Great Lion of God by Taylor Caldwell

by Taylor Caldwell

621 pages of excellent text.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Religion, Christian, Historical, Biblical Fiction, Christian Fiction

606 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Also known by the pen names Marcus Holland and Max Reiner.

Taylor Caldwell was born in Manchester, England. In 1907 she emigrated to the United States with her parents and younger brother. Her father died shortly after the move, and the family struggled. At the age of eight she started to write stories, and in fact wrote her first novel, The Romance of Atlantis, at the age of twelve (although it remained unpublished until 1975). Her father did not approve such activity for women, and sent her to work in a bindery. She continued to write prolifically, however, despite ill health. (In 1947, according to TIME magazine, she discarded and burned the manuscripts of 140 unpublished novels.)

In 1918-1919, she served in the United States Navy Reserve. In 1919 she married William F. Combs. In 1920, they had a daughter, Mary (known as "Peggy"). From 1923 to 1924 she was a court reporter in New York State Department of Labor in Buffalo, New York. In 1924, she went to work for the United States Department of Justice, as a member of the Board of Special Inquiry (an immigration tribunal) in Buffalo. In 1931 she graduated from SUNY Buffalo, and also was divorced from William Combs.

Caldwell then married her second husband, Marcus Reback, a fellow Justice employee. She had a second child with Reback, a daughter Judith, in 1932. They were married for 40 years, until his death in 1971.

In 1934, she began to work on the novel Dynasty of Death, which she and Reback completed in collaboration. It was published in 1938 and became a best-seller. "Taylor Caldwell" was presumed to be a man, and there was some public stir when the author was revealed to be a woman. Over the next 43 years, she published 42 more novels, many of them best-sellers. For instance, This Side of Innocence was the biggest fiction seller of 1946. Her works sold an estimated 30 million copies. She became wealthy, traveling to Europe and elsewhere, though she still lived near Buffalo.

Her books were big sellers right up to the end of her career. During her career as a writer, she received several awards.

She was an outspoken conservative and for a time wrote for the John Birch Society's monthly journal American Opinion and even associated with the anti-Semitic Liberty Lobby. Her memoir, On Growing Up Tough, appeared in 1971, consisting of many edited-down articles from American Opinion.

Around 1970, she became interested in reincarnation. She had become friends with well-known occultist author Jess Stearn, who suggested that the vivid detail in her many historical novels was actually subconscious recollection of previous lives. Supposedly, she agreed to be hypnotized and undergo "past-life regression" to disprove reincarnation. According to Stearn's book, The Search of a Soul - Taylor Caldwell's Psychic Lives, Caldwell instead began to recall her own past lives - eleven in all, including one on the "lost continent" of Lemuria.

In 1972, she married William Everett Stancell, a retired real estate developer, but divorced him in 1973. In 1978, she married William Robert Prestie, an eccentric Canadian 17 years her junior. This led to difficulties with her children. She had a long dispute with her daughter Judith over the estate of Judith's father Marcus; in 1979 Judith committed suicide.

Also in 1979, Caldwell suffered a stroke, which left her unable to speak, though she could still write. (She had been deaf since about 1965.) Her daughter Peggy accused Prestie of abusing and exploiting Caldwell, and there was a legal battle over her substantial assets.

She died of heart failure in Greenwich, Conn

Reviews

[Debbie W. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why I chose to listen to this audiobook:
1. my dad loaned me his paperback copy (700 pgs.), because he thought I would like it since I enjoy a good Biblical fiction. I followed along while listening to the audiobook (34 hrs. 7 min.); and,
2. February 2025 is my "C and D Authors" Month.

Note: Although published in 1970, the mass market paperback and audiobook editions that I followed (Fawcett Crest and Recorded Books Inc. - narrated by John McDonough - respectively), are not listed in the available editions on Goodreads.

Praises
1. author Taylor Caldwell gives an in-depth look into the life of Saul (Paul, as referred to by the Romans) of Tarsus, from childhood all the way to his journey to Rome; especially in regards to:
- as a Jewish Roman citizen, Pharisee, and prosecutor, Caldwell excels in depicting Paul's temperament, from his intense dislike for humanity (including an overwhelming misogynistic attitude) and his extreme hatred for Jesus, the "blasphemer", to his eventual acceptance of people's flaws, but still exasperated with their lack of understanding;
- his calling to be an apostle by the will of God while on the road to Damascus;
- his interactions with various people, especially his mentor, (St.) Barnabas, Lucanus (St. Luke), Simon Peter, John the Baptist, Joseph of Arimathea, Aristo, his father's freed Greek slave, his sister, Sephorah, and his nephew, Amos;
2. some of my favorite parts were the recollections about Jesus by various people; and,
3. a detailed telling about the birth of Christianity.

