Reviews
Interview with U.S. Catholic
“In her debut novel The God Painter (Stone Table Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock, 2021), Toronto writer Jessica Pegis imagines a recreated Earth on another planet with different opportunities and priorities but the same perennial human conflicts, both cosmic and petty. “A Wrinkle in Time was definitely my favorite book as a kid,” Pegis says. “I used to shine my flashlight at the stars, convinced they would give up their mysteries to me.” As an adult novelist, Pegis is still shining her flashlight at the stars. The plot of The God Painter raises important questions about how we envision the divine—and how this affects our understanding of our own humanity and our responsibility to one another as community and church.”
Women in Theology
“The identity of the mysterious beings who rescued the humans remains in question as the plot unfolds, and their seemingly altruistic intervention on their behalf raises questions about the true nature of their agenda. As a result, the atmosphere is pervaded by restlessness, curiosity, and even a touch of the uncanny. Naturally, the characters wonder if their new reality is everything it appears to be. The storyline of The God Painter begins in the aftermath of destruction, and this allows Pegis to conduct her powerful, slow-burning examination of multiple social, political, and philosophical questions as her characters literally reinvent their world.”
— Alexandria Barbera
Q-Spirit
Named one of the Top 28 LGBTQ Christian books of 2021
“LGBTQ Christians and allies are part of the future in this imaginative sci-fi fantasy novel. Queer theology comes wonderfully alive ... a queer version of The Da Vinci Code.”
— Kittredge Cherry
Shepherd.com Best Books
“I’ve never read a book quite like this, and yet it felt hauntingly familiar. The population of Earth is rescued en masse from a destructive solar event and has to start again from scratch on an unknown planet. But of course humanity has taken the problems of its own nature with it, and the encounter with its new hosts only raises further questions – around sex, gender, love, and nature. It’s brave and beautiful, hopeful and sad and dynamic all at once, and it kept me reading and guessing all the way to the end.”
— Kathleen Jowitt
James Alison
“[Pegis] stretches the reader’s understanding of visual beauty, beyond what we can normally see. A true nourishment of the imagination, and one that I found very lovely.”
— James Alison, author and theologian
