Paul Taunton arrives on the scene as an academic maverick who in his doctoral studies in theology in Rome finds himself becoming a consummate challenger. Nothing is taken for granted. His specialty is seeing through myths. They’re everywhere—in politics, in the culture, in life itself. Yes, even Christianity; it’s full of them.
When the new Pope in 1960 announces a Vatican Council, Paul’s sees something others don’t. It’s not for improvement, it’s for change. It’s for the crowd, not the believer. The Pope called it Aggiornamento, Paul called it Modernization—something to please the crowds.
From that point on the novel runs in the opposite direction of the Pope’s proposed Council. Paul calls it a “Council to Nowhere.” He is joined by three others who contest the Council. One of Paul’s Professors mentors him through the contest. They reach out to some of the most prominent journals in Europe. One in particular, Le Monde, collaborates with Paul and takes the lead role in publishing his counter position. Here’s where Margot Dubois, a journalist at the paper, takes full charge of the opposition and oversees an international challenge to the Council and the Vatican. All this happens while Paul writes under a nom d’plume.
As the Vatican searches to reveal Paul as the dissident, the plot moves between Rome and Paris. With Paul now working from behind the scenes, Margot takes the helm and publishes Paul’s objections in her name.
It’s a story of intrigue that brings to light the contention that underpins some of the members of the cloth. While the Council’s harmless intent is to bridge Christianity with the culture and the times, Paul et al foresee the immense danger about to occur when church discipline and steadfast principle are thrown out to a world at the beginning of the 60s for modification and transformation. Paul contends throughout that Christianity has no business asking a flawed humanity to define Jesus…, a humanity that can’t even define what a woman is.
