The Gospel According to Anne (Rice) (( Gothic writer turns to "Christ the Lord")

>> Wrtiing fiction about the life of Christ is not IMO writing for Christ. <<

First, Dain Bramage, as someone with Brain Damage, ADD AND dyslexia, I resemble that. :^D

Second, the article doesn't simply say she is writing ABOUT Christ... It says she claims to have had a (n apparently gradually unfolding) rebirth of her faith.

Don't expand on what was written. The article says he killed one person, you repeat it as if he killed more than one person. The difference is significant: one person could indicate an extraordinary circumstance. Do you reject it because it seems un-Christ-like? Recall that Peter slayed people in the Acts of the Apostles. Why can't Jesus slay someone and then give them life anew? Can you infer a lesson that an ancient writer may have been trying to illustrate?

If she has taken liberties with the gospel stories, demonstrate that she has taken bad liberties, for of all of the movies referenced, they all take liberties: The Robe, The 10 Commandments, Ben Hur, and the Passion of the Christ, which also does use apocryphal gospels (Jesus stumbling as a child, Veronica, the names of the thieves, the spear of destiny), and questionnable sources.

There are many infancy narratives of Jesus, most attributed to one "Thomas the Israelite." Some are quite questionnable, others fairly pious. All those attributed to Thomas have one story in common: that of the pigeons made from clay. I believe the purpose is to establish that Christ is creator, not created.

...her beloved NO?

It has been reported that she no longer lives there ... is that how much she loves it?

How much time, money and/or effort has she contributed to Hurricane Katrina relief?

And, has she, perhaps, exhausted her "genre" and is simply opportunistically and cynically seizing upon Christ as her next "literary" genre?

Yes, indeed ... only time will tell.

You could be right. They had a small child who died years ago, and that deeply affected her writing. Perhaps her husband's death has affected her on a different level. I always liked her writing style, because you can just picture the houses, etc. Very descriptive. I might have to buy this book....after I get all the other books I've been meaning to buy : )

It should go without saying that gnostic texts are highly heretical, and should be read as such by believing Christians.

Mrs. Rice responded to conjecture about her using axtra canonical texts with the following: "Thank you for your interesting discussion of my conversion (return to Catholicism), and my book Christ the Lord. The infancy legends I use in the book are not gnostic. I used nothing that contradicted the four canonical gospels. As a Catholic, as a believer, as a novelist, I find the Jesus of faith to be my obsession. The identity of Joachim and Anne do also come from non-canonical sources. My belief is Jesus was Divine from the beginning but He did experience being an infant, a child, a man. And He "emptied" Himself as Paul says for us. I took this to mean that He did not always use His knowledge of all things. Obviously He came down to earth to truly be human, and it does seem, from Luke's statement that Jesus "grew in wisdom and stature" and from other statements in the gospels that Jesus valued human experience. I chose to write this novel because of my personal belief in Christ, and my desire to put any gifts I possessed at His service. So far the reception has been amazingly good. I knew there would be some criticism, but I never knew people would be interested in this book. I'm thankful. This is my life's work."

Additionally, when, during an interview, Matt Lauer asked if she was going to say anything about the married relationship of Christ and Mary Magdalene, she replied, "I am going to say only that which appears in the four Gospels, and THERE IS NO RELATIONSHIP there."

So, perhaps Anne has genuinely returned to the embrace of the Church in humility and love

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