The novel concludes with a shocking act of sexual violence against young Tarwater, which propels him back to his home at Powderhead, and back to the grave of old Tarwater. Here, at last, he hears the voice of God speak within him, and he accepts his destiny as prophet of the Lord. The last we see of Tarwater is as he makes his way once again toward the dark city, “where the children of God lay sleeping.”

Why was such an act required for Tarwater to accept his fate? Is this book realistic? Or more like a fable, or one of Christ’s parables? What kind of relationship to the world does this novel have? A sick, fallen place, awaiting redemption from beyond? What kind of God then is revealed at the end, who chooses the Tarwater’s to have the prophetic blood? The God of the Enlightenment, the God of the philosophers, a friendly New Testament God, the frightening God of the Desert Fathers? What kind of God could speak to us in the 20th century? What kind of divine voice could we hear?