The Kingdom of Cain: Finding God in the Literature of Darkness

by Andrew Klavan

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Andrew Klavan explores how artists' imaginative engagement with the darkness can point the way to living beautifully in the midst of a tragic world.

"Andrew Klavan's book illuminates even as it explores the deepest darkness, finding truth and beauty in art born of unflinching confrontations with evil." --Daniel McCarthy, editor-in-chief, Modern Age

In his USA Today bestselling The Truth and Beauty, Andrew Klavan explored how the work of great poets helps illuminate the truth of the gospels. Now, the award-winning screenwriter and crime novelist turns his attention to the dark side of human nature to discover how we might find joy and beauty in the world while still being clear-eyed about the evil found in it.

The Kingdom of Cain looks at three murders in history--including the first murder, Cain's killing of his brother, Abel--and at the art created from imaginative engagement with those horrific events by artists ranging from Fyodor Dostoevsky to Alfred Hitchcock.

To make beauty out of the world as it is--shot through with evil and injustice and suffering--is the task not just of the artist but, Klavan argues, of every life rightly lived. Examining how that transformation occurs in art grants us a vision for how it can happen in our lives.

Klavan eloquently argues that it is possible to be clear-eyed about the evil in the world while remaining hope-filled about God's ability to redeem it all.

Genres: Nonfiction, Religion, Philosophy, Christian, Theology, Art, Literature

269 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 6, 2025

About the author

Reference for now:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_K...

Reviews

[Jolie Dubriel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so sad that I finish this book in three days. Out of all the quotes in this book that’s going to stick with me for quite sometime is, “Jesus is the way out of history”. I have never heard a phrase like that in my youth or in my adult life as a person who loves history this is like bull’s-eye to how we face the world daily. Andrew Klavan has written a well thought out commentary of our human world. I recommend this to everybody for good quick read.

[iSamwise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Klavan’s nonfiction is as brilliant and entertaining as his novels.

[Ginny Yurich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal!! Captivating topic and lots of food for thought - typical of Klavan’s work

[Barry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating and remarkably perceptive

Klavan explores murder in cinema and literature and how its portrayal has morphed along with the death of God in culture. As a novelist and a screenwriter, Klavan has the expertise to pick up on details and themes that casual movie watchers may be likely to miss. He analyzes several horror films (eg Psycho, Silence of the Lambs) and novels (Crime and Punishment, East of Eden), and in the final section turns his eye to some classic works of art.

A prominent theme is the retelling and reworking of the original murder story, Cain and Abel:

Cain does not believe that God is just. He responds in a fury by murdering his brother. It is as if he is shouting at heaven, “Oh, so my offering is not good enough for you? Try this one on for size!”

Abel is an offering of infinite value. Cain is sacrificing the image of God to God.

That is what murder is. It is the killing of the imago Dei. It is to replace God's image with our own, God's will with our own, God's creation with our own. It is the disobedience of Adam and Eve made flesh.

That is why murder is a kind of suicide. To kill the image of God is to kill what accuses us from within.

That is why suicide is a form of human sacrifice. It is meant to appease God— pacify him— by returning him to himself so we are free of him.

It makes perfect sense that God would reenter history through the first act of history, through sacrifice.

Overall I found this quite interesting and thought provoking. It makes me want to read Klavan’s The Truth and Beauty too.

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Conversational/informal tone, but more philosophical than I expected, although it’s not meant to be scholarly (10). Clever and witty, with lots of connections between books/movies and their bases in real-life murders, but contains a little too much self-promotion (references to his other books). I wouldn't describe the thesis as insightful, but Klavan provides interesting history—he's clearly knowledgeable and curious about a lot. In Part 1, the book sometimes loses the thread as he dives into the details of various films, and in Part 2, it's far worse, with unclear coherence with the rest of the book. Ultimately, Part 1 is fun and worth a quick read.

Introduction: Murder and the Imagination
4-5: Lost Cause and Gone with the Wind
7: evil as an atmosphere
9: form a response to corruption (creativity and joy)
11: sadism (de Sade)
17: murder and creation are opposites
21-24: overview
- Part 1: 3 historical murders that became the bases for literary works
- Part 2: 3 practices to confront evil

Part 1: The Art of Murder
Ch. 1: Crime and Punishment
28: 1834 murder
29: Lacenaire/Byron comparison
32–40: Dostoevsky bio
40–42: Crime and Punishment summary
42–50: Nietzsche bio
50–70: Leopold and Loeb (Klavan does some imaginative reconstruction)
70–73: Woody Allen
73–76: Michel Foucault

Ch. 2: Psycho
84–87: Horror Hotel (also 122–24)
88–94: Ed Gein story
93/94/95: Oedipus
105–12 Psycho summary; 112: Wikipedia reference :(
113–14: Texas Chainsaw Massacre
115–16: Black Christmas (1974)
116–17: Exorcist
117–18: Halloween
118–19: Dressed to Kill
119–22: Silence of the Lambs

