Book Corner: A Day in the Life of Jesus
Anne Rice imagines the world Christ lived in.
Anne Rice grew up in the Roman Catholic Church, but spent most of her adulthood as an avowed atheist. In the late 1990s, she felt an attraction back to the Christian faith, and in 2004 she gave her life to Christ. Since then she's said she'll write "only for the Lord." Her Christ the Lord series is the result. The first of the series, Out of Egypt, chronicles Jesus' childhood. The Road to Cana is Rice's follow-up. It picks up with Jesus at around age 30, and includes his baptism by John, his temptation in the wilderness, and the miracle of turning water to wine at the wedding in Cana.
In a stunning act of confidence, Rice chose to write the series in the first person—with Jesus as the narrator. That's a recipe for disaster in the hands of a beginner; but Rice does a great job. Jesus is multidimensional and complicated and thoroughly orthodox. The author's desire is to emphasize the humanity of Jesus. So while she assumes his divinity, we get a good long look at what it might have been like for God to be a man and walk among us. This is what makes the book difficult to engage at times, but also what makes it valuable.
I recommend The Road to Cana to pastors, Bible study teachers, small group leaders—anyone who has the responsibility of bringing the Bible to life for others. Rice paints the first-century Jewish and Roman world—including the political turbulence and religious diversity of the era—in striking detail. That alone makes it worth the read. But more than that, it's an imaginative engagement with the life of Christ from a faithful writer.
Take the book for what it is: fiction. Readers may find some of the fictional elements difficult to imagine. For example, much of the book's conflict involves Jesus' romantic attraction to a female character, Avigail.
His feelings are appropriate and believable, as is their relationship. Rice remains faithful to history, tradition, and most importantly, the Scriptures. But it can be hard nonetheless (it was for me) to imagine Jesus as that human.
In the end there is treasure to be found in The Road to Cana if you read graciously.
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Brandon,
I love this book as well as the earlier, "Out of Egypt." I was just recommending it to a few of my sunday school "students" (they're all older than I am) at church last week after a meditation on what a scandal it was for Mary to have turned up pregnant before her marriage to Joseph and for him to have gone ahead with it anyway. Rice brings the honor/shame elements of Jesus' culture to life in compelling ways that make us re-experience the scandal of the gospel: when God comes in flesh he is not afraid to be born into shame, dishonor and scandal.
Writing Jesus in first person, I would submit is not only a recipe for disaster for beginners, but for many a more accomplished writer. She pulls it off with grace and believability. She speculates and fictionalizes where she has to but she manages to weave a story that fits so well with the gospel accounts and even Catholic tradition. What a powerful testimony to God's power to redeem and use the gifts of his people.
Posted by: mattlumpkin | February 19, 2009 11:09 PM
Interestingly, I just finished reading Anne Rice's first book in this series last night, deeply moved by the Afterword in which she tells the story of her coming to faith and all the research she did (and all the biblical scholarship she waded through) before attempting this labor of devotion.
Yes, some of her portrayals of Jesus' humanity weren't what I'd ever imagined--his complicated relationship with James, presented as his envious older half-brother, for instance. And I had to wonder at the occasional anachronism--finding a chest buried under the house and opening the lock on the clasp with a key?!?
But the book does show some never before presented aspects of first century life. I couldn't stop walking in the dust of Rice's Rabbi.
Posted by: Marshall Shelley | February 20, 2009 7:52 AM
Matt,
Did you find the first book in the series more compelling? I've heard some people say they like the first one better.
Posted by: Brandon | February 20, 2009 1:37 PM
The book sounds interesting and I'll reserve judgment until I read it. But if Rice includes speculation about Jesus' romantic temptations how is that different from renderings such as The Last Temptation of Christ, which so many Christians found offensive?
Drew
Posted by: Anonymous | February 20, 2009 2:52 PM