If you have not yet read any of Ann Rice’s Christ the Lord books (Out of Egypt and Road to Cana), you need to. She has an uncanny way of capturing a compelling and realistic vision of what Jesus’ life was like. It will make you think and it will make you pray.
Of course there have been people who have derrided these books because they contain material not found in the Bible. For example, in Out of Egypt Jesus brings to life some clay doves and accidentally kills a boy and brings him back from the dead. She’s not claiming to be writing inspired Scripture, and those stories do not detract from the message that she is putting forward about Jesus, which you’ll have to read the books to get.
In Road to Cana, the main plot-moving device is Jesus’ attraction to a girl in Nazareth. Now this is not The Last Temptation of Christ. Jesus is adamant that he will not marry, despite all the protests of his family. And yet he struggles with that conviction. As far as I’m concerned, this feeds right into the theological statement that he was tempted in every way we are and yet without sin.
I whole-heartedly recommend these books if you want to take a fresh, and orthodox, view of Jesus.