Ch. 3: East of Eden
128: Steinbeck
129: 5 themes in this chapter: the knowledge of good and evil, sin and sex, the battle of brothers, murder as suicide, and murder as sacrifice
129–31: Gen. 2–4
132–33 (and 143–44): Paradise Lost (and Klavan's The Truth and Beauty)
133–34: Byron's Cain
134–35: theodicy; Neiman
135–36: Brothers K
136–37: The Rapture
139–40: Lewis's Great Divorce
145–46: Hypostasis of the Archons
146: Gen. 3:16 and Gen. 4:7 (parallels?)
148: Hero's Journey (Campbell)
149–50: Osiris/Set, Zeus/Poseidon/Hades, Romulus/Remus, Hamlet's father/uncle, American Civil War, Ishmael/Isaac, Esau/Jacob, Joseph/brothers, Aaron/Moses, David and Solomon (not first-born), Jesus as Second Adam, Jews/Christians
151–53: Girard and mimetic desire

Part 2: The Practice of Creation
Ch. 4: This Is My Body: Morality and the School of Ritual
177: another Wikipedia reference :(
185: finally gets to communion

Ch. 5: The Prison of Desire: The Role of the Therapeutic
therapeutic miracle
186–88: prelapsarian death in Eden :(

Ch. 6: A Certain Splendor: Art as the King to Theodicy
227: Apollo/Delphi history
almost hallucinatory vision of a museum filled with the world's art (odd emphasis on nudity)

[Samuel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Andrew Klavan is a fiction writer, and a bloody good one, but if he retired from mystery writing and concentrated on his non-fiction I'd be okay with that.

Klavan's view of faith and Christianity are incredible, he recognizes the brokenness of this world we live in, his writing isn't Christian drivel, of which there is a lot, but he is writing of his personal experiences and reflections on art and Christianity's influence on art.

I can't recommend The Kingdom of Cain highly enough, it is inspired.

[Kait · Rating 5 out of 5]

This will unequivocally be in my top books of 2026. I haven’t read a book like this in forever. I chuckled; I was provoked to introspection; I dog-eared countless pages; I felt things. This is the kind of book I would have eaten, like peanut butter out of the jar with a spoon, in my literary analysis classes college. It covers art, literature, history, movies, Christ, and what it means to find joy in an evil world. I don’t think everyone will love this book, but I did.

[Celeste · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s very rare for a nonfiction book to truly grip me, but The Kingdom of Cain held me rapt from its first page to its last. I absolutely loved Klavan's style from page one. His prose is equal parts erudite and captivating. Stylish, but not fussily so. Klavan paints the world as it is, dark and broken and often horrific, but he does so in a way that allows room for God to illuminate that darkness. A host of literary and cinematic works are mentioned, and Klavan’s discourse regarding them was fantastic. The fact that this book made me reconsider Crime and Punishment, caused me to second guess my dislike and dismissal of it, speaks volumes for Klavan's craft. He's an incredibly compelling writer, one who communicates the difficult and erudite in interesting, digestible ways.

This is a gritty work, one that doesn't shy away from distasteful, alarming facts in its reporting. While Klavan doesn't revel in the details, he bluntly states the darker desires and dabblings of the most disturbing of his subjects. This is especially true of all those who idolized Nietzsche and Sade and their atheistic philosophies. In this book, Klavan discusses the interplay between famous murders, the artistic works they inspire, and the further murders that drew inspiration from those works. For instance, Crime and Punishment and the thoughts of Nietzsche were both inspired by Pierre François Lacenaire, a handsome, sophisticated, amoral murderer in 1834 Paris who was inspired by the Marquis de Sade. Other murderers, Leopold and Loeb, were then inspired by Nietzsche and Sade. And are still romanticized in literature and cinema and on stage to this day.

One of the portions of the book that fascinated me most was its display of the pipeline that led from Sigmund Freud to the real murders of Ed Gein to artistic works like Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, and The Silence of the Lambs, and the ways in which each work built on those that came before it. Through that pipeline, we see the way that Freudian psychiatry, by seeking to explain sexual deviance has instead excused it, led to a devastating breakdown in morality in various fronts. “Psychiatry...has blinded us to man's spiritual nature and his spiritual ills."

Regarding The Silence of the Lambs, Klavan wrapped up his thoughts with this conclusion: "Whether she knows it or not. Clarice is following the same bright star followed by the wise men of old. Without him, we cannot know we are made in the image of God. Without that image, the body has no meaning but itself. The body is meat."

The back half of the book differs drastically from the front half, moving from edgy literary criticism into softer, more contemplative memoir. In it, Klavan brings us into his burning desire to live life to the full, confesses his discovery that morality necessitates the existence of God, and shares his faith experiences from there. He discusses rituals and therapy, the importance of asking hard questions and what we can learn by witnessing good art.

The Kingdom of Cain is unlike any other work I’ve nonfiction had the pleasure of reading. And it was a pleasure, in spite of the darkness of the material, owing to Klavan’s excellence in his craft. This book made me look at dark art differently, seeing it as a way to showcase truth and Truth against even the most sordid of backdrops. If you’re looking for a unique work of Christian nonfiction mixed with discourse on literature and the arts—and if you have a strong stomach—I would highly recommend this book.

Below are some of my favorite quotes and passages from the book, saved mostly for my own future benefit. Feel free to read on if you would like a further taste of Klavan’s writing and thoughts.

"My choice to follow Jesus has shaped the way I define evil...Evil is the absence of love."

"The opposite of murder is creation—creation, which is the telos of love. And because art, true art, is an act of creation, it always transforms its subject into itself, even if the subject is murder. An act of darkness is not the same thing as a work of art about an act of darkness."

