Trapped in the Body of Jesus

Cross the freaky Medieval art of Hieronymus Bosch with a church revival, and you've got a rough idea of what "Trapped in the Body of Jesus" is about. The book is a collection of three stories ultimately more satirical of people's perception of church than the institution itself. Begun in 1990, "Soapwoman" is a coming of age tale of Spec Jordan, a pubescent Baptist haunted not by the devil, but by raging hormones and a spectre who renders bad white boys into bars of lye soap. "A Bishop of the True Church" is the distorted story of Bishop Orvis Hedgepath, a transplanted Mississippi prelate determined to escape his "intolerant" southern Baptist upbringing. Hedgepath, however, reverts to his true form instituting a series of truly intolerant excommunications. In "Division by Zero is Impossible," Mullis Pickman brings an apocalyptic secret home to his impoverished stomping grounds during Fulmen County's annual "Lightning Festival."