Niggles:
1. I love a good descriptive story, but I feel Caldwell went overboard, taking several pages (and minutes) to describe settings, philosophical musings, etc. Many times my mind would wander, and to tell the truth, I never really missed anything important. If published today, I'm sure this book would be pared down by 300-400 pages;
2. speaking of editing, this was the first audiobook that I've come across where a large section was cut and pasted into another area of the story, thereby leaving me utterly confused; and,
3. I feel the the Bibliography is somewhat scant. For example, Caldwell includes Reader's Digest Articles on the Apostles, but doesn't cite any titles, authors or edition dates.

Overall Thoughts:
I understand that authors often take creative license when writing historical fiction. The inclusion of Paul's son plays a part in this story, even though there is nothing in Scripture to suggest this.

This story can be heartbreaking on so many levels. Caldwell portrays Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, in all his strengths and especially his flaws, a human being trying to come to grips with his beliefs during this tumultuous time in history.

Recommend for lovers of Biblical fiction who don't mind reading tomes filled with tons of descriptive writing.

[Chris Blocker · Rating 3 out of 5]

*This book review is largely about the author, and contains some opinion. Flag at your discretion.*

There's a good chance you've never heard of Taylor Caldwell. She was a popular author once upon a time, but then just “disappeared.” If you're a regular at book sales or used bookstores, you've probably come across her books before, but likely didn't pay them much attention. Before I get around to my review of Great Lion of God, I'd like to introduce Ms. Caldwell, and spend a few minutes discussing what became of her work.

Who was Taylor Caldwell?
Taylor Caldwell was an English-born American author born in 1900. She began writing as a child, finishing her first novel at the age of twelve. Throughout her life, she published nearly fifty novels and supposedly wrote more than a hundred others. Several of her novels were bestsellers; her most known works include Captains and the Kings, Dynasty of Death, Dear and Glorious Physician, and This Side of Innocence. Most of her works were historical in nature. Her name remained relevant throughout her career into the 1980s. In 1979, she signed a book deal for $3.9 million dollars (that's $12.5 million dollars in the world of 2013)! She was a respected and well-liked author, a multi-millionare; yet you've probably not heard of her. By the time I discovered her ten years ago, all her books were out of print. The Internet was largely silent on her. Few libraries owned her books. Multi-volume encyclopedias of significant world authors failed to mention her. It was as if she had been erased. My interest had been piqued.

What happened to Taylor Caldwell?
I don't mean the person herself (she died of heart failure in 1985), but her work. Why was Caldwell wiped from the annals of literary history, a victim of the fifty cent bin at bookstores from coast to coast? Who knows? But I have a few theories.

Perhaps she was a tad too late
Caldwell wrote exceptionally well for the time when she began her career. Influenced by the works of Tolstoy, Dickens, Balzac, and the Brontes, Caldwell's early novels were cutting edge in the time when Gone with the Wind was immensely popular. With large, meandering historical works that dipped into romance occasionally and were filled cover-to-cover with the purplest of prose, it is no wonder Caldwell became a superstar. When the style became more minimalistic, however, Caldwell remained true to her earlier writing style. As everything shifted toward postmodernism, Caldwell stayed a favorite of her original readers, the parents and grandparents of Generation X.

Perhaps Caldwell's work died with her fan base. Perhaps she just became irrelevant. Perhaps that style was not meant to last the test of time. Or...

Perhaps she was just too controversial
Caldwell was somewhat of a dichotomy. She was very outspoken about her views and she had many of them. And, because her views were often on opposite ends of what is considered the normal spectrum, Caldwell was all-inclusive in being offensive. See if you can piece all these things together: Caldwell was a very outspoken conservative; she hated welfare; she was Catholic; she believed in reincarnation; she was pro-abortion; she was a conspiracy theorist (more on this later); she believed all religion led to the same god; she hated feminism—was disgusted by women in general; she was an environmentalist; she was anti-Semitic.

Caldwell herself couldn't make up her mind about some of these issues (mostly dealing with reincarnation and religion), but that didn't keep her from being vocal as she flip-flopped from side to side. How vocal was Caldwell? Well, let's look at some of her own words about women taken from various interviews:

There’s no doubt about it—women are the inferior sex, in every way. There’s never been any woman genius—never. With all the opportunity in the world—all the leisure in the world, all the shelter—if women had any genius, it would’ve come out. It never did. There’s been no woman Michelangelo, or Beethoven, or Mozart.

It's a woman's place to serve a man.

Women shouldn't have the right to vote. In ancient Rome, women had the right to vote and became active in government. That was the end of Rome. The one good thing Mussolini did was to take away the right of women to vote.