"...when an artist uses his imagination to create a true work of art about murder, he is confronting death with art, making creation out of destruction, containing evil within an act of love."

"From our first cry to our last one, life is little more than letting go, a long goodbye. The pain, the grief, the traumas physical and emotional that scar our minds: sorrow is so woven into the very fabric of material existence that to turn our faces from it is to turn away from life itself, In the presence of our mourning mortality, even Jesus wept."

"It is the awful things that raise the big questions, that limn our doubts about morality and meaning, that heighten our suspicion of ourselves, and stir our secret shame at the half-hidden truth of our own nature. Humanity is revealed in its sin, because humanity is sinful."

"To acknowledge the existence of God is to confront the reality of the moral order. Morality is not a fiction, or an evolutionary emanation, or a social construct, or a subjective narrative dependent on culture, time, and place. It is the human perception of a spiritual truth. Like everything else we know, we know it only in part... Because the world, for all its sweetness, is not at all what it should be. The very atmosphere is riddled with corruption."

"Because it is not in heaven but in this world that we are called to rejoice, this world of such terrible darkness. It is here and now that we are commanded to make what we see into the beautiful. Not in a better past. There never was one. Not in a future utopia. There will be none until Christ returns. And that flatters believers with a happy ending. There are no happy not in the dreamy warmth of some hymn-singing Christian tale endings, not in this, the only life we know. No happy endings, no innocent cultures, no righteous people, no better yesterday or tomorrow. There is only this life, this moment, in which we must cultivate the peace that passes understanding and grow the creative joy that is Christ in us. We have only one sinful self to love. Only sinful others to love as we love ourselves. There is no one to point a finger at who is not our own reflection. There is no one to forgive but everyone... We are called to joy. Here. Now. In a world full of murder. In the kingdom of Cain."

"The cannibal is the model of mankind, the truth we hide behind our social graces."

"What Alfred Hitchcock understood understood even if he did not understand he understood it-was what Dostoevsky understood and Nietzsche too: that the long withdrawing tide of faith was the central event of our time, maybe the only event that really mattered, and the collapse of the Christian moral order would inevitably follow, was following."

"Art, in the end, can only portray man's soul in the age through which it is living."

[Chad D · Rating 4 out of 5]

This sort of thing needs to be encouraged.

Upon finishing I find myself just simply thankful that someone writes like this. He's read Dostoyevsky and Camus and C. S. Lewis and John Steinbeck and a third-century Gnostic. He knows about the framing plot of The Taming of the Shrew. He name-drops Lord Byron and Aquinas. His quick discussions of Nietzsche, Freud, and Foucault remind me of why those gentlemen give me the creeps and give me new reasons for doing so.

What the book SAYS isn't particularly original. It's more what it does and how it does it. Andrew Klavan is a smart, well-read, thoughtful man who has grappled with the problem of evil through his entire smart, well-read, thoughtful life. He's written a whole bunch of mystery and suspense novels as part of that grappling. And now he lays out the movies (those too) and texts that have been his conversation partners, and lays out his tentative conclusions too, which aren't particularly original because they generally agree with what Christians have thought throughout the centuries. Which is, if you think about it, good news. Not many Christians are writing cultural criticism this rich, this accessible, and this eloquent at the same time.

[Chantel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Humanity has struggled to define aspects of itself that exist categorically, definitively, within itself. Over time, there have been many for whom such undefinable certainties have posed a challenge they sought to meet, attempting to unravel the simplicity of life through language. Long hours around the spinning circle of the planet have allowed humanity to toil over such similar questions generations after their answers were met & long since such minds had thought it better to lay something to rest, to rot in the ether rather than within the periphery of their minds. There is no finger of fault to point at any singular person. All are welcome to wonder at the great catechism of life; every brain thrummed with the lineage to ponder; all spirits encouraged to reflect.

Generations of philosophers have often been plagued with the same questions, those tending to reflect a larger-scale reality, specifically questions that dominate human society. Every society advances different goals through diverse means. From the highest mountain peak to the coddled seed in the soil, humanity is distinctive & such observations may be used to breach the divides, both those we perceive to exist & those that act as partitions to empathetic understanding.

I make note of this within the introduction because this book presents itself as a ruminator over such questions as those that dominate the moral compass of each individual & their communities. Klavan has presented his philosophy about the existence of good & evil, how the existence of these characteristics reveals the likelihood of the existence of God, by shifting through film & literature that reflect an extreme circumstance.

Among these tokens is Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” (1960), Fyodor Dostoevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov” (1880), Friedrich Nietzsche’s “Thus Spake Zarathustra” (1883), & the Christian Bible. To reinforce the realism within each of the reference materials, Klavan also includes his personal perspectives on true crime cases, such as the serial murders committed by Ed Gein (1952-1957), the crimes of Leopold & Loeb (1924), & the case of Pierre-François Lacenaire (1834).

Klavan’s initial proposal positions the text as a reflective piece, one that promises insightful reflection of human behaviour. Each chapter focuses on primary material, some of which is listed above, while attempting to answer the question of defining evil in the human species.

While the reader may approach this book having neither consumed nor studied any of the reference material, they may be better positioned to judge Klavan’s conclusion if they have done so. Although the author utilizes the material as reference points, he spent a greater amount of time tangentially repurposing the plots of films & literature than was necessary. By this, the reader may conclude that the plots & twists will be spoiled, but with a sulphuric substance that reeks of inaccuracy.

While one can acknowledge the fairness in criticism, the prevalence of the practice haunts humanity. While Klavan flaunts his adoration for psychoanalysts such as Sigmund Freud & nags on the jawbones of Freud’s contemporaries, such as Carl Jung, he neglects to include the dynamics of each situation as they occurred, opting rather to imagine what he believes could have taken place. Within this example, for instance, one cannot withhold the key feature of the relationship that Freud & Jung shared, one categorized by criticism for the other’s theorems, which jointly laid the foundation for the scientific method, which would later become Psychology.

Without mentioning the necessity to criticize perspective, Klavan engages in his own rambling wet dreams. Indeed, his exploration of true crime may read as catastrophically insulting as he takes liberties to reimage the reality of these occurrences. From a baseline of moral standing, this is not only uncouth but also immoral. The crimes Klavan references are included in order to reinforce a stance that reflects on the absurd horrors that humanity is capable of committing.

One is surely likely to return to the main question, asking what defines horror? Indeed, what defines evil? By choosing to imagine what may have taken place in lieu of fact, the author profits from the same absence of cohesion he seeks to resolve. In fact, is it in the hands of humanity to define something innate if humanity is reliant on an all-powerful totem? Is it humanity’s place to curiously pretend the final conversations, thoughts, & feelings of a victim?

Such questions lead to the inclusion of the religious overtones. Klavan admits to the history of his baptism & his dedication to a religion which he sought out for the connection he felt to its mandate. This is important background as it settles his arguments in a category that the majority will understand.

Although the modern world has moved away from organized religion, religious theology, namely the systems of belief that guide cultures & communities, persist in popularity unshaken by the anguished will of doubt. I must therefore include mention of the role which humanity plays within Christianity & its derivative schools of devotion, namely that the humble believer in God is not to pretend themselves capable of being as God is; God, the Creator of all things, is innately reflected throughout 66 books. It is not the mongrel’s feast to devour the flesh which cannot be looked upon, cannot be seen, but is believed to be mightier than thee.

The necessity through which Klavan leans his weight into scripture, allowing a reader to remember the parables of the Lord God, who, within the context of the Old Testament, specifically the Book of Genesis, speaks words that are to be taken as exact & unequivocal words from God, in unfounded.

The issue I raise by weaving these two points together is one in the same. Klavan has allowed himself the freedom to engage with material by altering it. His position with regard to the scripture sourced from Genesis, as well as those of true crime archives, & even the words written by other men such as Dostoevsky & Nietzsche, is not to be taken on a whim & reshaped. This behaviour alters the very nature of the material so that it is no longer what it is, but rather that which the author might use to further his conclusions.

I pause to reflect on the irony which may have seeped into my sentences. I produce reviews & reflections on many pieces of literature, including religious texts. I spend hours writing cornucopias in response to what someone else has produced. Yet, I know that which I do & do not pretend otherwise.

Criticism must adopt the lens of reality, something Klavan pretends to do as well, but only when speaking against communities of people whose realities he refuses to seek to understand. You may find this claim incensed, for there is hardly a way for me to know the motivations & attempts made by the author towards members of these communities. I acknowledge that Klavan may have come to conclusions which see him claim truth as that which he sees it to be, perhaps basing his definition of truth on experiences he himself has had, or maybe those of his loved ones.

I am not beyond the will of God, nor do I begrudge the Son of God his theology of kindness. Therefore, I accept that perspectives differ. Oddly, this places me softly beside Nietzsche, whose convictions I have read, studiously & with patience. While Klavan takes care to remind the reader that women’s sexual freedoms, the scholarship of human rights seeking equality for the sexes, known as Feminism, & the Trans community, are beneath him & pose a threat to traditional definitions of what it means to be a woman, the creed which Nietzsche pens stands as a Sherman, swaying at the insecurity which Klavan reveals by offering the text his soft spots.

Klavan is hardly the first person to posit such a dogma as that of the perceived threat women experience as a consequence of the existence of Trans people, nor is he the first man to ignore his role in bludgeoning the freedoms innate to people under God, who claim to believe in the Almighty.

By presenting a reflection on the prevalence of evil within humanity & nudging jabs at communities who are disproportionately affected by graphic violence, I find the irony a winded arsenic too gritty to swallow. Perhaps this was intended. Perhaps Klavan stands by his convictions & believes himself in possession of the correct ideology.

Calling upon the dead cadaver of men whose tenets I know well, I avail the text to Nietzsche, who, in his 1886 book “Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future”, pondered the absurdity of fearmongering against those of a statistically subtler identity than the self. In this book, Nietzsche specifically references the dogma prevailing in States which saw a rise in antisemitism, which he notes highlights a weakness, for the Jewish population was so few compared to the ruling majority. That Klavan should be blind to this reflection is interesting, having allegedly spent so much time reposing with the sage as he claims.

Paired with sheers used to transmute the words of acclaimed men, Klavan ignores the very precepts which God has asked humanity to respect. Throughout the ages, since the dawn of the quill which saw the story of Creation begin, the words of God were not to be altered for personal gain. The practice of reshaping scripture is unacceptable.

Modern devotion has seen the practice much adopted, leaving many to forget that what was written in the Bible was revealed to be the words of God & the stories that shaped humanity. To regard the Old Testament as a willow which might be chopped for a kindling fire is to debase God. The cataclysm of the Reformation came about due to a disgust towards devotees who took it upon themselves to reimagine the words of God, fondling the letters with personalized meaning.

