Description
English name: The Apostasy
Author: Shi Wei
Language: Simplified Chinese
Posting: hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-951588-02-1
Publisher: American Spiritual Literature and Art Publishing House
The novel takes the local church founded by the Chinese in Shanghai in the 1920s as the background and writes a group of Christians who experienced various movements such as the War of Resistance, Liberation, and Three Anti-Five Antis and had different lives due to different choices. This group of “spiritual people”, who are not concerned with politics and far from the world, have suffered from the turmoil of society, leading to the collapse of their beliefs and the reversal of their lives due to the worship of their leader Li Yesheng from worship to shock and anger. However, the dignity and the true hope of human nature were wonderfully rebuilt after being demolished. The novel presents the unique situation and spiritual struggle of Chinese Christians in historical changes and also reveals the complex selfishness and self-deception in human nature.
The novel is divided into four parts. The first is based on the story of Xu Wenyin, and it sets out the background of a series of events in Shanghai society and the church in the political situation. Due to Li Yesheng’s “privacy” incident, Xu Wenyin changed from a maiden-like girl to the first whistleblower, then betrayed Christianity, experienced two unfortunate marriages, and finally became a “prayer doctor” in the United States. The second part describes the story of the four women and his wife who are most closely related to Li Yesheng. The intricate feelings between them are intertwined with their religious beliefs and life experiences, especially when the human nature is torn in prison. Being exposed cruelly. The third part wrote some of the main co-workers in the local churches established by Li Yesheng. The beliefs of these people were strongly shaken in the political movement, some were martyrdom, some were apostasy, but they could not escape Li Ye in his life. The impact of sound on them. The fourth part uses Li Yesheng ’s diary in prison to reveal the center of the whole event vortex. The “spiritual person” who is admired like a god—Li Yesheng, has a deep inner journey.
“If you throw me into that meat grinder-like era, my biggest chance is to be an apostate.”