Oh, and her thoughts on children struck me as very interesting as well:

“My children never dared enter a room where their father was without permission. And I don't believe they should be allowed to eat with their parents until they're 21.”

Wow, what child would want to eat with their parents after twenty years of being ignored?

Needless to say, it's easy to see why Caldwell could be offensive. And, as the recent debacle concerning Orson Scott Card has shown, a writer's views can alienate readers regardless of the work.

Perhaps she was erased for what she knew
Caldwell was a huge conspiracy theorist. She strongly believed in an international group of bankers who ran the world. She blamed every tragic event that happened around the world on them, giving pretty damning (or coincidental) evidence for the assassination of every American president. She bluntly called out her Syndicate-like group in Captains and the Kings and, not surprisingly, was very vocal about the extent of their reach.

Perhaps Caldwell was on to something. Perhaps these all-powerful men (because they were all men, of course), reached back in time and erased Caldwell from history. They forced the publishers to shut down the presses on Caldwell's novels and steered the writer's legacy to the worst possible fate for a writer: obscurity.

Perhaps you don't care
So I've rambled for quite some time about Caldwell, but I think it's all relevant. Personally, I enjoy dynamic personalities like hers regardless of her views. I think she may have been brilliant in some areas, but I also think she was very confused and ignorant in others. What an interesting person. And that's why I read Taylor Caldwell. That's why I've continued to fish her books out of those fifty cent bins and add them to my to-read shelf. She can ramble on sometimes and bore me, but damn if she's not interesting.

--
On to the review...

I didn't love this one. Great Lion of God is the story of Saul of Tarsus (otherwise known as Paul, Saint Paul, Apostle Paul, That Jerk That Confused Christianity). The novel's 620 pages tell the whole life of Saul, most of which is, of course, speculative.

Of Caldwell's many books, I'm not sure why I chose the one about the life of Saul? I'm not a fan of the historical figure. His words (told in thirteen New Testament books of the Bible) have confused Christianity more than any others of the time—perhaps ever. Those words that most clearly advocate government and admonish homosexuality come from Saul's pen. No other New Testament author touches these subjects the same way. And yet, there is confusion in these scriptures of Saul, so that everyone claims they know what Saul meant, but no one is really sure. Boo, Saul!

What I liked about Great Lion of God is that it provided much historical context to this time. It offered speculation as to why Saul kissed the ass of the Roman government, and it made complete sense. Maybe Saul wasn't a complete douche bag, but a very confused man with too much time to write down his thoughts for history before he really had a chance to ruminate on them. (Much like Caldwell herself.)

Overall, Great Lion of God was guilty of Caldwell's diarrhea of the pen, that is to say, Purple Prose abounds. Many of the early years of Saul's life could've been cut, as could much of the philosophical discourse between characters. Aside from this overwriting, the story of the zealous Jew who became Christianity's greatest convert is interesting. Saul's confrontation with the father of Stephen was the highlight of the novel; also fascinating were the many scenes depicting the confusion within Judaism and Christianity in the first century A.D.

Caldwell's writing is not for everyone, especially in today's fast-paced society. Some may not be able to get past her controversial views. It's understandable and I do not look down on anyone who will not give the author a minute of their time. But, if you're interested in dynamic personalities like I am, and don't mind spending hours in the vast and verdant rolling hills of a garden floating in a golden mist where flowers glitter with silvery dew and where sonorous voices come from rosy lips, then give Caldwell a try. As long as the International Bankers haven't gotten to your local used bookstore yet, you should be able to find her novels in the discount bin.

[Murray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Taylor wrote powerful and passionate historical fiction. This one is about Paul and, as always, Taylor is able to put blood and life into these biblical characters and make them human.

[Laurence A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't particularly appreciate Saint Paul or his writings until I read this book (unabridged). I am not a fan of historical fiction using real persons, but this one is credible and scripturally accurate. I delighted in Taylor's gift of the description (not everyone's cup of tea).

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Lion of God was in the same haul as The Robe and Dear and Glorious Physician—in the small but cherished book collection of my grandmother, who died the year after I was born. Grandma might not have read many books, but quality is more important than quantity, and these three novels are some of the finest I’ve ever read.

Great Lion of God chronicles the life of Saul/Paul of Tarsus, that tempestuous man so vital to the spread of Christianity around the Roman world, and therefore a seminal figure in world history. Born to a somber Pharisee father and a materialistic Sadducee mother, Saul is fearsome even as a child. His mother is so shallow that she fails to bond with her little boy because she thinks him too ugly to be her offspring. Perhaps to irk her on a subliminal level that he does not yet grasp, Saul embraces the devoutness of his paternal family instead, but carries it to an extreme of religiosity that his father, mild-mannered Hillel, finds frightening.

