Dawnwatchers — Hiram Bingham

Set in the year 2004, at the dawn of the new millennium, this dramatic story portrays the conflict between a behavioristic, one-world dictatorship and a redemptive and spiritually transforming society of individuals, the Dawnwatchers. A romantic adventure―spanning three continents, with scenes set in New York, Houston, Seattle, Africa, Rome and Jerusalem―The Dawnwatchers enacts an alternate history that portrays the central questions of our age: the meaning of freedom, the nature of evil, the evolution of humanity and the nature of the Second Coming. After a devastating twentieth century, and following the collapse of the existing social order, the familiar ideas of secular humanism and behavioral engineering are challenged by the events now unfolding. New faculties, but at the same time new dangers, are born for humanity. In an age of rapid social change, the characters of The Dawnwatchers are confronted by a variety of systems of knowledge which attempt to explain and give direction to their lives. At the heart of the novel is Bingham's concern for the human spirit amidst an age in the throes of destruction and suppression.