THE SERPENT AND THE HUMMINGBIRD tells of men and women who find themselves brought together as they seek common ground in a world close to our own, but bizarre enough to approach the grotesque that Flannery O'Connor said was necessary to shock readers into a realization of the misshapen nature of our times. Faith and the patterns of belief and practice that grow from faith can distort our lives or help us find order in a world of chaos. Sometimes...