I find it deeply ironic that the premise of the theory presented within this work should rely on scripture, which is then degraded into a modern perspective on reality. Klavan notes that he must use vernacular that he feels accurately reflects the truth as he knows it, as he believes it exists. Yet, the construct of belief, especially when guided by a Christian lens, necessitates the individual to weave faith beyond that which they see, relying on that which exists as God intended. How can a mortal find it within themselves to galvanize against the will of God?

Perhaps through Klavan’s reflection on the stories within the Book of Genesis, one may come to find the answer to such a question. Klavan explains to the reader the dawn of humanity while he imposes a selective lens on the actions undertaken by God. Why is this done?

Although one may appreciate that much of human experience is entirely personal, personalizing the motivations of God is uncouth, to say the least. This behaviour also leads one to doubt the author’s ability to form a reputable conclusion. In fact, the motivations of Esau, who was described as starving to death, might be revealed to mean something greater about basic human needs versus perceived gallantry.

The first crime in the Bible, the murder of Abel by his brother, Cain, may not at all be about slits & benefactors, but rather about the simple existence of convenience & unchecked emotional immaturity. It is not up to the reader to alter scripture to begin a narrative of modern interpretation. The goal is to absorb the words & move through life aware of their existence. Eve was not punished by God for all of eternity with the binding of her person to Adam, for mankind to be weary saplings incapable of producing syrup.

Subsequent meandering about the details of an actor’s life, the statements of praise received by the author for his publications, & testimony about mental maladies, may leave one quite at a loss as to what the author was hoping to reveal about their subject. Does evil exist within humanity if it cannot be defined? If a man of Klavan’s ilk, having spent hours of his time roaming the efforts of his contemporaries, cannot drudge up a firm conclusion, is there one to be found?

The reality is that this book offers little in terms of substance, as it misrepresents everything it relies on to boost its own bones against the guillotine’s blade. One may acknowledge that the inclusion of so many random pieces of information allows the author to build his pillow-fort of ideas, but they also reinforce a vapidness as soft as the feathers within.

When paired with statements about tangential testimony of torture porn, the material ignores the flaws it fosters. This is a very human reality; we are seldom completely aware of ourselves to bear witness to the entirety of our person, flaws & all. What I seek to highlight in this statement is that the hypothesis posits the definition of evil through reflections that teeter on the absurd & nonsensical due to a prevailing & determined ignorance that the pen holder pretends is not there.

Ultimately, it is convenient to acknowledge what persists, namely, the wrongdoings by the species. The Old Testament failed to define sin until it was too late. However, even when sin was given a clear definition, the definition changed & was altered at once to fit certain societies, but also to harken the call to the wild, as though perhaps God had grown tired of the creatures of Earth who waddled in God’s pristine image.

Humanity defines evil as being what it is. The existence of the behaviour, the prevalence of the desire, & the certainty of its consequences are well-known. One may feel that the author includes his testimony of viewership of extremist pornography as the means to an end, highlighting that every human being is capable of evil. Does this mean that Dostoevsky deserved to stand facing the firing squad? Does this mean that Nietzsche deserved to rot to death? Suffering is its own beast, but as sensually as it knows how, human suffering sucks the bloody soot from evil’s fingernails, luxuriously longing to consummate the banality of their whims.

In many ways, suffering may indicate the existence of evil. Suffering also may indicate the existence of love, but I suppose it would depend on who you ask. If the ghost of thought thinkers of times gone by were rung like the vine on the alphabetized letterboard, they may conclude with magnitude & force that evil is as evil does, or maybe they might brush off the insecure weakness of such a shallow question.

The existence of good & evil indicates a linguistic need for comprehension. Analyzing the testimonies of those who have lived through conflicts & warfare, one sees the confidence they express towards their stance & the security they adopt to stand by their actions, which they note have been done because they believed themselves to be in the right of way.

Therefore, evil cannot be defined, nor can it be specifically understood. It is convenient to list serial murders & crimes of barbaric torture, geographically dynamic violence, & intergenerational burden as reflective of an independent facet of human behaviour. Rather, what this approach underlines is humanity’s diversity in action.

When raising the ode to fear, whether perceived or felt, one must remember the soul. Although I pen about the tidings of Christ & the perspective of the Lord God, I, much like God, know that there is more than thine self & more than a singular perspective. In times old & new, people have feared God. They have been told to fear the Lord & they have fostered fears of the threat that God poses to their lives. Does this fear invalidate the belief in God? Modern devotion casts the image of God into conversation via threats, breaking Klavan’s conclusion that the existence of morality determines the existence of God. For the moral tidings of such people dispossess the relationship they believe their violence promises them in a Kingdom of Heaven.

God, the Father under the teachings of Jesus Christ, was once the supreme commander of evil. There existed no Devil, no Demon, no master-force of horror for several thousand years within the Bible’s timeline. All wrongdoings were committed by humanity & humanity was shaped in the image of God. God who massacred when God so pleased; God who burned flesh alive; God who promised lifetimes of horror. God, who watched as the Son of God was eviscerated & killed. God, who did nothing for the soul that suffered to prove a love he believed God capable of giving.

