought-provoking retelling of the Dickens classic, a shrewdly successful televangelist receives unexpected Christmas visitors: first, his long-dead partner, and then three ghostly guides. Finally able to acknowledge the shallowness of his message and doubts he has long suppressed, he makes amends with far-reaching consequences. "[A] masterful retelling ... Well done!" - Tom Flynn, editor of Free Inquiry magazine and author of The Trouble with Christmas "Consistently ingenious and beautifully written ... thought-provoking!" - Dr. Robert M. Price, The Bible Geek "A clever little book, filled with insights, that takes the conceptual framework of Dickens's Christmas Carol to new heights of rationality without sacrificing any of its compassion." - Paul Gabel, author of And God Created Lenin and Inventing Jesus "In this retelling of the Dickens classic, Bob Seidensticker gives age-old vices and values a modern face, one that is as familiar and clichéd-and yet also as engaging and provocative-as the crotchety old Dickens banker himself." - Dr. Valerie Tarico, author of Trusting Doubt: A Former Evangelical Looks at Old Beliefs in a New Light "The author does all atheists a service by having his characters express profound arguments against the claims of traditional religion. He does all Christians a service by providing them the safe environment of a novel as an impetus to begin to question their faith within the privacy of their own minds." - Edward Tabash, Constitutional lawyer, atheist and church/state separation activist