Nathan Driscoll

I am Nathan Driscoll. ‘The Daughter’, my first novel, is a story of a young girl running away from an arranged marriage around the time of Christ, two thousand years ago. Do the issues resonate today? Are we still struggling to find some kind of lasting purpose in a fragile world where true security is in short supply, as it was then?

The popular secular conception is that any religion is either punitive or the actual cause of conflict and division. You don’t have to look far to find the evidence of that in today’s war zones or the psychological and physical torture that abused people have experienced inside the church.

So how have I found faith in a living God possible and why has it added something indispensable to my life ? I do not know the full answer to suffering and brokenness in the world or within religion but I do know that human beings are responsible for a great deal of it. My books are inspired by how the life of Christ was a demonstration of His understanding of the human condition to the extent that we can feel understood as individuals. They are an attempt to clear the ground for a trust in a higher spiritual and moral authority than we, even with the best of intentions, are capable of. That kind of faith doesn’t change the attrition and difficulty of living in this world or provide a false sense of certainty but it should make us less arrogant, greedy and lost than we sometimes are. Does the church get it right? My second novel ‘Reformation’, soon to be published, provides a provisional answer to that question.

My first three books are more academic looking at belief from an agnostic point of view, our search for the ‘good’ in life and what the implications of Christ’s teachings are for the world of politics. If you are a seeker after something deeper there may be something there for you. If you get more from reading stories then go to ’The Daughter’ or ‘Reformation’ I hope you find something that helps you explore how a deeper purpose can help you cope with the more mundane parts of everyday life.

I was a social worker, teacher and carer - I studied philosophy, and the social sciences. I am now retired, a grandparent and also enjoy playing golf (when the weather is kind), snooker and the violin!

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