The self-consciousness of Jesus (even before he was in the womb he knew he was God--ornot) has prompted many interesting discussions here. Such discussions necessitate shades of meanings and incorporate mystery. But they usually coalesce around two camps. Now it seems Anne Rice, with her latest post-conversion novel about Jesus, "Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana," has bridged the divide. (She is also keeping one step ahead of Pope Benedict's own historical Jesus treatment.) She has won plaudits not only from Janet Maslin in the New York Times review but she has also won a blurb from Richard John Neuhaus ("A remarkable achievement!" he wrote in the March First Things.)

"Ms. Rices The Road to Cana is a rare achievement: an engaging story told within the structure of biblical narrative and theological orthodoxy. Of course, there are those who will say that, if God wanted us to know the details of those hidden years, he would have inspired the gospel writers to tell us. I think they are wrong about that. With our capacity for reason, God gave us curiosity and imagination to be employed to his glory. That is the employment to which Anne Rice has turned her storytelling talents. She does not claim to know what happened; she is simply saying how it might have been."

Maslin's review has me a little leery, as Rice apparently details things like teen Jesus' crush--he runs to take a cold bath when he thinks of Avigail:

At the novels precise midpoint, Avigail throws herself at Yeshua with the steam heat of a Rice vampire, sobbing, I am your harlot. Yeshua fights back his desires in order to refuse her. Youre really the child of angels, she realizes, in a tone of disappointment. But the book is clear in purpose and bound for glory from this point on.And Ms. Rice, when inspired, can deliver hypnotic, incantatory prose that celebrates Yeshuas ascension. I moved slowly towards what was at last going to separate me from all around me, he says as he begins to feel the divinity within him. Many readers will be lured by the promise of simply rendered holiness to The Road to Cana. Here are its rewards.I had to see it beyond hamlet or town or camp, Yeshua says, embarking on his road of no return. I had to seek it where there was nothing but the burnt sand, and the searing wind, and the highest cliffs of the land. I had to seek it as if it was nowhere and as if it contained nothing when in fact it was the palm of the hand that held me. To put it more nervily, and of course Ms. Rice does: Well, now I knew just what it meant to be the man who knew he was God.

As the Easter season begins, it's an interesting discussion--what did Jesus know, and can novels help fill in the blanks? My view is they're generally not very successful.But I have never read these books, nor any of Anne Rice's work.Perhapsfans--orcritics--willweigh in.