This extremeness of Saul’s becomes a fixed part of his character after his crush on Dacyl, the neighbors’ Greek slave girl, goes sour. She asks him to have sex when they barely know each other, and being a horny boi he’s eager to oblige her. But immediately afterwards he has a panic attack, becoming disgusted and horrified by both his own raging hormones and the girl he found so desirable just a moment ago. From this point forward Saul nurses a deep misogyny, and a loathing for even the most innocuous expressions of affection between men and women. He even mistrusts his own little sister.

Shortly thereafter a plague sweeps through Tarsus, striking down Saul (who eventually recovers) and his mother, Deborah (who does not) among hundreds of others. The boy becomes even harder and angrier, and feels guilty for not bonding with his mother even though she was the one to reject him in early childhood.

In this dangerous frame of mind, Saul journeys to Jerusalem with his father to prepare for his sister’s wedding. Stomping about the city and hating everything he sees, he comes across what he first assumes are a brother and a sister, but turn out to be son and a mother who was very young indeed when She bore Him. These two are peasants from the lowly region of Galilee, yet somehow They have the poise of royalty and a magnetism that goes beyond even a crown. Saul believes the two to be sorcerers and flees from Them, reviling Them.

Saul hates nothing more than the decadent and oppressive Romans, and gleefully follows the exploits of the Zealots who carry out petty terror attacks against Roman soldiers here in Judaea. But he learns quickly that any Zealot victories are short-lived, and their ends unhappy…

In one of the most haunting scenes I’ve ever read, Saul witnesses a mass crucifixion on the walls of Jerusalem. The condemned are mere boys in their late teens and early twenties, just like Saul—and just like the Romans driving nails into their hands and feet. The brave rebels are coming to an inglorious end, for crucifixion is a death reserved for the most contemptible criminals. They strain to breathe, their pain too much for mortals to bear…

…and yet another young man emerges from the crowd, with the clothing of a redneck and the bearing of a king, and in a quiet but resonating and powerful voice He recites the Shema:

Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.

The dying youths repeat this phrase after Him, and He walks down the line, reciting Psalms and they echo the sacred words. By the time He has walked from one end of the line to the other, the boys have died, mercifully and peacefully, their faces and bodies eased as if they merely fell asleep. And the young man in the rough clothing—whom it should surprise nobody is one Yeshua of Nazareth—pulls His cloak up over His head and slinks away from the crowd, hunched over as if He has absorbed the pain from the executed youths and taken it into His own Body.

From this day forward Saul’s life begins to change, and he will resist that change with every step but will be ultimately powerless against it.

There are plenty of authors still living whom I deeply admire, but I have yet to stumble upon any who write with the majesty of Taylor Caldwell. Her words bring the places she describes—in this case, the many cities of the ancient eastern Mediterranean coast—to such vibrant life that a movie version would almost be redundant. No physical detail of a person, animal, object or place escapes her notice, nor does the most fleeting thought, or movement of a person’s soul.

Her saturation of detail can make some parts of the book uncomfortable to read. CAVEAT EMPTOR: this is Christian fiction, but hardly the feel-good, G-rated stuff that usually gets sold under that name these days.

The mass crucifixion scene is horribly graphic—the boys, already bleeding profusely from their hands and feet, also have hundreds of small cuts on their backs from the splinters of their rough wooden crosses, which they have to rub against in order to breathe in this position, and some from pain and exhaustion soil themselves.

This also applies for the stoning of St. Stephen, a beautiful youth who by the end of his martyrdom barely appears human, bleeding so profusely from his head that his hair color and facial features can no longer be recognized.

Then there’s the sex scene with Saul and Dacyl, which is not explicit but rather graphic all the same, and Caldwell’s terminology rapidly veers from sensual to lurid and corrupt, so the reader experiences the same upheaval over the incident that Saul does. This is all brilliantly done, but renders the book highly inappropriate for Sunday school. Squeamish readers are duly advised.

But just as this book explores the pits of human experience, it shows us the highs, too—especially when the Divine intersects with the mundane. The visions of Saul are as searingly described as if Caldwell herself experienced them. The scenes with Jesus are infused with an eerie majesty. The many tempests of Saul’s inner life will draw you in and wring you out.

Like Dear and Glorious Physician, this book is an immersive and haunting experience that demands and deserves to be savored. Warmly recommended for adults and mature teens of any faith or none.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Her best biblical character novel by far! I have read it 3 times!

[LemonLinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first wanted to read this book as I was so struck by how aptly Caldwell married the factual and fictional in the book about St. Luke, Dear and Glorious Physician and I really loved that book. Thus, it was logical to me that I would feel similarly about her book on Saul/Paul of Tarsus.

