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The Devil Likes to Sing
It's C. S. Lewis (The Screwtape Letters) meets Christopher Moore (Lamb) in this quirky fable about human aspirations and the nature of temptation. Timothy McFarland is a failed theology student turned gift book writer. His 101 Good Things about Christmas has sold millions. But Timothy finds that his success has changed nothing; in fact, he seems more stuck in his life than ever. Wanting to be more than a rich hack, he is confronted by Lucifer, a Wagner-loving devil who offers to mold Timothy into a serious writer by teaching him to take a colder look at life. And it works. Timothy is published in the right literary and commercial venues, and there's talk of The Great American Novel. Along the way, Timothy and the devil are having a grand time, talking religion, catching bad Elvis impersonators at the casinos, and watching devil-cam, Lucifer's ultimate home video network. But there's a final step Timothy must take. Can he write coolly about a tragedy that unfolds before his eyes, as the devil urges? Will he take on the full weight of the devil's writing gift and make it his own? All he has to do is change who he really is.
- GenresFiction
144 pages, Paperback
First published March 13, 2014
6 people want to read
About the author
Thomas J. Davis
8 books2 followersThomas J. Davis is Dean and Professor of Religious Studies at the Indiana University School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI. Joining the faculty in 1989, he has also worked since then with Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation. After receiving a B.A. in history from West Georgia College (now the University of West Georgia) and an M.Div. from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, he earned his PhD in the history of Christianity and the history of Christian thought from the University of Chicago.
Professor Davis has proudly spent his entire professional academic career at IUPUI with his responsibilities split between the Department of Religious Studies and the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture. He chaired the department from 2003-2008. From 2008-2011 he sat as the Thomas H. Lake Chair in Religion and Philanthropy.
Professor Davis’s interests (and writings) are wide ranging.
His academic specialty is the history and thought of the European Reformation. His first book, The Clearest Promises of God: The Development of Calvin’s Eucharistic Teaching (1995), has been called “epoch making.” Another book on Eucharistic thought in the Reformation, This Is My Body: The Presence of Christ in Reformation Thought, appeared in 2008, characterized in review as both "elegant and erudite." In 2005, Davis published John Calvin, a biography targeted for high school students. An edited book that focuses on John Calvin’s influence on American culture, John Calvin’s American Legacy, came out in 2010. Religion in Philanthropic Organizations: Family, Friend, Foe? is an edited volume that came out of Davis’s work as Lake Chair.
Two books on death/dying/grief appeared in the 1990s. By the Waters of Babylon: One Family's Faith-Journey through Illness appeared in 1995. It was optioned by Readers' Digest. In 1999 it was translated into Chinese. In 1998, God in My Grief: The Music of Grace when Loss Lives On appeared. Both works are nonfiction for general audiences.
Davis has published three novels. The first, The Christmas Quilt (2000), received glowing reviews, from Michigan to Florida, Virginia to California. It has appeared in six different print editions, including a Doubleday Book Club edition. The Aluminum Christmas Tree followed in 2005 and received an Ingram Book Company Premier Pick designation. Both novels saw publication in mass-market paperback editions.
The Devil Likes to Sing is the latest book from Thomas J. Davis (2014). It is a quirky fable about the nature of temptation. Philip Gulley has said that it "ranks with Twain for wit and satire." It's a laugh-out-loud book that also deals seriously with questions of self-identity.
Professor Davis has proudly spent his entire professional academic career at IUPUI with his responsibilities split between the Department of Religious Studies and the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture. He chaired the department from 2003-2008. From 2008-2011 he sat as the Thomas H. Lake Chair in Religion and Philanthropy.
Professor Davis’s interests (and writings) are wide ranging.
His academic specialty is the history and thought of the European Reformation. His first book, The Clearest Promises of God: The Development of Calvin’s Eucharistic Teaching (1995), has been called “epoch making.” Another book on Eucharistic thought in the Reformation, This Is My Body: The Presence of Christ in Reformation Thought, appeared in 2008, characterized in review as both "elegant and erudite." In 2005, Davis published John Calvin, a biography targeted for high school students. An edited book that focuses on John Calvin’s influence on American culture, John Calvin’s American Legacy, came out in 2010. Religion in Philanthropic Organizations: Family, Friend, Foe? is an edited volume that came out of Davis’s work as Lake Chair.
Two books on death/dying/grief appeared in the 1990s. By the Waters of Babylon: One Family's Faith-Journey through Illness appeared in 1995. It was optioned by Readers' Digest. In 1999 it was translated into Chinese. In 1998, God in My Grief: The Music of Grace when Loss Lives On appeared. Both works are nonfiction for general audiences.
Davis has published three novels. The first, The Christmas Quilt (2000), received glowing reviews, from Michigan to Florida, Virginia to California. It has appeared in six different print editions, including a Doubleday Book Club edition. The Aluminum Christmas Tree followed in 2005 and received an Ingram Book Company Premier Pick designation. Both novels saw publication in mass-market paperback editions.
The Devil Likes to Sing is the latest book from Thomas J. Davis (2014). It is a quirky fable about the nature of temptation. Philip Gulley has said that it "ranks with Twain for wit and satire." It's a laugh-out-loud book that also deals seriously with questions of self-identity.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 27, 2021
I love books about books. I love that the devil can befriend you and make you pay for dinner. I love Christmas Department Store Window Displays that feature the Madonna as well as THE Madonna. #LikeAVirgin
July 20, 2014
This is a work of fiction. I'll try to give hints here without revealing too much. So, before I give any more information -- let me say that I truly enjoyed it. The theology is good and the writing better. Now, if you want to know more about this novel about a conversation between the devil and a writer needing a new vantage point on life, but don't want to know anything more -- you can stop reading. If you need a bit more information, continue reading.
C.S. Lewis made dialogues with the devil famous in his The Screwtape Letters. There is something of that here, but it's also a very different focus. Thomas Davis provides us with a conversation between a former theology student, turned gift book writer (in other words a hack). The ongoing conversation takes Timothy deeper into reality, producing short stories that are dark, revealing, and powerful. The hack becomes a serious writer, and in the course of time comes to better understand himself and the world.
This is a piece of fiction with allegorical elements. It is not an argument for the existence of the devil, but rather an invitation to look at the world from a different perspective. Is there more to life that tragedies we see? Where is God in all of this? In other words, there is a theodicy present -- not some much the defense as an invitation to ask questions about God and God's presence in the world.
Oh, and this devil likes to sing -- especially Wagner operas.
C.S. Lewis made dialogues with the devil famous in his The Screwtape Letters. There is something of that here, but it's also a very different focus. Thomas Davis provides us with a conversation between a former theology student, turned gift book writer (in other words a hack). The ongoing conversation takes Timothy deeper into reality, producing short stories that are dark, revealing, and powerful. The hack becomes a serious writer, and in the course of time comes to better understand himself and the world.
This is a piece of fiction with allegorical elements. It is not an argument for the existence of the devil, but rather an invitation to look at the world from a different perspective. Is there more to life that tragedies we see? Where is God in all of this? In other words, there is a theodicy present -- not some much the defense as an invitation to ask questions about God and God's presence in the world.
Oh, and this devil likes to sing -- especially Wagner operas.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews