Political systems really represent individual beliefs, in particular how one’s beliefs impact how one should behave in the wider world and how you believe others ought to behave.  Ultimately, one cannot separate one’s politics from their worldview.  Since the Birth Pangs series is an exploration of worldviews, it follows that political musings will come, too.  A person who derives no political implications from their world view probably doesn’t even understand their world view or doesn’t really believe their world view.

Part of the problem in today’s culture is that many people have a worldview but then political beliefs that are inconsistent with planks in their worldview.  The latent idea is that one’s beliefs are private matters whereas how one feels about the government or governance is in a separate category.  Of course, one’s feelings about politics is in fact a belief, so even the attempt to compartmentalize fails in the end.  Somewhere, somehow, people’s politics relate back to a belief or two that they have.  Much of the heated discourse today arises because people from different political bents cannot trace their political ideas back to their core beliefs and then they present their political assertions as matters of self-evidently true, which of course they are not if you come from a different starting point.

Birth Pangs is very concerned about determining the best starting point.  It is not concerned because it has the goal of erecting a political system.  There certainly are deeper motivations than that!  But it does not pretend that there won’t be political implications.

Now, in the Birth Pangs series, set in the not so distant future in our own country, the various political systems that strive to fill the void have their historic roots in our own past and present.  Socialism and Communism get a special treatment rather than say, a Monarchy, because America has not had anyone advocating for a monarchy for a long time but socialism is constantly advanced under different guises.  There is also a long history with capitalism and a form of democracy, so it is natural that people will rise up who represent shades of that view.

In the Birth Pangs series, though, there is a ‘deeper reflection’ that permeates it all, and that is an analysis of the nature of humanity itself.  In a word, what the theologians call ‘original sin.’  Even those advocating for democracy in the Birth Pangs series tend to forget why there is a need for checks and balances.  Political systems reflect our views about the human race itself.  Do we believe that people are by nature ‘good’?  Do we think that people are in the main ignorant and untrustworthy, not fit for self-governance?  As an exploration of the facts about humanity, a discussion of the political consequences of one’s view on humanity is unavoidable.

Personally, I wouldn’t chalk any aspect of the Birth Pangs series as being merely incidental or superficial.  I wrote it with the idea that the series would be like an ocean… one can dive deep and explore the ocean and it is then filled with excitement and adventure, crushing sometimes, or one can stay in the shallows and have fun frolicing.  I wanted the series to be accessible and enjoyable in the shallows but open to those who wanted to dive deeper at just about any point.  Fidelis is a start to that and it will take the rest of the books to bring to completion.

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 CONTACT: A.R. (Anthony) Horvath (author)
PHONE: 608-385-2629
EMAIL: author@birthpangs.com

Christian Author Challenges Readers’ Perceptions, Explores True Nature of Humanity in Book, Fidelis La Crosse, WI Few fiction authors seek to challenge their readers with their literature these days. That’s a trend Anthony Horvath would like to see changed. His new novel, Fidelis, is the first of a seven-book story arc that grapples with humanity’s struggle through pain and suffering, and Horvath is not afraid to explore deep issues and topics with his readers.

Fidelis takes place in a not-too-distant or unlikely future, and tells the story of a man crossing the new landscape of an America that has been crippled by disease and ravaged by nuclear strikes, struggling to find his way home. As his journey reveals the horrors and wonders of the altered world, he awakens to realizations about his own soul.

Horvath, a church worker who became a trucker for a short time, said the series sprang into his mind during his last month on the road when he, like the main character, was separated from his family for long periods of time.

The intangible characteristics that make the human race indomitable are expressed as the book wrestles with truth and propaganda, manhood and bravery, fact and religion in an adventure story packed with action and suspense, as well as a deep examination of our own existence.

Christians might identify some parallel of Horvath’s novel with the Epistles of Paul, particularly 2 Corinthians 4:7-10 and 2 Corinthians 6:3-10, but Horvath points out that his writing is not geared exclusively, or even targeted, for Christian readers.

It is an exploration of what it means to be human, and an inquiry into what worldview best explains both man’s goodness as well as man’s badness, says Horvath. You would think after this last century, we would not need to be reminded of man’s badness, but it seems we do. In the Birth Pangs series, no reminder is necessary, just as after the holocaust no reminder was necessary.

An excerpt from the first chapter is available for free online at http://www.birthpangs.com/download-part-of-chapter-1/. The website hosts a spin-off role-playing game and a discussion board frequented by the author.

Fidelis (ISBN 0979127610) is the first book in the seven-book Birth Pangs series. It is available for purchase from http://www.birthpangs.com, as well as Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.