Review
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Title: The Holy Secret
Author: James L. Ferrell
Publisher: Deseret Book
Genre: Inspirational
Year Published: 2008
Number of Pages: 222
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-59038-718-4
Price: $23.95

Reviewed by Eric Russell

Much like James Ferrell's previous novel, The Peacegiver, The Holy Secret is essentially a non-fiction devotional book told in narrative format. It tells the story of Michael, an active, temple-worthy member of the church who's grown weary of the value of the scriptures and the temple. The story plays out largely as a conversation between Michael and Albert, an elderly ward member who plays Michael's mentor.

The solutions that Albert offers most likely aren't going to be anything particularly surprising – particular to the type of person that's going to pick up this book in the first place. Albert begins by demonstrating the depth of understanding that can come from the scriptures when a close reading is applied by providing an example from 1 Nephi. It's engaging, but could only be considered revelatory to someone who only read the scriptures casually.

As the story unfolds, the lessons with Albert broaden from a close reading of the scriptures to a particular reading of the scriptures – one of the atonement and our relationship to it. As Albert demonstrates the scriptural mandate of a broken heart and contrite spirit, Michael learns to apply the lesson in a subplot involving resentful feelings he has held towards his father for many years.

The story of Michael's reconciliation with his father is genuinely uplifting, but not enough time is spent on the thread for it ever to become as affecting as it could have been. To be fair, Ferrell clearly doesn't intend for the subplot to be anything more than a simple illustration of the effects of the application of a contrite spirit, but the story really could have been powerful if some detail and complexity had been applied to it.

Though it's a narrative fiction book, The Holy Secret is actually most comparable to Stephen Robinson's Believing Christ. What makes Ferrell's book particularly interesting, however, is my sense that it's actually a response to it. Stephen Robinson made his "Parable of the Bicycle" a Mormon household favorite in terms of understanding the atonement. Though on its surface The Holy Secret is just another sermon on the atonement that Robinson fans will most likely enjoy, Ferrell's approach suggests a slightly different way of understanding Christ's grace.

The Holy Secret has its own parables of the atonement, but Ferrell's parables require a more clearly active role in our own salvation. This is not to say that they call for doing more, but being more – they call for a willfully broken heart and contrite spirit. And this is where I think Ferrell trumps Robinson in his explication of how we ought to be applying atoning principles in our lives. And honestly I'd like to see The Holy Secret eventually replace Believing Christ on Mormon bookshelves. So while The Holy Secret suffers as fiction, it ought to become an LDS classic in terms of doctrine.