{"id":4401,"date":"2026-05-18T13:30:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T18:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/?p=4401"},"modified":"2026-05-18T13:30:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T18:30:23","slug":"crawling-out-of-the-abyss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/?p=4401","title":{"rendered":"Crawling Out of the Abyss"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>When I began writing my first novel, Marshland<\/em>, and even more the second, Peace at Battle Mountain<\/em>, I naively thought that women would be very interested in the character of Gwynn Murray Stone. I wasn\u2019t that surprised when some of my more conservative women friends expressed a bit of judgmentalism about her character. I had a professional proofreader read Peace at Battle Mountain<\/em> for me who shared some of it with her sister who had read Marshland<\/em>. I knew the sister quite well. One day the proofreader called to ask a question. During our conversation, she advised me that her sister had told her that she never liked the character of Gwynn. The proof of you said, \u201cwell if you don\u2019t like Gwynn in Marshland<\/em>, believe me you\u2019re not going to like her in Peace at Battle Mountain<\/em>. [1]<\/a><\/p>\n

Peace at Battle Mountain<\/em> involves Gwynn making a series of mistakes driven by a brokenness from her childhood, living with the consequences, and emerging as a whole and healed human being. I was surprised that more women didn\u2019t enjoy her pilgrimage, which is not unlike a pilgrimage. I\u2019ve watched more than one person make as a pastor.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In the final book, Leviathan and the Lambs<\/em>, Gwynn has matured into someone with rare wisdom and insight, and a fearless courage in defense of her family. In the end, despite their separation, she is Arthur\u2019s closest human relationship and a wise counselor. She is not the central character, as she is in Peace at Battle Mountain<\/em>, but she plays a very important role in the book.<\/p>\n

There is a simplistic form of religious faith in which one becomes a believer in a religious system, and God or the ultimate, however it conceived, prevents you from making any mistakes or messing up our lives due. Unfortunately, it doesn\u2019t take a lot of experience as a believer or pastor to know that that\u2019s not the case. We all make mistakes. All human beings make mistakes. Some of those mistakes haunt us for years, even for the rest of our lives. The process of overcoming the wounds of our childhood is neither quick nor easy nor automatic. Faith is about forgiveness and healing, not about attaining perfection.<\/p>\n

Learning by Reading<\/strong><\/p>\n

Over the years, I\u2019ve learned a lot by reading novels. I\u2019ve learned a lot about human nature and a good bit about history. One advantage of reading a novel where someone like you make a mistake is that you have the opportunity not to make that mistake. Reading alone will not make a person wise, moral, or even capable. But internalizing great truths is never a mistake. In my own case, books like the Lord of the Rings<\/em> trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien and a book, The Glass Bead Game<\/em> (sometimes printed as Magister Ludi) by Hermann Hesse, have changed and enriched my life. Our children know that at every moment of decision in my life, I usually read one of the two of them. For some reason, they have the capacity to focus my mind on the truly important and the character of those who successfully navigate the difficulties of life.<\/p>\n

I am not so arrogant as to believe that the Arthur Stone trilogy, and is especially Leviathan and the Lambs<\/em>, have the capacity that great literature possesses to mold us and shape us with a kind of nobility. Nevertheless, it is my small attempt to look at one family with their friends and associates, and how it is faith allowed them to navigate the problems of life.<\/p>\n

Gwynn at Battle Mountain<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Peace Battle Mountain<\/em>, Gwynn attends a woman\u2019s Bible study in Houston quite by accident that begins a process of self-reflection that ultimately changes her life. I didn\u2019t attend my first Bible study in quite the same situation, but the same result obtained. I found a direction out of the problems I had created for myself, found new friends, entered the life of faith, and ultimately met my wife. It was worth two hours in the life of a 27-year-old to begin a process that would lead to wholeness and happiness.<\/p>\n

Gwynn Stone is also not alone in her recovery. Ahn Winchester, as always, provides a wise and spiritual guide to a deeper self-understanding and healing for Gwynn. In addition, she has law partners and family, all of whom help in her recovery. Then, of course, there is God acting by the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n

Healing as Becoming Like God<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the images that can be important for contemporary people in reconnecting with faith is the image of Christ the healer. In particular, the Orthodox Church sees the life, death, and resurrection of Christ as primarily about restoring humanity to a lost or besmirched image of the divine implanted in each one of us. This healing is not merely forgiveness. Forgiveness begins a process of sanctification, or becoming like God in Christ.<\/p>\n

The Apostle John tells us that \u201cGod is love\u201d (I john 4:8; 4:16). The process of becoming more like God (theosis<\/em> in Greek) is a process of becoming increasingly filled with the wisdom and love of God in Christ Jesus. In Peace at Battle Mountain<\/em> we see Gwynn enter the process of loving unselfishly and unconditionally, a process that ultimately changes her life mentally, physically, and emotionally. In Leviathan and the Lambs<\/em> a rogue agent, E. J. Mueller, has a similar experience, perhaps a bit more dramatically illustrated in the book.<\/p>\n

Christianity as a Life<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most pastors are aware that the earliest name for Christians was \u201cthe People of the Way.\u201d This implied that Christianity was not just \u201cbelieving Jesus is the Son of God\u201d but entering into the life of the Son of God coming to health and full humanity through inviting God into one\u2019s life physically, mentally, morally, and emotionally. In Crisis of Discipleship<\/em>, I put it this way:<\/p>\n

Discipleship is not just about learning information. It involves a life-transforming relationship with a person\u2014The Triune God revealed in Jesus Christ. As God is in relationship, so we must have healthy relationships in order to grow as disciples.Christians proclaim Jesus Christ as the “the Way, the Truth and the Life.” In other words, the key to abundant living is not an idea but a person and relationship<\/u> with that person through which we are transformed into the likeness of the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Head knowledge is not enough. In order to know the Way, the Truth, and the Life of Christ, we must become imitators and obedient followers of Christ. As the New Testament puts it, “Christ must dwell in us richly”<\/strong> (Colossians 3:16).[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

There is abundant evidence that young people today are not looking for easy answers or a faith that demands little change. Those Christian groups that provide a new way of life, healing of the past, and a discipline for the future are the most likely to grow as people find new meaning, purpose, and direction in life. What God desires is transformation, which is one of the basic messages of Leviathan and the Lambs<\/em> and the entire Arthur Stone series.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> See, Alystair West, Marshland<\/em> (Westbow, 2023); P<\/em>eace at Battle Mountain<\/em> (Quansus, 2024); Leviathan and the Lambs<\/em> (Quansus & Bookbaby, 2026), all written under the pen name Alystair West. All are available on Amazon and from other vendors.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> G. Christopher Scruggs, Crisis of Discipleship<\/em> (Richmond, Va: Living Dialog Press, 2023).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I began writing my first novel, Marshland, and even more the second, Peace at Battle Mountain, I naively thought that women would be very interested in the character of Gwynn Murray Stone. I wasn\u2019t that surprised when some of my more conservative women friends expressed a bit of judgmentalism about her character. I had … Continue reading Crawling Out of the Abyss<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4CzBH-18Z","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4401"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4407,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4401\/revisions\/4407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}