We don’t want to spoil Wes Britton’s or Commander Bond’s thunder in publishing the interview—but to encourage you to check out those sites and the interview. Here’s one Q and A exchange.

This gives you a feel for the broad range of Wes’ questions and Benjamin’s answers:

QUESTION: Your book is designed for use with Bible study, either individually or in groups. What would other readers take away from your study?

BENJAMIN PRATT:  Fleming reflected on Biblical truths, but he also drew on wisdom from many sources just as I do. Two billion people around the world call themselves Christian and look to the Bible as their primary spiritual source, so exploring Fleming’s reflections on these biblical themes potentially holds an important connection for a third of the people living today.

But the wisdom here is broader than the Bible, something that Fleming himself understood. The authors who wrote the essays for his own book-length collection on sins for the Times came from many backgrounds. I know that many Fleming and Bond fans will find my book interesting because I offer a unique perspective on the reasons the tales were written. I show that Fleming, often considered a literary lightweight, was in fact a writer with a serious purpose. I believe he has written the first narrative treatments on the deadly sins in centuries.

Since the book’s launch, we’ve heard, for example, from Jewish and Muslim readers who are interested in it. Muslims, of course, have great respect for the Bible as a holy book. And we’ve heard from discussion-group leaders as far away as Panama and New Zealand that they are hearing from young people of many different backgrounds who simply are interested in exploring these connections between their spiritual lives and a hero whose adventures we all keep following year after year.