Ted Carr is a Christian, but doesn't rub people's faces in it. He just goes about his way, doing what he considers right. He is an electrical engineer, and one of his problems is that his clients won't let him retire. Here is what he says about himself and his book, which he is offering for free.
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ABOUT THE FUTURE'S ADVOCATE
The future's Advocate is a religious book, which shouldn't be all that shocking because of all of the genres, science fiction is most likely to have religious overtones. It is not religious in any proselyting sense. It has no agenda of persuasion or conviction, and makes no attempt to present itself as Truth. Indeed, to those who might be offended by my blatant misinterpretation of Scripture, I would say "Relax, it's only a story."
Primarily, it is a hopeful story. I do believe very strongly that life is purposeful and embedded with the deepest of meanings. That the cosmos knows what it is doing, and that its purposes include us, has been my fundamental starting point, and this has little to do with whether I have the details 'right' or not. If The Future's Advocate plants a seed of hope with its readers, it has fulfilled the measure of its creation.
It was first published back in 1975, which makes it a rather old story. As I have watched the unfolding of events in the world, I have felt little desire to change it. I guess I could have been a little more creative in the roles I gave to women, but I believe the story holds up well in the present world.
I have been an electrical engineer working mainly in control systems, but am now retired, and wondering how I ever had time to go to 'work'. I took time off from my job in 1995 to go with my wife Dawn as volunteers in Papua New Guinea. Dawn was a Kindergarten coordinator, and I went as a Renewable Energy Consultant, although my job didn't really happen (after the manner of things in PNG). I had intended to return to 'civilisation' when we came home, but after two and a half years working with children in the PNG highlands, we arrived home strangely out of step with the world we had known.
Dawn and I have three sons David, Evan and Matthew, and two beautiful little grand daughters, Eilonwy and Arianwen. We now live in a cooperative community, in a solar and wind powered mud brick house on a beautiful mountain in the ranges outside Melbourne. I guess, in a way, I am trying to find the world that I first described in this book. Not much success, but we are working on it!
Judging by my correspondence with readers (they do still write!) The Future's Advocate can be likened to mushrooms or Volkswagens--people tend to either love them or hate them. Either way, I would be delighted to have your feedback, and I always reply to people who write me. I can be contacted at evanwestering@yahoo.co.uk.
I am very grateful to Bob Rich and Anina's Book Company for their assistance in putting this book online.
The profoundly religious novel is so rare as to be almost non-existent. but, periodically, novels with some kind of religious orientation appear. Science fiction has not been utilized often as a vehicle for religious expression.
But in THE FUTURE'S ADVOCATE there is a full-length treatment, fast-paced, dramatic, tantalizing in its implications, philosophical, and encouraging further enquiry.
Evan Westering, launched on a seven-year space trip, is soon involved in a malfunction of the vehicle that causes the death of his two companions and leaves him sinking into hibernation on a course with no end, cut off from the all-directing minds at Houston. When he awakens, he is approaching earth -- but a clearer, more beautiful sphere than he had left. Cared for by gentle humans who seem to have been aware of his approach, he soon realizes that he is in the curious situation of being a mortal who has returned to find the millennium.
With theologians from Dallas to Tubingen speculating on the eschaton in their varied ways, it is a refreshing change to have the future explored in human terms, to examine the realities of grace, salvation and judgement, as the interaction of the human and divine, and observe biblical categories re-enacted on a universal level. This book is well worth exploring.
IRIS V. CULLY
Iris V Cully is a well known reviewer. Enter her name in Google and see how many references to her pop up.
This review was published in The Review of Books and Religion in 1975.