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The Stories Within The
Hardcover
Mystery & ThrillerRomanceGeneral Fiction
Publisher Price: $40.00
Publisher: Dorrance Publishing Co.
Published: Apr 29 2026
Pages: 458
Weight: 1.68
Height: 1.00 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Author's Note
I will destroy everything you think you know about Christianity. But I promise to give it back to you, better than you ever thought it could be. Dr. Peter Manchester, Dean of Philosophy at Stony Brook University, New York had warned his students in his class on Christianity on the very first day. After he announced his intent, I pretty much forgot his heady remarks that, however confident, seemed more like an overzealous guarantee. I did not record his warning in my notes for future use in his class, while his promise evaporated quickly. Forgettable because, for the most part, the word promise is an airless accent piece, only meant to accessorize a plotline. Promises yield nothing in reality. It's just a word.
The glaring F I received on my midterm paper and my overall grade of C+ was quite a blow to a born and raised Roman Catholic. My paper was so bad, riddled with all I thought I knew about Christianity, that I won the honor of Professor Manchester giving me my failing grades personally. The news of my grades was followed with the recommendation that I opt out of his two advanced classes, Immortality and Eternity and Christian Mysticism.
Receiving word of my failure was a humiliating experience; I found myself unable to control a wide range of emotions, right there, in his office. Embarrassment gave his assessment push that, if he said I am a failure, then I must be. Retreat seemed like the only logical choice to recover some dignity, but I risked facing embarrassment again-though I cannot say how, why, or what compelled me to walk back into his class. Win, lose, or draw, I would continue to strive toward an unknown, unforeseeable, and intangible reward.
The A grades I received in both his advanced classes are counted as achievements that are relative to my utter failure, but also, the high marks gave substance to Professor Manchester's promise from two years earlier. The C+ I received was proof that he did indeed destroy all I thought I knew about Christianity and did so without my consent. But the A grades proved I received something better. However, I believe the Socratic Method-I know nothing- is the way to establish truth, while the Oracle of Delphi-Know thyself; nothing too much-is the tool to weed out ideas that have been embedded with too much pride and indulgences. Therefore, I work to caution myself not to think that those grades mean I have mastered Christianity enough to have the final word. Those grades reflect how I grasped his version of the topic, and just because I aced his classes, does not mean he is necessarily the authority on Christianity. Neither my grades nor the elation substantiating his promise are the reasons why I trust that his version is the closest to the truth. I believe because I have come to see that what is true about God cannot be destroyed. That only the harmful fabrications, fantasies, and myths will shatter like glass and evaporate into airlessness.
I will destroy everything you think you know about heroes, love, and magic. But I promise to give them back to my reader, better than you thought they could be.
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