Christ the Lord:  Out of Egypt
By Anne Rice

Alfred A. Knopf, Publishers, 2005; pp.322

                                                Reviewed by Dr. Susan K. Hedahl

            Is it coincident with the approaching Christmas season, that we now have this book?

It ranks as second on the list of best-selling fiction according to the New York Times Book Review in this latter part of November, 2005.   Yes, this is the same Anne Rice who has authored many works on the dark side of the universe, vampires and all.  At the end of this fictionalized account of Jesus' early childhood years, Rice adds an "Author's Note," in which she says the purpose for writing the book is: "to offer this book to those who know nothing of Jesus Christ in the hope that you will see him in these pages in some form."  (p. 321). 

            How did Rice make the journey from describing the charming vampire, Lestat, to writing about Jesus?  I suggest reading this "Author's Note" first as it describes Rice's spiritual journey: this includes the death of her firmly atheist husband, her return to the Roman Catholic Church and a long, long list of theologians and scholars whose works she read before writing the book.

            The work opens with the seven-year-old Jesus caught up in the excitement of his family's departure from the city of Alexandria, Egypt, to return home to Galilee.  Rice uses historical detail to good effect throughout this account of the return home and the settling in of a faithful Jewish family. She offers many vivid details of travel, food, climate, landscape and religious festivals.

            Rice shows the inner life of Jesus developing in ways in which he learns the lure and the dangers of the numinous.  She depicts a young and brilliant kid who does some spiritual experimentation, such as raising a child from the dead.  The child Jesus also hears things, bits and pieces of information, from the adults around him as he tries to understand who and what he is as a human being and what the relationship between his parents is all about.

            The broad landscapes Rice describes, such as the Jews flocking to the Jerusalem Temple, catch the fervor of the crowds and the religious passions of a people intent on worshipping.

She also does a good job of painting the darker passions of those oppressed and those who do the oppressing.

            The book is one of many responses to the question: What were Jesus' childhood years like? It is a book both about the developing religious sensibilities of a child and the author's entrance into the meanings and progress of her own spiritual journey.