I had read Smith's nonfiction work when I was having a spiritual crisis, and found it to contain very incisive criticism of mainstream Christianity. I looked forward to reading these but found this series to be extremely disappointing, especially if Reverend Randollph is supposed to be any sort of a model as a Christian or a clergyman.

Randollph was a pro-football hero who decided on a second career as a clergyman in an unspecified Protestant sect. He must be the envy of all the other ministers: his first gig is an extremely wealthy church in downtown Chicago that includes a luxury penthouse as a vicarage. I guess he must have played for the bishop's favorite team.

The previous church has been replaced by a skyscraper, with the church in the lower level, lucrative commercial properties in most of the building, and the aforementioned penthouse on the top.

Randollph's main job as a minister is gossiping with his assistant and sneering at anyone who is not as liberal, sophisticated and well-dressed as himself. This especially includes the venal vestry board, who of course made the church so wealthy with their shrewd commercial development.

I haven't the faintest idea why Randollph went into the ministry. The bishop mumbles something about his wanting to serve his fellow man, but I am unable to fathom what socially useful function he serves. Presumably he took his creator's book: How to Become a Bishop Without Being Religious very seriously.

Charles Merril Smith, between his fiction and nonfiction, was definitely a factor in my becoming an atheist. ( )