J. M. Dawsey has lectured at major universities, churches, and other important venues in the United States, Europe, and Latin America. His latest writing is the theological thriller, Masters and Savages. “Stories have always appealed to me,” he explains. “Life is too complex, too nuanced really, for discursive description. Through stories we tap deep truths about ourselves and our world. Stories speak to us at different levels — when children at one level, as adults at another. They live with us, change us. We return to good stories and enjoy new insights. They become mythic. People live by stories. It’s no surprise that Jesus and other great religious leaders told so many of them.”