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Saint Ben #1
Saint Ben
Ben Beamering, the youngest son of the new pastor, causes problems for his father and the congregation with his outspoken honesty
288 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1993
3 people are currently reading
147 people want to read
About the author
John Fischer
18 books6 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
John Fischer has been mixing his unique combination of singing, speaking, and humor for a variety of audiences for over thirty years. His multifaceted talents of song writing, speaking, singing, and writing reflect the many avenues by which John carries on a spiritual dialogue with real life and real people.
John's books present a thought-provoking challenge to the Christian Church today, encouraging believers to pull the true essence of their faith from the trappings of the contemporary Christian subculture. John's debut into fiction, Saint Ben, received a Silver Angel award for fiction.
His other fiction books include Saint Ben, Saint's and Angel's Song, and Ashes on the Wind. Since l980, he has contributed a column to Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) magazine.
A graduate of Wheaton College, John and his family now live in California.
John Fischer has been mixing his unique combination of singing, speaking, and humor for a variety of audiences for over thirty years. His multifaceted talents of song writing, speaking, singing, and writing reflect the many avenues by which John carries on a spiritual dialogue with real life and real people.
John's books present a thought-provoking challenge to the Christian Church today, encouraging believers to pull the true essence of their faith from the trappings of the contemporary Christian subculture. John's debut into fiction, Saint Ben, received a Silver Angel award for fiction.
His other fiction books include Saint Ben, Saint's and Angel's Song, and Ashes on the Wind. Since l980, he has contributed a column to Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) magazine.
A graduate of Wheaton College, John and his family now live in California.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
January 28, 2023
I loved this book. I loved the characters and their world and the story made me cry.
I had to give it a 4 star rating simply because it felt like the Christian knockoff of A Prayer for Owen Meany which I felt was a a brilliant book. This one isn't so much brilliant as it is a good story of 2 friends.
I still did love the book even if it was a bit of a knockoff.
I had to give it a 4 star rating simply because it felt like the Christian knockoff of A Prayer for Owen Meany which I felt was a a brilliant book. This one isn't so much brilliant as it is a good story of 2 friends.
I still did love the book even if it was a bit of a knockoff.
December 22, 2021
Growing up in the 1950s, Ben is an unusual boy who can't stand pretense or empty practices, especially when it comes to Christianity. He, along with his relationship with his best friend Jonathan, impacts his community in a remarkable way in Saint Ben by author John Fischer.
Admittedly, I had the wrong impression about this ChristFic book before I started it. I thought it sounded like a story about an innocent boy who's so passionate about God that his passion makes the hypocritical grown-up Christians around him see the error of their ways.
But Ben isn't an innocent boy on a mission for God. Ben's friendship with Jonathan, the narrator of this story, isn't a carefree schoolboy friendship. The key grownups in the story aren't one-dimensional pictures of piety. And this isn't a sweet or simplistic little tale with a nice and neat ending.
Sure, it has a nostalgic feel to it, with its '50s setting (still considered contemporary fiction at the time the novel was written) and distinct threads of U.S. history and Americana woven through it. And much of it plainly depicts two boys experiencing the time right before adolescence as they play, wonder, get into humorous mischief, and that kind of stuff.
Yet, though it's simply told, it's a complex story. The kind that's supposed to make you think and feel and think some more. A story that doesn't hand out a bunch of easy answers to the problems it depicts and the questions it raises.
Now, one partly "resolved" matter in the story didn't settle with me, as it addressed the issue of sexual abuse in the church. I understand how the issue would more or less be "over" for the two main characters after a certain point, since neither one of them have been abused. But that kind of problem isn't resolved just because someone may have gotten the offender to stop it. Merely putting a stop to abusive behavior doesn't heal the victims, sweeping the issue under the rug doesn't fix a church or the people in it, and an offender who manages to remain in position is likely to reoffend in the future.
This novel doesn't go further into all of that though, since then it wouldn't be Ben and Jonathan's story. Still, the manipulation, secrecy, and blindness/denial the story touches on there is haunting because it's too common in real life. In too many real churches.
On another note, although the events involving Ben and Jonathan in the novel's last quarter didn't surprise me, my particular sensibilities made a certain aspect of the ending a bizarre, highly disturbing one for me. Creepy as all get-out, and not in a fun way.
Yet, the disturbing, sobering, abundantly meaningful, unusual ending of this book fits the unusual boy who drives the plot...like a motorist in an unusual American automobile.
I can't describe all the ways this story touched me, but I'm unlikely to ever forget it. Once I'm mentally prepared to read the sequel, I will.
Admittedly, I had the wrong impression about this ChristFic book before I started it. I thought it sounded like a story about an innocent boy who's so passionate about God that his passion makes the hypocritical grown-up Christians around him see the error of their ways.
But Ben isn't an innocent boy on a mission for God. Ben's friendship with Jonathan, the narrator of this story, isn't a carefree schoolboy friendship. The key grownups in the story aren't one-dimensional pictures of piety. And this isn't a sweet or simplistic little tale with a nice and neat ending.
Sure, it has a nostalgic feel to it, with its '50s setting (still considered contemporary fiction at the time the novel was written) and distinct threads of U.S. history and Americana woven through it. And much of it plainly depicts two boys experiencing the time right before adolescence as they play, wonder, get into humorous mischief, and that kind of stuff.