Perhaps morality indicates the desire to overcome that which we are, or perhaps it plays on the innate abilities of the species to pendulum across the spectrum of behaviour. Yet, if humanity believes itself crafted in the image of God, this includes all such people as one might fear, similarly to how one might fear God, but altogether different, for God is alleged to be all & everything, & humanity is redundantly vanquished by ignorance.

Ignorantly, humanity has perceived itself to be greater than what it is. Creating art as a reflection of its experience, playing bounty & beauty: humanity sits on the sill of existence, unaware of why it exists at all, why it is alive. The compass of which Klavan & I are both familiar, as a tenant of Christianity, is most simply the tendency of humanity. One may do what must be done, or what one feels can be done, & so be it. I conclude that, as is evil, “I am that I am” (Exodus 3:14) & morality is of mine own making.

[Wesley Busch · Rating 4 out of 5]

If man can make beauty out of pain and murder, God can do infinitely more.

[ritareadthat · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5⭐
As someone raised Christian, and whose childhood trauma has religious aspects, you might wonder why I would choose this book. I am at a time in my life where I am able to start viewing all religion in an objectively vs subjective manner. While I don't agree with some of the views expressed by the author, I could still appreciate most of what he said and how he said it. His knowledge of true crime, the history of Christianity, art, literature, philosophy, depression, and —sexual conduct, misconduct and addiction—are all extensive and thoroughly put on display in this book. We read to acquire knowledge, and I feel enlightened by reading this book.

[Jill Crosby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would’ve easily been a 5-star book, but for the length. I wanted more!

[Cristina Vargas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Klavan has become a 21 century CS Lewis, gone noir

This is not academic theology. You will notice it is not, because it is engaging and fun to read . But it is deep and enlightening, and will show you the light of transcendence , even in the darkest places. Films buffs will especially enjoy Klavan's take on Hitchcock, and the whole book is a must read in the theology of cinema. Did I mention how fun it is? The Klavanly wit is all here, and will make you laugh more than once, while still treating his subject matter with outmost seriousness. And Klavan's prose keeps getting more beautiful and poetic. Treat yourself to the audio book too.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Goodreads Giveaways and Zondervan for giving me the opportunity to receive and read this book.

It is clear from this text that Klavan is an intelligent man with a keen eye and sharp mind for thoughtful research. During Part 1, Klavan intricately weaves his sources into a discussion of three famous murder cases in history. It is interesting to me how he connects philosophical thinkers, filmmakers, writers, and personal anecdotes to expand upon each of the murders. I learned a lot both in terms of the murders themselves and the pieces that they inspired. For me, I think one of the biggest takeaways from this section in terms of hope in the face of despair can be summarized by the following found in Klavan’s introduction: “in this sense, when an artist uses his imagination to create a true work of art about murder, he is confronting death with art, making creation out of destruction, containing evil within an act of love.” Another fun thing I learned from this section is the origin of the verb “to gaslight.” Likewise, I enjoyed the reflection that “in eternity, you may not find that God makes good out of evil, you may find that it was always good, you simply did not see it complete.”

Part 2 seemed in large part to be a summary of Klavan’s own thoughts, opinions, and experiences. It was interesting to read about his perspective. For example, I found the sentiment (as previously described by René Girard) that “thinkers are not alone in the world; many will read their thoughts and take them seriously and follow them to their natural conclusions,” to be fascinating. I also enjoyed the statement that “[life] is a journey through the vagaries of the body to the reality of spiritual love.”

I gave this book three stars out of five because, while I found it enjoyable while reading, I do not imagine myself picking this book up to read it again. I did learn things from this book, as discussed above, but I also found things that I did not agree with sprinkled throughout it as well. There were sentiments and opinions that were openly, and sometimes repeatedly, expressed without any sound justifications surrounding the claims. The harshness of these statements, when placed in the same text as the cohesive flow of the analytical approach to the three murders, left a bad taste in my mouth that I could not make peace with. Ultimately, I do not regret reading it, but I do not foresee myself being called to read it again.

[Joseph Wilson · Rating 2 out of 5]

You guys I promise I didn’t know he was a right wing podcaster when I started this book don’t cancel me!

[Brittany Zimmerman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating read that combines classic literature, classic film, famous works of art, C.S. Lewis, and the Bible into a narrative about how evil brings us to the foot of the cross and into Divine Goodness. Really enjoyed this read!

“We live in the kingdom of murder. We live in the kingdom of Cain. But if out of our suffering such beauty can come, then surely there is another kingdom.”

[William Monaco · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[ThePrill · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ll caveat this by first saying, I think Klavan is a fantastic writer. His memoir, ‘The Great Good Thing’ is personal and flows very nicely, despite the sort of fringe theology that he held to at the time. However, I don’t think this book delivered on what its premise is. It read as some sort of ‘memoir part two’, but without most of the allure of its predecessor. I was greatly looking forward to his takes on Raskolnikov, Cain, etc., but what was delivered was head-scratching. Granted, the section on Dostoevsky and Nietzsche was brilliant, but the book is so overly-philosophised that it loses its charms and comes across as very crude.

