Publication of the Novel, ‘For Theirs is the Kingdom’

Posted Apr 20, 2021

Wipf and Stock Publishers announces the release of “For Theirs is the Kingdom,” a novel written by Christopher Carlisle, priest of the Diocese of Western Massachusetts. Acclaimed by leading Canadian literary critic David Staines as “riveting, painful, and brilliant,” Staines describes the tale as “a personal story of a young American thrown into the world of jealousy and greed in the Episcopal Church.” Poet and National Book Award Finalist Paul Mariani says, “Here is a novel that will stick with you long after you’ve read it… leaving you to rethink much of what you may have thought were the answers and were not.”

Carlisle explains the novel is inspired by his ten years as a street priest in the Diocese of Western Massachusetts, and his conviction that the church is being called out into the world to make good on its faith in the radical renegade named Jesus. The grandson of the Bishop of Montreal, where the story takes place, Carlisle explains he wrote the novel believing the institutional church is in the midst of “a sea change in which it needs to decide if it is going to sink or swim.” He goes on to say, “The last time my family wasn’t Anglican was the Reformation, and though the novel is entirely a work of fiction, I believe the critiques implied by the tale are not gratuitous, but essential.”