The Sacred Cipher

New Yorker Tom Bohannon finds his life in danger after he uncovers an ancient scroll in a secret room in New York City's Bowery Mission and sets out to decode the cipher written in a dead language.

Will the code reveal history’s most powerful weapon for destruction—or humanity’s only hope? The living members of Tom Bohannon’s band of adventurers gather again in Jerusalem—physically battered, emotionally exhausted, spiritually challenged, and in various stages of shock—to examine a copy of the tenth-century Aleppo Code, the oldest complete text of Jewish scripture. What the clues inside reveal could lead to the reuniting of the Ark of the Covenant with its true source of power, a weapon that could lead to victory for this ragged bunch trying to save the world. This intrepid group will uncover secrets that require them to risk everything for their faith, their country, and the peace of all mankind. The Aleppo Code is a heart-pounding race, an epic story on a grand scale told primarily through the eyes of one man desperately trying to save the world as he follows God’s purpose for his life.

When rebellious Utah socialite Kirsten Young is found murdered in Provo Canyon with strange markings carved into her flesh and a note written in a 19th Century code, questions arise about the old laws of the Mormon Church. Journalist Selonnah Zee is assigned the story, which quickly takes on a life of its own. Even before the first murder is solved, several more victims appear, each one more mysterious than the last. Meanwhile, Sedonnah is distracted by her mother's onset of Alzheimer's and her sudden attraction to the mysterious Salt Lake City police chief who is investigating the murder. Adding to a slew of other distractions, Selonnah’s cousin, Roger, has recently converted and is now a public spokesperson for the Mormon faith. But paradoxically, Roger's wife, Eliza, is struggling to hold onto the Mormon beliefs of her childhood. If something is really from God, she wonders, why does it need to be constantly revised? Could the murderer be asking the same questions? And most importantly, will they be able to stop him before he commits his biggest crime, taking out a Mormon landmark and dozens of sightseers?

Though neither king nor priest, Spanish dictator Francisco Franco nevertheless conceptualized his right to sovereignty around a political theology in which national identity resembled a sacred cult. Using Franco’s Spain and la España sagrada as a counterpoint to European secularity’s own development, By the Grace of God is the first sustained analysis within Spanish cultural studies of the sacred as a political category and a tool for political organization. William Viestenz shows how imagining national identity as a sacred absolute within a pluralistic, multicultural state leads to dictatorship, scapegoating, and exceptional violence. Using novels and poetry from the Catalan literary tradition and stalwarts of the Castilian canon, his analysis demonstrates that the sacred is a concept that spills over into key areas of secular political imagination. By the Grace of God offers an original theory of the sacred that challenges our understanding of twentieth-century political thought.

Using Franco's Spain and la España sagrada as a counterpoint to European secularity's own development, By the Grace of God is the first sustained analysis within Spanish cultural studies of the sacred as a political category and a tool for political organization.