And I did get so much from the book. It did not read as smoothly as the other one had, but I attribute that largely to the subject matter. Paul was a very complicated and at times conflicted person - one who disbelieved and then believed so passionately. But at his core there was always a strong faith and a commitment that God's will be done.

Caldwell was so committed to intense research and thus by reading it is almost as if you are walking and talking the those familiar early Christians over two millenniums ago. I certainly did enjoy and am glad that I made the commitment to read this one. And yes, that talent for finding the facts and creating a believable story around them is clearly the draw for this book as well.

[Doris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Novel about St. Paul. Years ago, I had read Caldwell's Dear and Glorious Physician, about St. Luke, and I adored it.

This one, on the other hand... The problem is that Paul, as presented by Caldwell at any rate, is truly detestable: arrogant, priggish, humorless, inflexible, and austere. I am hard put to come up with a single redeeming characteristic. Caldwell gives Paul a few sightings of Jesus of Nazareth, from which Paul, in his infinite wisdom about God's ways, concludes that this Jesus is nothing but a charlatan. Even when his own nephew is the beneficiary of a healing, he browbeats the boy, and the servant responsible for bringing Jesus in to help him, to try to force them to admit that it was all a hoax.

I was hoping that once he had his conversion experience, he would lighten up. But no, he just changed team jerseys. When his friends told him of their witnessing of Mary's assumption, for instance, he *told* them that they were wrong. Why? Because Paul *knew* that God would never so honor a mere woman.

The only reason I rated this as highly as I did was that, as a work of historical fiction, it felt very true to its time and place. But as a quasi-devotional work, I consider it a complete failure.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

My book club picked this book, because this liturgical year is dedicated to St. Paul. As well, we had previously read Grandmother and the Priests by Taylor Caldwell and which we all loved. Caldwell's research into biblical times bears fruit in this immense novel, moving from Paul's upper-class upbringing in Tarsus to his traveling to Jerusalem. I enjoyed very much how the author brought in to Paul's life, prior to his conversion, John the Baptist, Joseph of Arimathea, and of course, Jesus and His mother...and Paul(Saul) understood them not.

[Cami Bledel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exelente!!! trata sobre la vida se San Pablo, muy entretenido ver como llego a ser ese hombre santo, y la perspectiva que el tenia sobre Jesus

[Federico De Obeso · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente libro para conocer la vida de San Pablo más allá de su conversión.
Vale la pena completar esta lectura con el libro: "Médico de cuerpos y almas" escrito también por Taylor Caldwell

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great Lion of God

Edited & Corrected Review November 21, 2013

Intro/Mea Culpa:

First off, my apologies for having created the original review and incorrectly writing about Caldwell’s Dear and Glorious Physician! I’m not entirely sure how I managed to write the essay but then create the wrong book when I posted the review. Many thanks to Constanza (see comments below) for reading this review and commenting on my error.

I have created a review for Dear and Glorious Physician (DAGP) with the material that was wrongly applied here (with some minor formatting changes). I am also leaving the incorrect essay below so that other readers can make sense of the comment and revel in my bone headedness.

Review of THIS BOOK:

As I wrote originally, I read these two books by Taylor Caldwell back in the dawn of civilization. I probably read DAGP twice since I found that book more rewarding than this one. In fact, I did start this book and then put it aside because I just could not continue. Whether it was 30 pages or 40 or 50 I don’t remember and I certainly don’t know if it was only 6 months before I picked it up again. I do know that I eventually did read to the end, but as I write this today, I feel it was at least a couple of years later when that happened.

Without going back to the book, I don’t even know for certain why I stopped, but I can offer some guesses. Despite the familiarity of the topic, I wasn’t that excited by a bureaucrat-turned-Apostle even though he lived during a time that I was heavily in love with and studied. Plus, the book seemed to be more about “stuff” than action. (Remember this is decades-old recollection)

But I have one thing that I can clearly remember and tell you: giving up on reading a book felt bad. Really bad. Not a crime per se, but like a betrayal of the book and by extension of the author and publisher. But I wasn’t thinking of them, just of the paperback copy of the book that I had put back in a closet. (Sounds like this should have been about her novel I, Judas instead, doesn’t it?) And it was that guilt that eventually made me return and read the rest of the book.

I know from other people’s reviews and comments that a lot of Goodreaders have “matured” to the point where they discard a book as soon as they know they aren’t enjoying (or valuing) the experience. I don’t mean hard books that are considered important literary works, but books read more for fun and the sheer pleasure of reading. I envy those people because even today I still wade through a book that I am reading. It hasn’t happened very often (maybe because I stick to what I know I’ll like) but I haven’t hit the cut-and-run phase of my life yet. On the other hand, thanks to Goodreads and some in-person friends, I have read many books in the past decade that I never would have bothered with and am a better reader for it.

