It’s not every day that a novel with frequent references to kindness, hope, and heaven is the top selling book at Amazon and reaches number one on the New York Times list. But Theo of Golden has. In this Easter season, the unlikely bestseller could open doors for conversations about faith like The Chosen TV series did for several years.
Allen Levi didn’t set out to write a bestseller or a Christian apologetic. He just wrote a novel about an unusual idea he had, prompted by a visit to a coffee shop in his Georgia town. He finished the manuscript during his Covid sequester, then put it away. But a few friends read it and urged him to publish the book.
In his mid-60s at the time, Levi knew no publisher would take a chance on an old first-time novelist, so he eventually paid for a small press run himself. His niece planned a marketing strategy using Facebook and a few book club appearances.
“When I die, I will take this book to Jesus, and I will say, ‘I made this for you; this is a gift for you,’” his voice cracking as he explained his lack of interest in big media promotions. Levi told podcaster Russell Moore he thought he might distribute a 100 copies, or maybe 1,000, but Theo of Golden has become “the little book that could” with three months on the major charts.
The lawyer-turned-songwriter, who lives in rural Georgia and cares for his 96-year-old father, says the book demonstrates generosity and kindness. Not “random acts of kindness” popularized by Oprah and bumper stickers two decades ago, but intentional Christ-like benevolence toward strangers engaged by Theo, an elderly man from Portugal.
Theo saw some portraits of local townspeople for sale in a coffee shop, much as the author did. He bought the sketches and throughout the book delivers them to their subjects. Along the way, the story becomes about what’s happening in their lives, good and bad, the choices they make, good and bad, and Theo’s ability to inspire hope that is born out of his Christian faith.
“I wanted to communicate hope,” Levi told Christianity Today. “I certainly wanted to communicate that Theo was a man who loved and he was a man who expressed that in a winsome way through kindness and generosity. But I didn’t want the book to be so steeped in this man’s faith that it would run off readers who don’t share our faith perspective. Out of kindness to that audience, I tried to make the story as engaging as possible without denying that this man was a character of faith.”
It’s not The Shack (with all its overt theophany and controversy), but the novel offers genuine treatment of death and life, faith and the resulting hope of heaven.
As with the not-too-Christian book that rises above the cultural wave every decade or so, Theo of Golden appears poised to open talks among friends and strangers about the realities of faith in Christ. Like Christy, Mitford, The Passion of the Christ, The Chosen, and The Jesus Revolution, it will be up to followers of Christ to fill some gaps and connect the biblical dots in Theo’s winsome witness.
I’m planning an Easter season discussion group with Christian friends who might engage others about the book. We will focus on three questions:
Which portrait-recipient’s story most impressed you and why?
Readers have talked about realizing their own need to grow in Christ-likeness. This may open conversations about “missing the mark,” sin and its impact, and what people who come to faith in Christ experience in forgiveness and restoration.
How did you see God at work in the novel?
There’s pain and death, heaven and hope, and God is in it all. People reading with eyes of faith will see this; others may need help at this point.
How can this book encourage you to have a gospel conversation?
As with most witnessing encounters, turning from “your story” and “my story” to “His Story” is the most important shift. Discussing how to do that may be helpful preparation.
For some people at the edges of the faith discussion, Levi sees this trip to Golden as opportunity for “pre-evangelism.”
“We give them something that prepares the palate, so to speak. And that is not to say that we don’t ultimately want to get to the point that we share the gospel of Christ,” he told CT. “We want to do that.”
Eric Reed is editor of the Illinois Baptist.