The Conscience Trial- The Cross Examination Book 9

In the United States of 2045, the ideological landscape is strictly policed by the Office of Scientific Integrity under the harrowing “Conscience Harm” provisions of federal law. Any public teaching on the human person, sexual ethics, or reproductive morality alleged to inflict sustained psychological harm on protected classes is deemed a civil violation.

Fifty-three-year-old Dr. Christian Cross, a brilliant professor of apologetics at a small Christian college in Tennessee and a grieving widower, finds himself targeted for the eighth time. This time, the domain is moral apologetics. The prosecution, led by the formidable, Oxford-trained barrister Bram Frey, intends to systematically dismantle the historic Christian moral tradition, putting two thousand years of history—from the Inquisition and the slave Bibles to the Crusades and wars of religion—on trial as inherently cruel and incompatible with human dignity.

As the battle lines are drawn in a federal courtroom in Knoxville, the trial strikes devastatingly close to home for Dr. Cross. In the span of a single day, his fourteen-year-old daughter Lily confronts the real-world complexities of identity through a hurting friend, and his seventeen-year-old son Eli is forced to publicly debate the con side of his father’s lifelong convictions.

Can a clean conscience triumph over a court orchestrated to retire traditional faith?

The Conscience Trial is a masterfully crafted, high-stakes legal thriller that seamlessly fuses rigorous philosophical, theological, and metaethical discourse with a deeply moving, intimate story of grief, parental love, and unwavering conviction. Drawing on the profound legal and historical complexities of natural law, teleology, and the human person, Dr. Alfred Basta delivers a powerful standalone novel that challenges the modern world to re-examine the very source of its morality.

What is The Conscience Trial about?

The Conscience Trial is set in the United States of 2045, where a federal Conscience Harm law lets the Office of Scientific Integrity treat public teaching on the human person, sexual ethics, or reproductive morality as a civil violation if it allegedly causes sustained psychological harm. Christian Cross, a 53-year-old widowed apologetics professor in Tennessee, is prosecuted for the eighth time, and this case focuses on moral apologetics. In a Knoxville federal court, prosecutor Bram Frey aims to portray the historical Christian moral tradition as cruel and incompatible with human dignity, drawing on the Inquisition, the slave Bibles, the Crusades, and the wars of religion. At home, Cross’s 14-year-old daughter Lily faces questions of identity through a struggling friend, and his 17-year-old son Eli must publicly debate the opposite side of his father’s core beliefs. The novel takes up natural law, teleology, the nature of the human person, and metaethics, and asks whether a clear conscience can prevail against a court designed to push traditional faith out of public life.

Who wrote The Conscience Trial?

It was written by Alfred Basta, a professor, author, and musician.

What genre is The Conscience Trial?

It is Christian fiction, a legal thriller that blends philosophical, theological, and metaethical argument with personal storytelling, which means readers get both courtroom debate and a family’s grief and love.

Who is The Conscience Trial for?

The page names no audience directly, but it suits readers of Christian fiction, legal thrillers, and Christian ethics who want philosophical argument alongside a family story.

Is The Conscience Trial part of a series?

Yes. It is Book 9 of The Cross Examination series, and the description presents it as a standalone novel within the larger series. You can find the series on Amazon.

Where can I buy The Conscience Trial?

The Conscience Trial is available in paperback, hardcover and Kindle editions. The hardcover ISBN-13 is 979-8181267657 (303 pages, published June 12, 2026).

Amazon (paperback) | Amazon (hardcover) | Amazon (Kindle) | Indigo (author page)

About the author: Alfred Basta is a professor, author of Ward No. 8 and The Malgrave Letters, and musician as The Bastas Project.

Last updated: October 12, 2026