Yet, though it's simply told, it's a complex story. The kind that's supposed to make you think and feel and think some more. A story that doesn't hand out a bunch of easy answers to the problems it depicts and the questions it raises.
Now, one partly "resolved" matter in the story didn't settle with me, as it addressed the issue of sexual abuse in the church. I understand how the issue would more or less be "over" for the two main characters after a certain point, since neither one of them have been abused. But that kind of problem isn't resolved just because someone may have gotten the offender to stop it. Merely putting a stop to abusive behavior doesn't heal the victims, sweeping the issue under the rug doesn't fix a church or the people in it, and an offender who manages to remain in position is likely to reoffend in the future.
This novel doesn't go further into all of that though, since then it wouldn't be Ben and Jonathan's story. Still, the manipulation, secrecy, and blindness/denial the story touches on there is haunting because it's too common in real life. In too many real churches.
On another note, although the events involving Ben and Jonathan in the novel's last quarter didn't surprise me, my particular sensibilities made a certain aspect of the ending a bizarre, highly disturbing one for me. Creepy as all get-out, and not in a fun way.
Yet, the disturbing, sobering, abundantly meaningful, unusual ending of this book fits the unusual boy who drives the plot...like a motorist in an unusual American automobile.
I can't describe all the ways this story touched me, but I'm unlikely to ever forget it. Once I'm mentally prepared to read the sequel, I will.
Read
January 23, 2023Cute story but the author totally ripped off John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany!
July 28, 2023
I should’ve taken a star off for how hard this made me cry! This is a great story, just make sure you have some tissues near by.
July 18, 2018
It made me want to cry. I had to stop and think about whether or not crying was going to happen. That's how close I got to tears.
I usually dislike Christian fiction. It's fake. I embrace Christianity, and I grew up in churches, so I understand what's happening in the stories and with the characters; it's just that it's presented so sanitized and artificially. I don't know - perhaps I haven't read good Christian fiction, but my experience with the genre makes me wonder if there aren't any real Christian authors out there. Enter John Fischer.
This was genuine. There weren't any sections snuck in there for proselytizing. Everything was authentic and legitimate.
The storyline and characters were lively and endearing and though-provoking, and though at times it was unrealistic I didn't once come out of the world of the story. I'm going now to read the sequel.
I usually dislike Christian fiction. It's fake. I embrace Christianity, and I grew up in churches, so I understand what's happening in the stories and with the characters; it's just that it's presented so sanitized and artificially. I don't know - perhaps I haven't read good Christian fiction, but my experience with the genre makes me wonder if there aren't any real Christian authors out there. Enter John Fischer.
This was genuine. There weren't any sections snuck in there for proselytizing. Everything was authentic and legitimate.
The storyline and characters were lively and endearing and though-provoking, and though at times it was unrealistic I didn't once come out of the world of the story. I'm going now to read the sequel.
May 7, 2017
I might find it sugar-coated now but loved it in middle school. Read it several times and appreciated that it tackled topics like Christians who are bad people, questioning faith, and prayers that aren't answered.
October 10, 2018
I read it the year it was published, now 25 years ago, and it still evokes emotion just seeing the cover. It is so well written and does not included the usual trappings of “Christian Fiction” of happy endings and nothing ever goes wrong. It is real and you will need Kleenex.
October 10, 2022
My wife read this to our children. It was read to her by her father.
Good story about being who God created you to be, and appreciating others that are very different than you or your familiar societal norms.
Good story about being who God created you to be, and appreciating others that are very different than you or your familiar societal norms.
January 20, 2019
Domestic childhood boyishness of the 60s-ish and actually quite a surprising read. Recommended, but want to read again
July 30, 2020
I really, really wanted to like this more because my uncle read it and just loved it. I guess it just wasn't my kind of book. It's a sweet story.
November 3, 2021
I think I’ve read this book 10 times, and every time it gets me all teary. Such a good, well written story.
May 30, 2022
Read this in middle school and recall loving it then. Would like to read it again to see if my middle-school recollection is accurate!
October 12, 2024
Excellent story.
March 22, 2025
Precious story that brought laughter, tears, joy and hope.
started-reading-but-didn-t-finish
May 27, 2009On page 76 and it doesn't seem to be going anywhere. Ben talks Jonathan into doing things that Jonathan wouldn't do on his own. What is intended to be a prank actually ends up helping the church so they keep coming up with ruses to go along with the upcoming sermon. The first time it was sort of funny but quickly becomes obnoxious.
July 21, 2007
A sweet book about the friendship of two boys. Life in a simpler time.
July 2, 2013
This was one of my favorite books as a teenager. I think I checked it out of the church library about a dozen times.
April 8, 2014
This was slow going for me at first but man, after I got into it, I loved it! Be sure to bring some tissues with you when you read it though.
June 19, 2023
I read Saint Ben in one sitting on a day off. it's one of the very few books that I couldn't put down. my copy has tear stained pages, but even as I was crying I couldn't stop reading.
July 24, 2014
Fabulous, easy read. Make sure you have tissues at the ready.
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November 2, 2017vary good book vary sad
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews