In The House of the Lord: 16 (Texas Tradition Series) - Softcover

Robert Flynn's second novel tracks a day in the life of Pat Shahan, minister of a Protestant church in a large city. Young, devout, and honest, Shahan seeks revelation--and is offered a revolving neon cross for the church steeple; he seeks vision--and gets a pep talk from the church treasurer. Striving to serve the Lord, he is dragged into a "Great Crusade" which is nothing more than a publicity stunt that ends disastrously. Shahan's day sees him ministering to the sick and dying, pacifying angry parishioners and counseling troubled ones, seeking inspiration for a sermon, trying to calm his mother by phone, and losing patience with his family. Pat Shahan is a thoroughly human minister. Throughout his day--and by extension his ministry--he struggles to balance his faith in Christianity with his doubts about himself and his church. His story gives a pulpit-eye view of organized religion, a view that is occasionally humorous, sometimes affectionate, always open-minded, and ultimately affirmative. "There is darkness in the world," says Shahan, "but there is also light."

Robert Flynn's diverse fiction ranges from the boisterous North to Yesterday to the complex and haunting Wanderer Springs and Tie-Fast Country, books that capture the spirit and essence of West Texas, to The Last Klick, a novel of the Vietnam war. He is also the author of two short story collections and several nonfiction books and is the coauthor of Paul Baker and The Integration of Abilities. His work has won awards from Western Writers of America, the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, and Southwestern Booksellers. He is emeritus writer-in-residence at Trinity Unviersity and a past president of the Texas Institute of Letters. Robert Flynn lives in San Antonio.