No, Klavan, we did not need page upon page of discussing the sexual undertones to various murders, the sexual undertones (and overtones) in horror films, the over-describing of various sexual perversions. Klavan seems to know what he wants to argue, but his argument rambles, interspersed with personal anecdotes and a fixation on the bad and the ugly. I also expected Klavan’s argument to follow literary murders, larger themes, etc., which he didn’t really do. This was disappointing, as, again, Klavan has a great voice in writing and knows how to make a book flow. The premise and title promised so much as well. This book started out so well, but fell flat basically right after page 50. I can commend those first 50 pages highly, but after that, unfortunately, it’s best to give this one a bye.

[Dolly Sis · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's a thoughtful book. I just can't take the author seriously when he admits finding pleasure in watching videos of women being "raped and tortured". Then, he pats himself on the back when he is able to "offend feminists" as often as possible?!? I guess feminists are annoying because so many of them disapprove of torture porn? Please let Michael Knowles and Matt Walsh actually be good people in real life. I'm holding out hope that there are at least a few men left in the world who don't find joy in seeing women harmed... I think I'll encourage my daughters to be spinsters. It's very unlikely that they'll ever find a man as good as their father. Today, they're more likely to find a man like Klavan, delighting in viewing young women being literally "tortured" while the wife he claims to "love" is asleep in the next room. If this constitutes a "good man", society is cooked.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

The last chapter was my absolute favorite part of the book!

[Eric Purcell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess you had to write it

It was ok until the end. The last 1/3 of the book takes us thru a museum and describes the works. There must be a point. But I must be stupid.

[Jacob Hedlund · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rambling. Self-important.

This reads more like a diary than a book.

Klavan’s fiction is outstanding. Truth and Beauty has an interesting idea. But Kingdom of Cain can be skipped.

[NinaB · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kingdom of Cain

By God's merciful kindness, He saved me at a young age and I have largely been spared from many evil vices that have plagued mankind throughout history. However, don't presume that I am immune from temptations as I have my own sin struggles not usually seen outwardly. Nevertheless, I am convinced that not carrying a burden of past worldly sins is a gift I don't take for granted.

Andrew Klavan writes from a background quite different from mine, with a past mired with mental struggles, drinking and other vices. He is a best-selling Jewish crime author who is a former atheist and now professes Christ. I enjoyed his coming to faith story in his book, The Great Good Thing.

In The Kingdom of Cain, he explains how his reading of dark literature and doing research for his crime novels that involved exposing himself to macabre reality of life pointed him to the existence of God. He mentions true stories of murders from the past that have inspired books, film and other art forms, and encourages the reader to look deeply into them, past the sinful acts, and into an understanding of life with its absurdities that forces us to face the reality of God. We are living in the Kingdom of Cain, but because of the murder of Christ, we can have hope and expect a kingdom beyond our expectations.

Mr Klavan and I don't align completely in our theologies. He is Eastern Orthodox while I am a Baptist who is Reformed (though not "Reformed Baptist"). With that in mind, read this book with discernment. Some descriptions of these murders may be too much for some readers, though they are no more gruesome than the average cop show on TV.

Still, I enjoyed the book and it has brought about a few thoughts:

1. In the presence of darkness, God is evident. It isn't because God created or is evil, but because what makes something or someone evil is because it is the opposite of good, who is only God. Therefore, because evil exists, there must be moral absolutes, and there must be God.

2. If evil exists apart from a benevolent God, then the logical end of it all is chaos, anarchy, sadism. Klavan noted that Marquis deSade was probably the most honest atheist. He lived according to his beliefs and he committed the most heinous acts for selfish gain.

3. Christians have the responsibility to confront evil with what we know is good - our holy God of love, mercy, joy and hope. Of all people, we have the only logical explanation of and answer to evil. Its consequences - suffering, grief, and trials - are not the end in of themselves. They could be the pathways to Christ who endured the worst so that we can enjoy Him and all goodness forever.

4. I am thankful for people like Klavan who have had to face the worst of this world (in this book, he focused on murder) but use their expertise to point others to Christ. His job is akin to a forensic scientist or the social media content moderators who have to look at the worst posts the most depraved among us can conjure up, in order to spare the rest of us from horrible images.

A couple of quotes I liked:
"...the shall-nots of the Ten Commandments are not restrictions on our true selves. They are a guide to a clearing the path to our original nature so we can become who we truly are."

"...the purpose of a fiction - of any work of art - is to express the truth about the otherwise inexpressible inner experience of being human."

[Justine Olawsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

No one but Andrew Klavan would or could write a book like this.

"Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." So exhorted St. Paul to the Church at Thessalonica, a command from God in Scripture that endures down through the ages. Yes. But how? How can one "rejoice always" in a world so darkened by sin and suffering?

"My subject is murder and the imagination," Klavan concludes his introduction. "My premise is that murder is evil. My belief is that God is love, and love is the source of joy." In the first half, he explores three iconic murders (the first two you may never have heard of) and the works of art that have rippled outward from them over the years, trying to make sense, so to speak, of what seem like senseless acts. The murderer as superman/artist - clearing a path for his own noble pursuits by eliminating any riff-raff in his way? Nietzsche and Dostoevsky and even Hitchcock worked through these implications. The murderer as sexual dysphoriac - using the bodies of others to project his own transformative needs? None explored this more thoroughly than Hitchcock, which, as Klavan contends, paved the way for a whole genre of psycho-sexual slasher movies. And murder as the cry of the heart against God, against self, against the very act of creation and execution of justice? Klavan takes us back just east of Eden to the very first murder - directly into the Kingdom of Cain.

