Books

Jeffrey Dahmer’s Story of Faith

A prison minister who led the mass-murderer to Jesus tells the story.

This book tells the disturbing yet redemptive story of how, by God’s grace, an atheist, pedophile, and mass murderer repented and believed in Jesus Christ. Roy Ratcliff—the erstwhile preacher-turned-prison-minister who baptized Jeffrey Dahmer—discovered through him this deep sense of grace that flies in the face of our compunction to condemn, voiced by one college professor who said, “If Dahmer’s in heaven, I don’t want to be there.”

DARK JOURNEY,DEEP GRACE:Jeffrey Dahmer’sStory of Faithby Roy RatcliffwithLindy AdamsLeafwood Publishers208 pp.; $13.99

Ratcliff says he became convinced of Dahmer’s sincerity during seven months of prison visits. “I feel very, very bad about the crimes I’ve committed,” Dahmer told Ratcliff. “In fact, I think I should have been put to death by the state for what I did.” A fellow inmate killed Dahmer in 1994.

Ratcliff called Dahmer by his first name, Jeff. “He became a real person to me, so I referred to him the same way I would anyone I knew personally,” Ratcliff said. “He was ready to die. I was the one who was unprepared.”

Copyright © 2006 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Related Elsewhere:

Dark Journey, Deep Grace is available from Christianbook.com and other book retailers.

More information is available from Leafwood Publishers.

For book lovers, our 2006 CT book awards are available online, along with our book awards for 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, and 1997, as well as our Books of the Twentieth Century. For other coverage or reviews, see our Books archive and the weekly Books & Culture Corner.

Also in this issue

The CT archives are a rich treasure of biblical wisdom and insight from our past. Some things we would say differently today, and some stances we've changed. But overall, we're amazed at how relevant so much of this content is. We trust that you'll find it a helpful resource.

Cover Story

Young, Restless, Reformed

'Divine Conspirator' Dallas Willard Dies at 77

It's All About God

Inside C.S. Lewis's Toolbox

Embrace Your Inner Pentecostal

China's New Legal Eagles

Spiritual Classics

Class Warfare

What Happened to Religion in Canada?

Despair Not

The Call of Samuel

Logic Left Behind

The Whole Word for the Whole World

For Shame?

Christ's Story

Postcard from Africa

Editorial

God's Will in the Public Square

The Truth Is Somewhere

Wrongful Love

Theology for an Age of Terror

News

Quotation Marks

The New Missions Generation

News

Go Figure

News

<em>Christianity Today</em> News Briefs

News

Passages

Excerpt

A Call to an Ancient Evangelical Future

Together in the Jesus Story

Nicholas Kristof on Evangelicals, China, and Human Rights

'Volcanic' Response

We're Not Spectators

Bygone Protests

Two Degrees of Separation

News

Scrubbing CleanFlicks

Thinking Straight

Echoes and Voices from Beyond

How to Create Cynics

Sermons of Frederick Buechner

Estranged Bedfellows

The Problem with Prophets

Sit Down, Sit Down for Jesus?

Pluralist Impotence

Dr. Willard's Diagnosis

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