About the author

In 1986, a friend told me about Lourdes, the most important Marian pilgrimage destination in France, and that sometimes seriously ill people are miraculously healed there. I noted this with much interest. The next summer, when I was travelling in France, I decided to make a trip to Lourdes, although I had no idea what exactly happened at this place. When I learned that the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared there to the young girl Bernadette in 1858, I was deeply moved, although I am usually skeptical towards supernatural claims. I trusted this account because of the blessed atmosphere, and the immense crowd of friendly people who go there to find peace, physical or spiritual healing and renewal of their faith.

Back in Switzerland, I read books about other apparitions of the Virgin Mary and was very surprised that I had never heard about them before. I also read books about Medjugorje and could not believe that St. Mary was appearing somewhere on this earth during my lifetime. As soon as I could, I went to Medjugorje and stayed there for about one week. I spoke briefly with Marija, one of the seers, and was very moved during all this time.

Apart from slowly finding my way to Church, I tried to understand the theological meaning of the apparitions by reading books about Mariology. However, I was not interested in studying theology at university because I felt the need to be absolutely free in my opinion and faith, in spite of my loyal attachment to the Catholic doctrine. In addition, by undertaking my own studies, I could concentrate on the subjects I was most interested in. Furthermore, theologians are mostly very hostile to apparitions and other miraculous phenomena, so I would certainly have been isolated and discouraged within this academic environment. In short, by pursuing my own studies I could bypass all those inconveniences and study Marian apparitions and related topics such as salvation history, Genesis, Revelation and so on freely and without external pressure.

Because I did not always find satisfying answers to my questions in books, I tried to complete the answers myself. As a result, I wrote the present book on salvation history, which is far from being exhaustive, of course, and is sometimes rather speculative. Many things could still be added and ameliorated. In addition, writing in English was not the obvious choice as my usual languages are German and French. It took me several years because I had to make myself acquainted with the numerous topics to which salvation history is related. This is also why it was not always possible to scrutinize some aspects in great detail. However, for those who would prefer a short overview on the historicity of the Bible rather than its theological subtleties, my work may be interesting.

During this time, I worked for some years in a convent, renovating the monks’ rooms one after another. I then went to university where I studied theoretical physics and mathematics, which helped me in writing part one about Genesis. I graduated with a Master’s degree in May 2007 and have been working as a high school teacher since then.