[Apologetics] Anne Rice: Christ the Lord - Out of Egypt

[Stephen Korsman]

Hi

Perhaps the blogger didn't have all this in mind - and he isn't Catholic.  Considering that there are a lot of Catholics who don't know the essentials, and think we worship Mary - at least judging by the ex-Catholics who say they believed that - there are probably just as many Protestants who don't worry much about such nuances.

Whether what the blogger wrote reflects Anne Rice's perspective, or is just the interpretation of the blogger, I don't know.

Either way, reading what we know into any such situation can't be terribly hard, and I know I have to get my mind around similar things when I read general fiction, since I like ghosts, vampires, and sci-fi (when I get a chance to read fiction.)

I've never read her stuff, but I've seen two movies that I liked, and skimmed a few pages of some of her books, and it looks enjoyable.  That's why this caught my attention, and I was thrilled to see that it comes from someone who returned to the Catholic Church.  So I don't expect her to be a Thomas Aquinas, and I expect to have to take much of most of what I read with a pinch of salt, so her book will likely be no exception.

Overall, for people who don't concern themselves with technical theology, it is likely to do more good than harm.

God bless,
Stephen

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Dianne Dawson 
  To: Stephen Korsman ; Apologetics Group 
  Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2006 11:27 PM
  Subject: Re: [Apologetics] Anne Rice: Christ the Lord - Out of Egypt


  Stephen,

  I agree with you totally - guess I was too lazy to type all that in my previous e-mail.  However, the blogger wrote: "At the same time we see the progress of Jesus' own self awareness as he begins to question who he really is, given his unusual abilities and the secrecy surrounding the events of his birth and move to Egypt,...."  

  The "age appropriateness" of His knowledge, I believe, is solid thinking but I just can't believe there was any questioning going on in His mind.  I am very interested in reading the book though.  Thanks for sending the information.

  Dianne

  Stephen Korsman <skorsman at theotokos.co.za> wrote:
    Hi

    I won't try and define how Jesus could know he was God, because it's too complicated for me.  As a baby, I can't imagine that he could know anything in the sense we know things as adults ... although, just as he was aware that he was conscious and existing, I doubt he lay there comprehending that consciousness / existence the way we do as adults.  As a baby, he must have been aware that he was God, but not in the "adult" sense of contemplating the creation of universes, etc.  As his awareness that he was human became more defined as he grew older from infancy, it may have been that way with his understanding of his divinity.  He knew he was God, but as his mind matured, he could probably, at age 12, express (to himself) his existence as God in a different way to what he did as a newborn baby.  As God, he could comprehend the physics of the universe in a way today's scientists can't ... but I doubt that he did so as a baby.  He "knew all things that God knows in himself by the knowledge of vision, but not all that God knows by the knowledge of simple intelligence." (Thomas Aquinas, Summa III, 10,3.)  [I copied that quote from http://www.ewtn.com/library/CHRIST/KNWLDG.HTM, which is a nice overview.]

    I think the book sounds like a really good one ... and if we don't try to comprehend the mind of God, it would probably be very inspirational.  I doubt she meant it as a doctrinal thesis, although she probably did mean it, in some way, as a witness to her return to Catholicism.

    God bless,
    Stephen

      ----- Original Message ----- 
      From: Dianne Dawson 
      To: Stephen Korsman ; Apologetics Group 
      Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2006 4:43 PM
      Subject: Re: [Apologetics] Anne Rice: Christ the Lord - Out of Egypt


      I saw this book in WalMart the other day but didn't pick it up to read what it is about. I think I'll probably revisit it.  The blog comments are interesting however I am bothered by the tendancy for people to disconnect the Humanity and Divinity of Jesus.  The Hypostatic Union (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07610b.htm) is not a joining or comingling of the natures but a true uniting into one subsistence and one person.  Therefore there would be no separation of the Divine knowledge and the Human knowledge.  Jesus, at whatever age, knew exactly Who and What He was.

      Dianne

      Stephen Korsman <skorsman at theotokos.co.za> wrote:
        Hi

        There's quite a good but brief review of Anne Rice's novel, "Christ the Lord - Out of Egypt," at http://www.baggas.com/blog/archive/2006/01/christ_the_lord.html

        God bless,
        Stephen
        --
        Stephen Korsman
        skorsman at theotokos.co.za
        www.theotokos.co.za

        IC | XC
        ---------
        NI | KA






      Like a deer that longs for running waters so my soul longs for you, O God.
      Ps 42:1



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  Ps 42:1




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