The Rapture of Canaan

The Rapture of Canaan, published in 1995 by Berkley Books, is the second novel of author Sheri Reynolds. It tells the story of Ninah, a teenaged girl struggling to live within a strict religious community. The novel also depicts Ninah's attempts to avoid the temptation of her handsome prayer partner and the inevitable chaos caused when she falls pregnant. Reynolds is a New York Times bestselling author who specializes in Southern contemporary fiction. She teaches creative writing and literature classes at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, where she’s the Ruth and Perry Morgan Chair of Southern Literature.

The narrative is told in the first person by the protagonist, fifteen-year-old Ninah. She’s a member of the Church of Fire and Brimstone and God’s Almighty Baptizing Wind. Her life revolves around being a good and dutiful daughter and Christian while waiting for the Rapture, or when the good go to Heaven and the damned endure horrible lives on Earth.

Ninah worries about what the Rapture means and does everything she can to make sure she gets to Heaven. However, now she’s fifteen and starts to question the rules of her fundamentalist Christian society and her place in it. She begins to wonder if there’s anything more to life than the church's domination and fear instilled by its leader, her grandfather, Herman Langston.



Herman lost his son and his friends in a war, and he founded the church as punishment for his own survival. He enforces strict rules on everyone—for example, women can’t cut their hair, and he dictates what happens with the mandatory taxes, or fines, collected. Herman never uses the money for the community good, which suggests he spends it on himself. His punishments are severe, as he forces members of the congregation who drink alcohol to spend a night in a "grave." Relations with non-church members are forbidden, and Herman enforces a 40-day imprisonment, along with starvation, for those who violate this decree. He rules everyone by fear alone, which is his downfall.

Ninah’s of the age where the community wants to find her a suitable husband, yet she can only pick someone from the church. Herman introduces Ninah to James—he’s sixteen and Ninah's nephew by marriage. They are to be prayer partners, which means they get to spend time together and speak to God. This time is unsupervised.

When she first meets James, Ninah notices how attractive he is, and she’s happy to partner with him. She is also terrified of her feelings because she knows any contact with him before marriage is sinful. Ninah feels as though James is attracted to her, too, which makes prayer time awkward between them. She punishes herself with nettles in her bed to keep her mind on purer things.



Ninah has a good relationship with her grandmother Leila, or Nanna. Together, they can talk of many things, and Ninah realizes that everyone has their own idea about who and what God is as well as what it means to be spiritual. Leila has an unhappy marriage with Herman and feels trapped. She knows that he’s not a good man. This saddens Ninah, but she’s powerless and doesn’t dare tell Leila how she feels about James.

What James and Ninah hope is that they can ask Jesus to control their attraction towards each other so that they can focus on prayer. Their prayer sessions become less about God and more about each other, despite their attempts to resist temptation. If Leila notices the changes in Ninah, she doesn’t comment on them.

The community members are happy Ninah and James get on and hope they’ll marry. The teenaged pair can’t contain their sexual feelings and eventually consummate their relationship during prayer time. Ninah is upset afterwards because she feels as though she has committed a sin, despite truly loving James. She conceals the truth about the nature of her and James' relationship.



Ninah panics when she discovers that she is pregnant. She knows that she can’t tell anyone, but James finds out. He can’t make peace with it, and he commits suicide so that he’s not condemned on Earth during the Rapture. When the community discovers Ninah’s secret, they vilify her. She tries to say that Jesus spoke through James during their prayers and that perhaps Jesus is the real father.

Tensions within the community rise. Not everyone is happy with Herman’s reaction and the punishments he inflicts upon Ninah. Some of the congregation stop going to services, and they no longer want to pay their fines. There’s also a sense that the Rapture won’t happen during their lifetime, so there’s little point in what they’re doing as members of the Church of Fire and Brimstone and God’s Almighty Baptizing Wind.

Ninah knows that in telling her story, she’s playing with fire. When the baby is born with his hands clasped as if in prayer, everyone’s convinced that he’s in fact the messiah. The baby, Canaan, is now expected to lead the community to greatness—although, some like Ninah wonder if this can be true.



Ninah consistently questions her religious upbringing as she continues to grieve James and worry about the lies she has told. She also doesn’t want the community to think that Canaan is a prophetic symbol. By the end of the narrative, Ninah shuns her religion and pries Canaan’s hands apart with blunt scissors to show that the idea of the baby being a messiah is misconstrued. She renounces the church and decides to find her own meaning for God.