The First Sullivan Crisp Book
Review of Nancy Rue and Stephen Arterburn’s Novel Healing Stones
Jun 11, 2009
Novelist Nancy Rue and Stephen Arterburn (Founder of New Life Ministries) co-wrote the novel Healing Stones featuring therapist Sullivan Crisp who councils the adulterous Christian college professor Demitria Costanas. The novel is fast-paced and deftly twines the Biblical account of the woman caught in adultery with a thoroughly modern story.
Arterburn and Rue
Stephen Arterburn is the Founder of New Life Ministries a faith-based counseling and treatment ministry, which embraces a variety of self-help and counseling services including the Women of Faith conference series, Remuda Ranch treatment facility, the Anti-pornography and Anti-sexual Promiscuity Every Man franchise of books and seminars, and New Life Radio and Television.
Nancy Rue is a former high school teacher turned author. Her first books focused on teens and tweens but she has since expanded into books for adults. Her work emphasizes the grace of God rather than His judgment.
The Adulterous Woman
Demitria Costanas loves God but as her family life deteriorates she hungers for more. Her desire results in scandal when incriminating photographs are taken on the night she attempts to leave the man with whom she is having an affair. Her personal downfall has a profound impact on Covenant Christian College where she is a professor and could lead to the collapse of everything the college stands for.
Broken and alone, Demitria seeks the help of Sullivan Crisp a well-known therapist who has his own issues to deal with. As the story progresses, Arterburn and Rue deftly weave in the account of the adulterous woman from scriptures. The novel ends on a blazing note that reveals God’s grace and mercy in giving those who sin a second chance.
A Flawed Account
While the story is captivating and easy to read, the writing is over-dramatic and leaves the reader feeling as if they’ve dissolved three lumps of sugar doused in corn syrup on their tongue. For instance, when Demetria attempts to leave her lover, she ponders “liquid-blue eyes, the color of Puget Sound, [that] swam, until I realized I was the one on the verge of tears.” (4)
One also wonders why characters in Christian novels have to be described with physically appealing attributes or endearing eccentricities similar to those in secular works. Why can’t humans in novels look like ordinary people who walk down the street? And, why must so many of the characters have “negligible hips?”
The Theology of Psychology
There are places in the novel where the theology seems to wander away from the narrow path of Christianity and dabbles in New Age technique. However, the heart of the novel, which is God’s grace and mercy to those who sin as revealed in the story of Jesus and the adulterous woman, is well-handled and should challenge readers to consider their attitude towards sin, their own subs and those of the people around them.
While the story is well conceived and makes for a page-turning read, the novel Healing Stones is not suitable for new Christians or immature Christians who are not discerning.
Arterburn, Stephen and Rue, Nancy. Healing Stones: A Sullivan Crisp Novel. Thomas Nelson. 2007. ISBN 978-0-8499-1890-2
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