Available to purchase – on Amazon.com – on Amazon.co.uk
The Gospel According to Tomàs – a novel by Oliver Peers
A journey of faith, doubt and self-discovery in the heart of Spain…
Tomàs is in trouble. He’s in seminary—training to be a priest. This may have been a mistake.
Mid-life, after years of indulgence and questionable choices, Tomàs sought clarity, a path to purity, to something true. But faith isn’t working the way it’s supposed to. His thoughts bristle—restless, relentless, even sexual. The confessional was meant to fix this. Instead, it unravels everything.
In Valladolid, Spain, under the weight of Church doctrine and his own tangled history, Tomàs wrestles with a brutal realization: if love is truth and truth is love—then the Church is wrong.
A novel of faith and failure, desire and self-deception, The Gospel According to Tomàs is an unflinching study of belief on the edge of collapse. With wry intelligence and piercing introspection, Oliver Peers delivers a vivid, fearless portrait of a man running out of places to hide.
For readers drawn to literary fiction, theological reckoning, and the uneasy intersection of faith, memory, and desire—reminiscent of the existential and philosophical fiction of Graham Greene, Rachel Cusk, and Julian Barnes.
Stylistically, Oliver Peers may be located within the traditions of Martin Amis and James Joyce.
A gripping, intelligent novel that lingers in the mind long after the final page.
Available to purchase – on Amazon.com – on Amazon.co.uk
The crowds press in around Jesus. Perhaps there is a sense of enough having been done for now in this place, in terms of teaching and the healing miracles of Jesus. Perhaps there is a sense of too much ferment, and a need to leave these thousands upon thousands of people in quiet to reflect upon what they have experienced of Jesus so far. It is time to move, and now there does arise a question of who will follow Jesus and who will stay behind. This may be a figurative moment, in that sometimes there are people who follow Jesus in a great rush of feeling and momentarily; others are concerned to follow Jesus permanently, all their lives [ … ]
In this poem, often titled Whitsunday or The Feast of Pentecost, Herbert reflects on the power and presence of the Holy Spirit as he calls for divine inspiration and renewal. The poem begins with a personal appeal, where the poet speaks directly to the ‘sweet Dove’, a metaphor for the Holy Spirit, asking the Spirit to listen and take residence within him. This opening conveys a desire for a profound inner transformation, as Herbert hopes the Spirit will ‘hatch’ his heart, suggesting a period of nurturing and growth that will ultimately enable him to ‘fly away’ spiritually [ … ]
In teaching his parables, Jesus draws on a range of lived experience which would be familiar to his listeners. Often the parables describe work situations, reminding us that we are to root our Christian faith in a life that is useful to others, and that the whole texture of our lives should reflect our love of Jesus [ … ]