Since I wasn’t that thrilled with it at the time, I can’t in all conscience give this book a higher ranking than three (3.0) stars – but I won’t penalize it with a lower rating unless I do the modern era re-read.

Note: The one book that has been on my “currently reading” status for the last few years I stopped for a very personal reason. Someday I will dig that out and finish it.


Original, review text (Feb 2011) that is NOT about this book:

I read this book (and several others by the author) a long, long time ago. Putting aside the "disciple" aspect of Luke (which wasn't a factor), I read it because a) he was a physician and b) it's set in the early Roman Empire. Since I've always been into science and did lots of Western (i.e. Greco-Roman) Ancient History and took Latin for six years as a teenager, this book hit on all three.

From what I remember, I liked the book for its own sake. Her novels tend to be longish and rich with detail and plot. Of course this is a fictionalized account of Luke's life and I am pretty sure that Caldwell takes some expansive liberties with his life story.

(Minor spoiler alert!)

For example, I don't really think he met one of the Emperors!

(end of minor spoiler.)

I also recall having attempted to read at least one of her other books (I think it was "Great Lion of God") and putting it down 40-50 pages into it for 6 months because I thought it was unreadable. I did eventually read it through, but "Dear and Glorious Physician" was clearly a better book and I recall more details of it even mumblety-mumbelty years ago. It was a pretty decent book: well-written and well plotted.

Now (as I write this review) that I look over her bibliography, I see a few title that I never read and would consider picking up: "The Arm and the Darkness", "A Pillar of Iron", "Glory and the Lightning", and "Dialogues with the Devil". There are probably others that I would like, too.

Given her fairly high level of writing, I hope you decide to pick up this or another of her many books. Even though her last book was written in 1980, her themes are universal and ageless (more or less.) Give one or two a try. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

[Macu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fe, sacrificio y redención.
La vida de San Pablo narrada de forma tan humana y con datos bíblicos tan precisos (otros no, claramente) que despiertan el interés por una de las figuras más influyentes del cristianismo y por el resto de personajes que (para mí) están en un segundo plano en el Evangelio.
Me ha encantado. Lo recomiendo. 👍🏻

[Julie McCahill · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5. Learned the amazing story of St Paul! It was very long and took me forever to read but glad I persevered.

[Georgia Herod · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paul the Apostle is the subject of Caldwell's story. She has created a man of "leonine" proportions, one who lived as passionately before his Damascus Road experience as afterward. Because I am also reading through the Bible and have been in the book of Acts, it has been fascinating to read coinciding portions. I admire writers who can envision the gaps and take brief comments and expand them in technicolor. Caldwell does that! Paul becomes larger than life as he wrestles with his faith, his human nature, his cohorts, his fellow believers, his family. Caldwell also does a masterful job of creating the Roman, Hebrew and Christian, and Greek cultures of the day--and amazingly the conflicting philosophies seem not so different than those of the 21st century.

Her descriptions are lush. Her style may seem somewhat stilted in that sentences are long, embedded with sensory detail. A long read--but powerful.

[Erin Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of my favorites, if not, my favorite. I love the apostle Paul. This is such a wonderfully written fictional story of his life with as much biblical knowledge as possible.

[Ben Franklin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Impressive

When I first started I was irritated with the lush detailed descriptions of things, and I found myself skipping entire paragraphs. But then as I moved along I started getting swept up into it. She is a fine storyteller and I now know why this book was so popular when it came out. I did catch a certain, shall we say, euro-centrism: blonde haired Jesus (or light brown anyways)… Paul with blue eyes and red hair?? Maybe. The Middle East does (and did) have quite a bit of variation in skin tones, hair color and eyes than we sometimes realize. When I was in military language school, there was an Arabic teacher with blonde hair. She said blonde hair was rare, but not unheard of. But…. Still!! Come on now. Either way, if you can get past some of that, this is a really good read!

[Araceli Rotaeche · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me encanta la narrativa de Taylor Caldwell. ¡Es bellísima!
La vida de Saulo de Tarso es apasionante.
Un relato intenso y lleno de enseñanzas…

“Mi alma te busca con anhelo, Señor…”

[LZF · Rating 5 out of 5]

El Gran León de Dios narra la vida de San Pablo. Está escrita de tal forma que cualquiera con deseos de encontrar alimento para el alma puede disfrutarla sin entrar en controversias religiosas. Tal como en vida lo fue Saulo de Tarso, el Apóstol de los gentiles, que llevó el mensaje de su Maestro a todo el mundo sin importar su origen.

