What if the heretic wasn’t the villain—but the most honest voice of his time?

You might be surprised to find a novel centered on Pelagius, the 5th-century British monk condemned as a heretic. Honestly, so was the author. This isn’t a history book, and it’s certainly not a theological treatise. It’s a story—a fictional reimagining born of curiosity, spiritual restlessness, and a deep desire to understand how the Church became what it is today.

In this richly imagined narrative, we travel back to a time of collapsing empires, rising doctrines, and fierce debates about sin, grace, and free will. Our story begins not in Rome or Jerusalem, but in the misty hills of Ireland, where a curious, dyslexic boy grows up among Druids, questions the gods, and eventually becomes the man we now call Pelagius.

Told through the lens of someone who quietly suspects he may be a bit of a Pelagian himself, this novel offers a different view of Church history—one that’s more human than dogmatic, more searching than certain.

The Rt. Rev. John McKee Sloan served as a priest in the Episcopal Church in Mississippi and Alabama for twenty-seven years before being elected a bishop in 2008, serving as the 11th Bishop of Alabama until he retired at the end of 2020. He and his wife, Tina, live in Birmingham, Alabama, and have two children, McKee and Mary Nell, who died in 2023. He is the author of four other books: the Jabbok trilogy and God, the Devil & Lemon Icebox Pie.