This Present Darkness

While steeped in the language and themes of Christianity, the novel is marked by a late-20th-century evangelical Protestant viewpoint. This Present Darkness presumes its readership is familiar with the basics of Christian teaching and biblical imagery. Thus, this thriller about a small town that finds itself at the center of a spiritual battle between angels and demons, populated by evangelical Christians, is written with a vocabulary borrowed from the Bible as well as popular forms of prayer and speech from its era. The 1980s were a time of concern for shifting mores that were considered a threat by many Americans. In that era, accusations of ritual abuse, satanic messages secretly embedded in pop and rock music albums, and corporate involvement in Satan worship were so frequent that the phrase satanic panic is often used to discuss this phenomenon. There was great concern about growing punk movements, heavy metal and rap music, and the popularity of the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons. Issues such as the AIDS epidemic, rising crime rates, political scandals, and debates over reproductive rights and LGBTQ+ rights sparked significant cultural and political debates, reflecting evolving social norms and values in American society. These changes sparked apocalyptic fears in some segments of Christianity, leading to the creation of media that dramatized these issues in fantastical contexts, coding the non-normative groups as evil.

Approximately 3 million copies of Peretti’s first novel were sold, and he is often referred to as the father of contemporary Christian fiction. Although the book has been criticized by some for taking the biblical themes of spiritual warfare literally and creating a fictional world that leaves no room for nuance in its depiction of good and evil, Peretti is esteemed within Christian publishing as a groundbreaking author.