Royal Oak — Listening to the “Agnus Dei” from John Rutter’s “Requiem” arrangement one night, Deacon Robert Ovies thought to himself, “What if somebody could raise someone from the dead, and it was a proven thing?”

“Would they worship him? Would they try to kill him?” he wondered. “I thought, that’s got to be an interesting story.”

Over the next 10 years, this thought grew into the tale of 9-year-old C.J. Walker, an ordinary young boy who lives in Metro Detroit, plays video games with friends and also has the unusual gift of raising the dead.

Deacon Ovies’ imaginative tale became “The Rising;” a 308-page thriller recently published by Ignatius Press.

Deacon Ovies, who served in the Archdiocese of Detroit for 28 years, wanted to write a central figure that would have, on one hand, “the greatest power on earth, which some say is the power over death,” and on the other hand, be in “a totally vulnerable position.”

This was perfectly exhibited, he said, in the unassuming C.J. Walker: “The underlying theme is that the most vulnerable would be the most powerful.”

“I just started the story, and thought this would be interesting to play out,” Deacon Ovies said. “I’d imagine that with today’s society — things go viral in two minutes flat — look what the whole world would do to somebody if (that person) really could raise the dead.”

For starters, “the media would eat them alive,” and since this would involve something of the supernatural, the Catholic Church would obviously become involved, he said.

Because witnessing the dead rise is uncharted territory for the book’s characters — from C.J.’s parents, to the local undertaker, to the diocese’s cardinal — he placed them in different situations and watched how they would react.

“They’re all making it up as they go along because no one has been there before,” Deacon Ovies said. “It’s in the context of a person wrestling in the river they’re drawn into. It’s totally unprecedented, totally out of their control.”

But in the midst of the surreal journey, many aspects of the “real world” enter the story, including the tense relationship of C.J.’s parents, who are divorced, which he pointed out is “a reflection of real human nature.”

Deacon Ovies and his wife, Kathy, founded and teach the Together With Jesus Couple Prayer Series, a marriage-building prayer program that has grown from Metro Detroit to spread across the globe. He included the realistic dynamics of an estranged couple drawn together because of their child.

“Lynn (C.J.’s mother) is a very motherly mom, she’s a real person and not perfect, but she’s a really good mom,” said Deacon Ovies. “Joe (C.J.’s father) is so filled with insecurities; underneath he does love his kid, but doesn’t have the right ‘equipment.’”

There is a “whole dynamic of who they are, what they are pursuing, what hurts, what needs forgiving,” he said.

And despite the fact many of the characters are more-or-less Catholic, Deacon Ovies explained that “I didn’t write it to evangelize people.” Instead, he wrote from the perception that “would anybody really be totally disinterested in whether or not there’s a God?” inspired by Christian author Timothy Keller’s commentary on the topic.

“Somewhere … there is an uncovering of the interest in whether or not there’s a God,” he said. “We’re all down deep thinking of eternal things and should not lose sight of that.”