The Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card

[Michael A. Heald]

I just finished this book. Enjoyable, but I found myself bothered by the spiritual and religious content of the story.
The spiritual side is presented quite plainly, and I found that refreshing. However, organized religion as embodied by the minister's character and organized church seemed to be "bad" while the personal spirituality of the Alvin characters (father and son) was presented as "good."
This anti-organization theme is common in genre literature. Big government, big corporations, big CIA, big NSA, etc., are presented as the embodiment of evil (although often personified by an individual character within those organizations). Perhaps this theme reflects the American distrust of large organizations that was embodied in distrust of big government at our nation's founding? Americans seem to glorify the hardy individual who can pull himself up by his own bootstraps even when faced with opposition of the "Bigs." So, I doubt the anti-church theme in The Seventh Son refers to anthing more than that. The downside of this in the story is that the opposition or antagonist characters are more caricatures than the fleshed out protagonist Alvin characters (father and son).
Finally, the spiritual world is presented more as a yin-yang balance between good and evil rather than as a reflection of the Biblical understanding of God's relationship with man and the presence of evil in the world. Best regards.

Michael A. Heald