After thoroughly enjoying "Patapsco Spirits: Eleven Ghost Stories", Addison Hart's marvellous collection of short ghost stories (it was my top fiction choice for 2024), I immediately raced to see what other books he had to offer. It turns out, quite a few (click here for his Goodreads list). Since I'm neck-deep in a stack of non-fiction works right now, I wanted another taste of his story-telling, so I used my remaining Christmas cash to pick up his novel, Confessions of the Antichrist.

Full disclosure, if I didn't already follow Hart's treasury of thought on Substack ("The Pragmatic Mystic") and hadn't known he's an elder brother to DBH (perhaps Mycroft to David's Sherlock?), I may have wrongly assumed from the title that Confessions was another fan fiction instalment of the Left Behind literary debacle. I'm glad I knew better! For while this short novel is very readable and moves quickly, it also boasts some wonderfully creative premises that left me pondering (as his ghost stories had in my essay here).

I'm wary of spoilers, and would even recommend avoiding the Amazon summary. So rather than offering an overview of the plot, I can hint at it by suggesting some pre-reading thought experiments to tempt you into Hart's treatment.

• Given the apostle Paul's claims in the Christ hymns of Philippians 2 and Colossians 1–that all things visible and invisible are "reconciled by his blood" and that every tongue in heaven and on earth and under the earth will confess (joyfully) the Lordship of Jesus–is it possible that even the devil (whatever that is) could yet repent and be saved? (an ancient debate, actually).
• If we were to image the devil seeing the error of its ways and trying to make amends, what would that look like? Would those amends look like a realignment with the fallen spirit's original design, or would the corruption of character continue to be manifest in his course corrections?
• If the devil were to prepare an Antichrist for the role, what type of man would he be? When or how would he discover his role? How would he be revealed to the world? Would the classical Antichrist of Christian imagination be his inevitable destiny or would God offers exit ramps? Could he or would he take them?
• Would the church recognize the Antichrist when he appeared? If they were to discover his identity, how would they respond and relate to him? Who would resist him? Who would bargain with him? And how do we keep doing so again and again in the realpolitik of our world. 
• And where does Jesus come into any of these questions? Is God the divine architect of a predestined outcome, or a passive observer in a cosmic dualism, or how would he participate in this plot as the Shepherd of humankind?       

The way Addison plays with these questions is well worth enjoying. The book has previously compared the book to a meeting of Through the Looking-Glass and The Divine Comedy. Yes, or I might suggest that it's the lovechild of The Grand Inquisitor and The Screwtape Letters because its relevance is a serious exploration in the nature of temptation and how we in 'the real world' regularly succumb to it in the name of our best ideas, which are precisely what got us into the current mess.

P.S. A few minor asides: I appreciated the very short chapters. It allowed me to snack on the book between tasks or at the end of the day and kept the book moving.

And I would also recommend pausing to look up Hart's incidental references to books, authors, history (historical figures, the Etruscans, etc.), and artworks (Goya)–worthy of pausing for sure.

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