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Thomas Winn is a retired mathematician and information technologist who also is a lifelong Bible scholar. Tom is very happily married to his wife, DeAnne. They have three adult children, and two adult grandchildren. Tom is a combat veteran of the Vietnam War as a United States Marine. He lives in Austin, Texas, and enjoys playing fingerstyle guitar and clawhammer banjo. Tom regularly teaches classes about the Bible at his Lutheran congregation, where he also sings and plays worship music every week. He likes being with his family, making music, cruising, reading, working out at the gym, and practicing Tai Chi. Uprooting the Kingdom is his first novel.

This historical novel is about transformative changes in a fictional family in first-century Judaea. It is set against the backdrop of the controversial ministry of an itinerant preacher and healer from Galilee, of an ambitious and opportunistic politician who will do anything to satisfy his own selfish desires, of a powerful occupation army that is determined to maintain peace on its own terms, and of the hopes and dreams of ordinary people in an ever-changing world. This is not a story about Jesus, as such, but it is about the everyday life of some of the hard-working people who could have been his neighbors, and about their struggle to understand the exciting, new teacher. The story contains elements of faith, love, community, conflict, justice, hope, and personal growth.

“As he is working in his garden and fields, Eliezer thinks about how so often the Lord uproots His people’s lives in order to make possible a later harvest of changes which always prove to be beneficial. Going through this process is never easy, but it always produces good results, eventually.”

“Struggles with faith affect us in every area of our lives encounter in our and, conversely, the difficulties that we encounter in our lives also have a profound impact on what we believe. These struggles challenge everything that we thought that we knew about truth, and they force us to reconsider our priorities. We make our plans, and then we discover that God has other intentions for us. God’s ways are not our ways, the Scriptures say. We seek coherence and safety for our lives, but God offers us Himself, uncertainty, and adventure instead. Letting go of our own ideas and following the path that God puts in front of us isn’t easy. Sometimes doing so doesn’t even seem to make sense.”

“Thomas Winn’s Novel, “Uprooting the Kingdom” Invites Readers to Come Along on a Challenging Journey of Personal Growth

Set in a turbulent time and place, the book is not about rebellion, or even the conflicts between the Roman occupation and those residing in Judea. It is about the dawning of the fulfillment of an ancient idea, a dream, and a Divine promise. How is the promised Kingdom coming?

The narrative immerses you in the Judaic traditions of a simple family. The head of the family, Eliezer, is the protagonist who is on his personal spiritual journey, and who takes us along for the ride. It’s about family, friends, love, tradition and change. This is a story about how God uses experiences and relationships in one family’s life to transform them.

What this book features is taking the reader into the daily life of a simple Jewish family. The many rituals, practices, observances, festivals, traditions and daily remembrances remind us that, to many Jewish families at that time, God was not a belief. God was not just an afterthought. God was part of their rising in the morning, their meals, their night, their travels, their friendships, their celebrations. God was as interconnected in their lives as their drawing of breath.

Like most of us, Eliezer hears stories about an exciting new traveling preacher in his homeland second hand. He never personally witnesses any of the miracles, the crucifixion, or the resurrection. But in this novel, we observe his progression from thinking about Jesus as just another voice among many, to being a possible threat to the Jewish establishment, to a legitimate spiritual leader, and finally to accepting him as the Messiah.”