Three acts of human destruction from the timeline of history are then followed by an exploration of three regenerative acts of creation: the first is the immersion in the life of the divine, the second in engaging with others along the way, and the third is the response of art to the darkness of the fallen world and the longing of the human heart for transcendence.

For my money, the imaginative journey through two thousand years of Christendom's answers to the darkness and the longing was the crown of this book, as it was surely meant to be. Because, the most shocking thing is that the pinnacle of humanity's response to the darkness that shrouds this world in which we are commanded to rejoice is a work of sublimity entitled Pieta - the image of the murdered God and His suffering Mother. "If," Klavan asks, "out of this ultimate depth of suffering, if out of this infinite darkness of grief, if out of this cosmic catastrophe of injustice, the hands of mortal man can sculpt such perfect beauty, then what beauty can God not carve out of this sorrowful world in the liquid white marble of eternity?"

We live in a world shaped largely by murder, but Christ has overcome the world. And so, we rejoice.

[Aurelia · Rating 5 out of 5]

ELECTRIC. I loved it and couldn’t put it down. Absolutely wild reading these horrific murder stories, but when fleshed out (no pun intended) they’re incredibly spiritually profound and give good insight into the truth of morality and evil— especially Cain & Abel, obviously.
I agree that censorship/sugar-coating reality in art is a problem, as it hinders revelational truth and spiritual resilience. In many cases, it also suppresses crucial experiences which lead people to faith. The fact is we exist in a world polluted with darkness and death, therefore we can’t just celebrate/acknowledge art that only embraces sanitized spaces and ideal scenarios. The horrific acts in great art can serve to illuminate moral truths and point beyond themselves (i.e. the character of Rodion Raskolnikov). It is through the transformation of those honest portrayals of ugliness/suffering that we have redeeming beauty and meaning.

One of my favorite passages in here explains murder as a form of suicide:
“To kill the image of God is to kill what accuses us from within. That is why suicide is a form of human sacrifice. It is meant to appease God— pacify him—by returning him to himself so we are free of him. It makes perfect sense that God would reenter history through the first act of history, through sacrifice … Jesus is the door out of history.” GOSH I LOVE THAT

[Bee (Bre) Mercadefe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goodreads, catch up. I really need a decimal rating system here.

3.95 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The final chapter alone almost turned this book to a solid four-star read for me. Andrew Klavan is clearly a talented writer and I really enjoyed reading this book, part of me feels like it should have been longer especially considering what the topic is. I really wanted to get… more, if that makes any sense at all. As far as did he prove his thesis? Yes, he most definitely did.

I really think this was only scratching the surface of a very very very wide topic, I would love to see a lot of this expanded and brought to cover other topics, especially with applying the thesis to other topics, such as true crime consumption and balancing the thirst for justice in this moment here on earth with the thirst for God’s perfect justice that has the final say.

But, maybe that’s a book for me to write, or someone else.

Overall, this book ticked all the boxes for me.. I learned something from it, walked away with a deeper perspective and I do indeed want more. I look forward to seeing more non-fiction work from Mr. Klavan.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5-3 stars. The first chapter on Dostoevsky and Nietzsche, etc was so excellent. I was so excited to continue reading. And then chapter two was all about Hitchcock’s movie Psycho and an exploration of evil through film. I much prefer to read about literature over movies, but I hung in there greatly anticipating Chapter 3 on East of Eden. How disappointing to discover that chapter hardly talked about Steinbeck’s excellent novel but instead focused on Cain and Abel and other conflicts between brothers. It wasn’t a bad chapter, just not what I expected or fitting to its title. And then Part Two of the book became much more of a memoir and a philosophical meandering. While it’s beautiful in prose, I found the second part hard to grasp and hard to track. I ended up skimming the last several chapters in disappointment.

[fleegan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love anything (book, podcast, documentary, interview) where it’s a creative person talking about creative things. That’s what this book is, an author talking about art and literature, (even true crime) and connecting it all together in humanity.
I enjoyed the first half much more than the last half. The author sprinkles autobiography throughout the book, but the last half was more autobiographical and less about the literature.

[Pamela Mogen · Rating 5 out of 5]

How can a book be hauntingly beautiful when dealing with the unspeakable evils that men (generically) do to each other both in real time and in the imagination that drives the modern arts? In The Kingdom of Cain, Andrew Klavan traces the echo of horrific, historical evil acts over centuries into the inspiration for books, film, and even more evil acts. Things that our "better angels" would urge us to shun but instead stick to our culture and fester like the corpse strapped to the backs of condemned traitors in ancient Roman. It is because, as Klavan explains, we live in the Kingdom of Cain, the first murderer, yet also in the Kingdom of Christ.

Klavan's book is a highly original examination of the "problem of evil." He looks unflinchingly at the accounts of murderous deeds and then traces the aftermaths of their influence over space and time and over subsequent men's actions and cultural philosophies up to the present day. Such a catalog would be an unremitting trail of horror if not for Klavan's equal insistence of an accompanying phenomena--the "problem "of beauty.

The Kingdom of Cain ends with a vision of the world as a glorious art museum poised at the far end of a plain littered with destruction. The pieces housed there tell our history of reaching for beauty that has ended in despair. But, we are not to give up hope--there is a door...

Thank you, Mr. Klavan, for another book that calls us to beauty and assures us that it is not an illusion.