Esta novela histórica es rica en detalles y revela con gran maestría la incansable lucha de Pablo por encontrar su destino frente a la adversidad. La recompensa del Apóstol, quien en el momento más amargo de su vida tuvo una revelación directa sobre la existencia de su Creador, también vino acompañada de mayores obstáculos pero a partir de entonces, con la fuerza de espíritu que sólo es concedida a quien cree con el temple y el vigor de un verdadero León de Dios.

Así es que, por ser capaz de retratar y transmitir al lector ese tipo de relatos y las emociones que vienen acompañadas con ellos, Taylor Caldwell es una autora con una capacidad narrativa asombrosa. La profundidad y elocuencia de sus reflexiones me han maravillado en cada libro que ha llegado a mis manos. Lo irónico de todo esto es que,todavía en estos días, sus obras son difíciles de rastrear y conseguir, ya que generalmente se encuentran en bazares y librerías de segunda mano aunque algunas editoriales se han dado a la tarea de volver a comercializarlos y desconozco si ello ha dado fruto o no.

De cualquier manera, dada la improbabilidad de encontrarse con un Caldwell, para mí, el descubrimiento inesperado de cualquiera de sus historias en algún insospechado estanquillo de libros olvidados se asemeja con toda razón a lo que debe experimentar quien tiene la oportunidad de descubrir un diamante oculto en las profundidades de la tierra.

Hacerme de El Gran León de Dios no fue cosa fácil pero el tiempo y la dedicación empleada para encontrarlo valieron la pena.

[Cathryn Conroy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a novel about the life of St. Paul—from birth to just before his death. Facts as known from the New Testament are liberally intermingled with fiction in this tale by Taylor Caldwell.

There are two things that make this novel a very difficult book to read:
1. It is long. Very, very long. It's not the page count (656 pages) that makes it seem so long, but the writing. Everything is drawn out—from overly verbose descriptions of nature to plot developments to philosophical and religious discourses, which sometimes are so angry they seem like diatribes.

2. In order for the reader to fully comprehend how Saul of Tarshish became so enraged that he was ruthlessly capable of persecuting and ordering the flogging and imprisonment of thousands of followers of Jesus, a man Saul did not believe to be the Messiah, he is portrayed in the book as an extremely unlikeable character. And he's more than unlikeable. He is evil, callous, malicious, and despicable. I often found it difficult to keep reading a book in which the main character is so contemptible and with so few redeeming qualities. It was almost impossible to care about him except for the fact that I knew what was coming. And even after his conversion, he is only barely tolerable as a character in a novel.

This book is a slog. There is no way around it. Parts of it are really good, but unfortunately about 80 percent of it is just plain boring and longwinded. Unfathomably, some of the most dramatic parts of Paul's life, such as his stoning at Lystra where he barely escaped death and his shipwreck on Malta, are mentioned only after they happened and then in passing.

I read it to the end because I always read books to the end. There was no gem waiting, no reward for plodding through it. There are many other books on the life of St. Paul. Choose one of those and skip this one.

[Carol Strange · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting story. After the long book was finished, I really did not care for it. It had the typical characterization of Paul being self righteous and “hating” women. Paul probably was self righteous but seemed to be humbled having believed in Christ and having experiences in daily fellowship with Him. Paul also spoke of love (spiritual, human, and love in marriage) among the members of the church frequently and had female coworkers- read Romans 16.
The books was also way too long, and it left out some narratives in the Bible that are always good to read (shipwreck on the way to Rome, Roman Christians going to meet him in Italy on the way to Rome). The characterization of early Christians was interesting. I’m not sure how accurate it was. The report of assumption of Mary was in the story too.
The author includes some of her favorite subjects like hypnotism and the cross, the physical image, having supernatural power.
Some time in the future I may finish Dear and Glorious Physician. Right now I’m glad to have finished The Great Lion of God and will give it a rest.

[Sarah Holbrook · Rating 2 out of 5]

I knew Taylor Caldwell was a best-selling author. I wanted something uplifting so thought I would try her book about Paul. Instead she portrays Paul in 490 of the 620 pages as mean-spirited, morose, and disdainful. By the time of his conversion, I was worn out! I decided it's best to develop my own feelings about Biblical people rather than read Caldwell's imaginings. I also didn't care for her long, flowery descriptions and odd word choices. The Good News? I'm saved from reading her other 93 books.

[Sindy Castellanos · Rating 4 out of 5]

El Gran León de Dios presenta la vida de Saulo de Tarso (después convertido en San Pablo), de una forma novelada, y aunque algunos datos se presumen, por no tener evidencia histórica de su veracidad, leerla puede ayudar a comprender el contexto del origen y la vida de la primera comunidad cristiana.

