Beyond Religion

About the Book

This book is about faith and logic, sin and guilt. It is also about innocence and its punishment. The novel traces Thomas Spanner’s life with a dysfunctional father who blames Thomas for his sister’s death. Unable to cope with blame and guilt, Thomas becomes drug addicted. He has a religious experience, gives up his drug dependency and eventually becomes a priest. He is assigned to an isolated religious community where he tries to fight a harsh Medieval Catholicism. Thomas falls in love with Greta—church secretary and nominal Catholic. They marry and together they escape from Johnsburgh

About the Author

Robert Wagner is one of nine children born to an immigrant Catholic family. After the Second World War, the family moved from Germany to northern Canada. Here, on Grandfather’s homestead, he occupied his time cutting firewood and picking rocks. Elementary schooling was by the Sister’s of the Sacred Heart. Then, he finished high school in the public system. A couple of years later he entered a Catholic Seminary. The tenure was short lived. Robert then pursued an academic career and received a science degree, M.D. and anesthesia specialty. His first marriage to an Anglican Archbishop’s granddaughter was unsuccessful. He now lives with his wife, Claire.