The Conqueror is book one in a new series. Without giving away spoilers, how do all the books in the series tie together?
I believe that by the time the third one is done, you aren’t going to have a series but a saga. The historical moment when Rex and Flavia lived was so pivotal.
My plot engages this duo with all the turning points of church history at that time. (It’s about an eighteen-year span, actually.)
There’s a plot about the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and finding the actual bones of St. Peter. There’s intrigue and danger down in the catacombs underground. There’s the council of Nicaea and the Arian heresy. There’s the discovery of the True Cross and the Tomb of Christ in Jerusalem.
There’s epic travel from Italy to Greece to Egypt to the Germanic frontier to Constantinople. There are ginormous battles in the civil war that was happening at that time that ushered Constantine into power. There’s the development of the canon of Scripture. There’s the defeat of Gnosticism. There’s the doctrine of the Trinity and the Nicene Creed.
All the important church fathers of that era are in the story, like Eusebius of Caesarea and Athanasius and Ossius of Cordoba and the popes. And behind it all is the spiritual journey of Constantine, and the Roman Empire along with him, in which Rome turns from a place that persecutes Christians and makes martyrs to one that favors the church and launches it on a totally new trajectory.
Rex and Flavia are right there in the midst of it all. So, of course you also see their individual evolutions from late teenagers until they’re in their mid thirties—and all the personal struggles, joys, and travails they face together.
What do you hope readers take away from this story?
Since I am a professor, I shouldn’t admit this, but my number one reader takeaway isn’t learning about the ancient church. It’s for the reader to have an exciting time, to be colossally entertained.
I think of these books as having a lot in common with adventure stories like the Indiana Jones movies. Good guys, bad guys, huge stakes, epic backdrops. The hero and heroine running hand in hand as they elude the villains and take them down. If the reader doesn’t experience that thrill, I’ve failed.
But along the way, the reader might have fun learning about how things really were in the ancient church. And I hope they will be moved by the themes, and in a small way, that my books will help them know God better, to trust him more deeply.
And I hope that many years from now, they’ll still remember Rex and Flavia because their story stands out as such a great tale.
What are you working on next?
Book two is already written and ready to be edited for release in October 2021. That one is, I think, the most “swashbuckling” of the three. Lots of chasing and adventures and travel.
Now I am working on book three. That’s the one with the Council of Nicaea plotline and the mother of Constantine (Helena) founding the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which is still in Jerusalem’s Old City today. (Or at least, the Crusader version of it is there.)
I’m going to grapple with some big-time theological issues that were worked out then and we still hold today. It’s going to be a great finish to the saga!
Visit Bryan Litfin’s Author Page:
https://www.familyfiction.com/authors/bryan-litfin
The Conqueror
Constantine’s Empire #1
Bryan Litfin
Revell
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Travel back to one of the most pivotal eras in history—a time when devotion to the pagan gods was fading and the Roman Empire was being conquered by the sign of the cross.
AD 309. Rome teeters on the brink of war. Constantine’s army is on the move. On the Rhine frontier, pagan Germanic barbarian Brandulf Rex joins the Roman army as a spy. Down in Rome, senator’s daughter Junia Flavia finds herself embroiled in anti-Christian politics as she works on behalf of the church.
As armies converge and forces beyond their control threaten to destroy everything they have worked for, these two people from different worlds will have to fight together to bring down the evil Emperor Maxentius. But his villainous plans and devious henchmen are not easily overcome.
Will Rex and Flavia live to see the Empire bow the knee to Christ? Or will their part in the story of Constantine’s rise meet an untimely and brutal end?