Life Among The Christians

Walk into tumultuous fourth-century Britain.where both pagan and Christian beliefs reign and clash. What really matters in life? In your beliefs? And how do you decide? Ethel, a former Druid priestess skilled in medicine and a new Christian, finds it difficult to understand how her friends, taught and baptized by the same Christian teacher, have such different ideas of how to worship. Ethel's two sons from her first marriage are being trained as Druids on orders of their father before he died. When the boys are returned to Ethel, her family has to find ways to include them and to live and interpret its Christian faith. Mark, Ethel's second husband; Alfred, her brother and governor; Paul, her Christian teacher: and Arty, Alfred's young son, are challenged with this blended family. Emperor Constantine, a friend of the members of the family from their service to his mother, orders them to come to Rome, Constantinople and Jerusalem. Ethel's family, with three young boys, undertakes this hazardous journey to the far end of the Roman Empire. They participate in important celebrations at the end of the emperor's reign and are influential in urging Constantine's baptism. When the emperor dies, they return home to Britain and witness the beginning of transfer of power to Constantine's sons. Ethel's observations of her family and the new cultures in the Empire raise questions about how she should live the Christian faith. For more of the story, see the prequels: Search for the Cross Life Among the Pagans