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clearly not my favorite Taylor Caldwell book as it took me close to 3 years to finish. I loved Dear and Glorious Physician about Luke and was profoundly moved by it. This account of Paul left me underwhelmed and wanting more.

[Bethany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audio

The narration by John McDonough was excellent.

This was an utterly fascinating fictional account of the life of Saul/Paul. The author’s immense research shows. The rich detail set the stage, and I enjoyed the inclusion of characters such as Joseph of Arimathea and a bunch of rabbis and Pharisees, King Agrippa, and most notably for me, Stephen.

There was extensive dialogue between Pharisees/rabbis/religious men which, to be honest, lost me a few times. In truth, there were a few places in this 34 hour listen that I mentally checked out or just wasn’t as singularly attentive as I would’ve been if I had read with my eyes. Perhaps one day I’ll return to this book and read it with my eyes—I suspect it will be even more memorable and in different ways. Also, because of its basis on biography, the rise and fall of plot isn’t the same as other fictional books, so it became a slog in places, including toward the end where there may have been greater climax and denouement.

In the end, however, I love any artist who can make the Bible come alive for me, and Taylor Caldwell does just that with richly drawn and deeply flawed characters.

[Debra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful, fictional account of the life of Saul/St. Paul. It was beautifully written and even though one knows that no one knows the details of St. Paul's life from birth to death, to have them it wonderfully created in this story is a blessing. My heart just soars when I read accounts that include my sweet Lord Jesus. Taylor Caldwell can be a tad heavy on the descriptive literature, but all in all, she gives a delightful rendering of the times and the places. A great read! (I did like Dear and Glorious Physician a wee bit more)

[Miguel Galen · Rating 5 out of 5]

El Gran león de Dios es la novela de San Pablo o Saulo de Tarso; sin lugar a dudas es la lectura que más he disfrutado en este dos mil veintitrés y forma parte de mis libros favoritos de toda la vida.

El apego a la historicidad bíblica, la capacidad novelística de Caldwell, el contexto histórico; después las grandes contrariedades de la iglesia primitiva hacen de su lectura algo magnífico.

La recomiendo amplísimamente.

[Valeria Midobuche · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Está escrito que no debemos discutir a Dios, pues sus caminos no son nuestros caminos, y nosotros confiamos en Él, que en su sabiduría tiene razones para todo”

Una ficción histórica muy bien realizada sobre la vida del apóstol Pablo, mostrando su lado más humano.

[Sergio Velazquez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Con esto entendemos un poco más el contexto de San Pablo y de los primeros momentos de la Cristiandad. Una vida complicada y aislada. Nos muestra que muchas veces es Dios el que nos da fuerzas y nos empuja hacia adelante.

[Br. Simeon Jaeger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went into this book with much skepticism, since Christian media has a reputation for being bland at best. I expected much of the same cheesy and shallow content here. But instead, I found a deeply Catholic and biblical novel, driven by a diverse array of interesting characters from the melting pot that is the first-century Middle East!

The novel shows a very flawed and abrasive St. Paul. Even from his childhood, he is intense and serious, and his rigid dedication to his faith makes him unliked by nearly everyone around him. He is also portrayed as very much of a misogynist for most of his life. These flaws do not simply disappear after his vision of Christ on the road to Damascus, even though the Holy Spirit begins to continually reveal the truth to him. Instead he has keep struggling for virtue, slowly overcoming his own impatience and his aggressive personality. This very human portrayal of the moral life is inspiring to me. It encourages me not to despair when considering my own faults, and to remember that virtue comes not simply from knowledge, but from continual practice and persistence.

I loved the dialogue! Nearly every conversation is actually a dialogue between different perspectives and worldviews. We see pragmatic, orderly, and superstitious Romans, urbane and beauty-loving Greeks, and Jews with all their different sects. There is no shortage of varied characters who disagree and argue and learn from each other, in pursuit of the Truth. It lends a sense of authenticity and life to these biblical settings.

The book has a couple large issues, in my opinion. One, the understanding of some Jewish sects is wrong for some reason. The Sadducees are all portrayed as atheistic and secular, which is surely untrue, while the Essenes are basically conflated with the Zealots, being violent revolutionaries rather than communal mystics. Second, the entire novel ends quite abruptly, for no apparent reason. Perhaps this was to emphasize that the mission of St. Paul and the early Church is not over (which is also the reason why Acts of the Apostles ends abruptly), but I felt like it could have been done better here.

All in all, this is a great read that is both fruitful and entertaining! The author previously had written a novel about St. Luke. We get to see Luke’s character show up and interact with Paul in this book, which has left me intrigued about who he is. I definitely will find the time to read that one too!