"The Creed of the Third Millennium" by Colleen McCullough, summary

This dystopian novel by an Australian author explores the anatomy of a state-created cult amidst an advancing ice age and demographic collapse. The plot hinges on a detailed psychological vivisection: humanity’s savior turns out to be the product of government analysts’ calculations, transforming the doctor’s personal traumas into a tool for controlling millions of dispossessed citizens. Developed in the first half of the 1980s amid global debates about nuclear winter and overpopulation, the book was first published as a standalone edition in 1985.

Choosing a Provincial Psychologist

The year was 2032. The planet was rapidly cooling beneath its icy shell. Federal laws limited births to a single child per family, and the right to have a second child was determined by a rare lottery. Provincial Holloman, Connecticut, was slowly emptying due to the cold and the relocation of factories. Dr. Joshua Christian ran a modest private practice in his home on Oak Street. He was surrounded by a close family circle: his domineering mother, his brothers James and Andrew and their wives, and his withdrawn sister Mary.

Washington cabinets were searching for a national leader. Department of the Environment official Judith Carriol oversaw the search for a charismatic figure. For five long years, computers combed through the files of hundreds of thousands of Americans until analyst Moshe Chazen, defying pressure from his superiors, placed the unknown Christian at the top of the list. Chazen was captivated by the spark of sincere faith in the Holloman doctor. Carriol removed Moshe from the project, deciding to lead the newly found candidate single-handedly.

A woman arrived at the trial of a wood thief in Hartford. The psychologist had come there to observe the behavior of embittered northerners. They struck up a conversation over coffee. Judith immediately sensed his magnetic ability to soothe grief. She tricked the Holloman doctor into coming to the capital, ostensibly to consult with the statistical department on migration routes.

The official’s plans were far-reaching. The political elite, led by President Tibor Ritchie and Secretary Harold Magnus, were looking for a cheap way to shake off voters’ apathy. Religious faith seemed the ideal remedy for a frightened people. Carriol proposed Operation Messiah.

The Birth of the Holy Book

Christian resisted the temptations of the capital. Then Judith took him to the New York publishing house, Atticus Press. Experienced editor Lucy Greco joined the team. For weeks, Lucy recorded the passionate monologues of the Holloman recluse, transforming his disjointed therapeutic formulas into coherent chapters. The family garden on Oak Street became filled with secret microphones and government surveillance cameras. Carriol spent hours watching the secret tapes, studying the family’s habits and foibles.

The President secretly summoned a doctor to the White House. Tibor Ritchie was suffering from scandals with his promiscuous wife, Julia, and was worried about his mentally disabled daughter. Joshua bluntly rejected the First Lady’s flirtatious advances, calling a spade a spade. However, the doctor selected the right tests and a team of specialists for the ailing girl. Ritchie was filled with genuine respect for his guest, personally approving government funding for the propaganda tour.

At the end of October, the book "God’s Curse: A New Approach to Millennial Neurosis" was released. Millions of copies were swept off the shelves in a matter of days.

Preaching on screens and roads

The broadcast exploded with a sensation. Popular host Bob Smith ceded his entire evening show to a Hollomaniac guest. Joshua rejected studio formalities, stepped into the aisle, and spoke directly into the camera lens. Millions of families froze in front of their screens. The doctor urged people to renounce the cult of things, steadfastly embrace the cold, and see God within their own souls. Viewers wept.

Fame swept the country. In Atlanta, the writer signed autographs for thousands, barely escaping the onslaught of adoring fans. Factories printed T-shirts and posters featuring the new prophet. Publisher Mackenzie sent the Joshua brothers and their wives to promote translations of the book in Europe and South America. Lonely Mary remained to guard the empty Holloman house, consumed by jealousy and melancholy.

His mother unexpectedly arrived to visit her son in Alabama. She wanted to share the rays of world fame with her firstborn. Carriol greeted the uninvited guest with a furious rebuke, demanding that she not interfere with her work schedule. Joshua felt the destruction of his home. The doctor categorically refused government limousines, opting to walk along the snow-covered northern highways.

The Epiphany frosts had arrived. Thermometers in Minnesota showed minus forty degrees Celsius. The psychologist strode through snowdrifts, dragging chains of locals behind him. The preacher ate crumbs, spurning rest. In Iowa, a sobbing woman fell at his feet, and Joshua instinctively blessed the unfortunate woman with a light touch. Carriol threw a furious scene behind closed hotel doors, accusing her companion of megalomania and a cheap imitation of Jesus Christ.

The curator’s words shattered the doctor’s sanity. The man locked himself in the room, writhing in acute physical and mental pain. His skin burst into bloody cracks, his feet blackened by ulcers and frostbite. The doctor continued to mechanically move his legs, repeating to everyone he met about his mortal humanity.

The finale on Pocahontas Island

The May Millennium March had begun. A massive column set off from New York’s Wall Street, heading along the highway toward Washington. Five million citizens filled the highway in a carnival parade. Christian himself walked along a specially constructed high wooden platform, separated from the crowd. Under his thick polar jacket, his battered body rotted and bled. Judith, secretly from his family, anointed his terrible wounds with healing ointments at night and tucked silk strips under his underwear.

Greenbelt reached its breaking point. That night, Joshua, crazed with agony, crawled out of his camp tent into the wet grass of the park. Carriol, who found him, realized he was no longer capable of leading the procession. Delirious, the man called the official "Judas," demanding a farewell kiss. Judith touched his bitten mouth with her lips and gave the order to lift off the helicopter. Pilot Billy flew to the deserted Pocahontas Island in North Carolina, where the empty stone estate of tobacco magnates had been prepared for treatment.

The plan fell apart due to bureaucratic negligence. Secretary Magnus got drunk on cognac, forgetting to call a team of military surgeons. Billy’s helicopter dropped the staggering doctor off in a stone courtyard and flew off to refuel. A rotor broke off in the sky above the bay, and the helicopter crashed to the ocean floor, crew and all.

Joshua was left alone on the island. Delusions had completely overwhelmed his sanity. The unfortunate man found spare railroad ties, a saw, an ax handle, and spikes in the shed. With superhuman effort, the exhausted psychologist hammered together a T-shaped cross, hung the structure with ropes from an iron hook in the tunnel gate, and stuck his neck through the noose. His feet slipped off the low stool. The rope squeezed his larynx, cutting off air from his lungs. Death occurred within minutes.

Three hours later, Carriol arrived on the island with a hastily assembled team of doctors. The dead body hung on railroad ties in the middle of a stone courtyard. Judith smiled bitterly at the inevitability of the biblical myth, ordered the body removed, and the tragedy classified as a top state secret.

Victory fanfares thundered in Washington. President Richie ascended the marble pedestal before millions of pilgrims and read Christian’s Philadelphia speech. The people wept with delight. That evening, Tibor announced the prophet’s peaceful death in his hospital room on the radio, proclaiming the Covenant of the Third Millennium as the nation’s highest value.

Carriol took over the Department in place of the deposed Magnus, preparing to cast in her lot with the widowed president. Nurse Lurline Brown secretly took a homemade cross to a community of fellow believers, creating a shrine on Pocahontas. Analyst Moshe Chasen came to Holloman to visit the bereaved family. The family sipped coffee quietly in the blooming winter garden, resignedly awaiting the resurrected Joshua crossing the familiar threshold in forty days.