The Orthodox Way Blog Reviews Rice

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Anne Rice’s Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt

The Orthodox Way (the blog hosted by Conciliar Press) has a really insightful review of Anne Rice’s new novel about the young Lord.

One way we might measure Anne Rice’s achievement is to assess whether she has successfully depicted a human Jesus with a genuinely natural will, but not a gnomic [think “conflicted” —B.] will. Maybe it’s easier to understand what St Maximus means by paraphrasing gnomic will as an opinionated will. Modern men and women are forced to have opinions on nearly every object under the sun, yet St Maximus insists that Jesus didn’t have any opinions. Jesus didn’t have to deliberate when facing milestones in His life. He simply chose the will of His Father.

Our problem is, we post/moderns can’t imagine a truly human Jesus without a gnomic will. Yet it’s part of the dogmatic history of the Eastern Orthodox Church which we owe to St Maximus the Confessor when we insist that Jesus Christ possesses two natural wills, one divine and one human, but not a gnomic will.

I may pick this one up. The struggle of the gnomic, “conflicted” will really gnaws at me, so this review has really piqued my interest.

Hat tip: Fr. Joseph Huneycutt

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One Response to “The Orthodox Way Blog Reviews Rice”

1. 

   Perry Robinson Says:
   December 3rd, 2005 at 3:07 am

   If you are interested in St. Maximus the Confessor, try Energies of the Trinity at http://www.energeticprocession.com