No novelist of Anne Rice’s esteem has taken the precarious challenge of imagining Jesus’ early years. Exploding on the scene, Rice uses exhaustive research not only to educate readers about Jewish history and culture, but also to take on an issue theologians have argued for centuries: how Jesus the man realized that he was also God, and how he dealt with it.
Church fathers debated this foundational philosophy (at the monumental Council of Chalcedon in 451), and laymen have pondered it since Jesus made his first claim. If Jesus was fully a man, could understanding that he had the power of God have been a part of the human experience? And if he was fully God, how could he have been as ignorant as a man? How could he have been God and man at all times?
In her storytelling, Rice gives a plausible explanation for the moment when the boy Jesus discovers his divine awareness, yet chooses to empty himself of it to suffer as a human being with questions, temptations and emotions.
Rice does not argue theology, or try to prove the existence of Jesus, or debate anything else. As with her other books, she tells a story true to the facts, culture and history of the time and place.
Written as a narrative of Jesus as a 7-year-old, “Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt” begins when his family is deciding to leave Egypt for Nazareth. She brings us on his journey, sailing across the Mediterranean and walking along the Fertile Crescent through Jerusalem to Nazareth. We travel with family members cited in the Bible – Mary, Joseph and his brother James – as well as with imagined distant relatives. We meet Elizabeth, young John the Baptist, Abigail and other well-known biblical figures.
Rice describes in detail the devastation of the cleansing of the temple, the time in history when the greatest temple of the ancient world was destroyed.
She paints a picture of what the rabbinical teachings of Jesus’ early education must have been like in Nazareth. Rice illustrates the Jewish customs, family chores, relational qualities of the culture and worldviews of the day. Finally, Jesus learns perhaps his greatest lesson: He was born to live.
It’s better to read “Christ the Lord” without an air of criticism. Part of Rice’s work is taken from the Catholic Apocrypha, which she explains in the author’s note. Some Protestants may chafe at this, but keeping an open mind will allow all readers to gain the full benefit of the novel.
No doubt religious scholars will debate the theology in Rice’s effort. But she writes humbly and divulges her research methods along with the authors who inspired her. This is one book that demands that you read the author’s note.
In addition, search the Internet for her recent interviews and experiences with religion. Perhaps as intriguing as the explanation of Christ’s divinity is the story of Rice’s journey from writing stories about vampires, blood, witches and devils to writing a story about an incarnate, loving savior.
Rice’s novel is an inestimably valuable contribution to the discussion of Christian history as well as a tender look at the young Jesus. We can only hope there’s a sequel.
Lydia Reynolds is a freelance writer in Cañon City.
Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt
By Anne Rice
Knopf,
336 pages, $25.95
