Biblical Fiction

I wasn't really sure what to think of Deepak Chopra's novel Jesus when given it for a birthday present by my (non religious) mother one birthday. It sat on my shelf for nearly a year, and finally this December I picked it up to have a good look. I'd no idea what it would really be about. Was it a fictional story? Historical account? Bible companion/gospel?

Jesus is, indeed, a completely fictional novel. It's not a bible story, a companion reader or anything else. So then... the next set of questions, some of which raised by friends who saw me reading it. As a Christian was it 'okay' to read it? Where was Chopra writing from? Was he a believer? was he trying to disprove Jesus in some way? What, in all essence, was this book I was holding?

Well, I'm not completely sure I can answer all those questions, and in the end, I decided i didn't need to know everything in order to read it. It wasn't, as far as i could tell, an attack on christianity, and really as long as i went into it knowing where I stood, what harm could come of it?

After reading the Forward I discorved that the book is aiming to look at the life of Jesus that is NOT included in the Bible - that is to say, the middle years between childhood (we know little about him after his miraculous birth aside from when he speaks to the crowd at age 12ish) and his 30's when he comes back on the scene as the 'grown up' Jesus. I still wasn't positive on chopra's slant, but it didn't seem negative.

The character of Jesus is an extremely human one, in Chopra's depiction. though I have come to loosely deem the novel 'biblical fiction', his work drawing from characters and scenarios we find in the bible, actions and experiences and even the way Jesus is portrayed within the novel is extremely fictionalized.
They story focuses less on Jesus's Godliness, and more on his human side, creating a relatability which, with caution, allowed me to feel a great connection with the story and, given my beliefs, with the actual Jesus. While of course Jesus did not actually behave as the character does in the novel, the experiences he goes through in his journey to realize his own power, destiny, holiness -however you want to word it - provided a great example for any Christian believer.

It is dangerous to remove the aspects of Jesus that make him truly God, as is essentially done within the novel (though he eventually takes ownership of being God's son) and yet as we read, the Jesus in the novel struggles between his own desires, and those of God, the path of resistance and acceptance, fighting and succumbing. The matters of will and faith were such that despite the details not align with the Bible, the messages of Faith, following, and trust in God were strong and moving, and extremely benifical to me as a Christian.

Perhaps a rather controversial novel, and yet I found it only strengthened my Faith and my understanding of God, even as it highlighted how Jesus wasn't. The contrast between saviour and a humanized character emphasied both Godly nature and human nature in a way that further connected me to the former, and widened my view of my own faith journey.

Whether you're a Christian or not, this novel may not be for you, but I for one, found it both extremely enjoyable, and also beneficial in strengthing my views, faith and perspectives while allowing for a wider angle view of both my religion, the art of fiction, and Jesus himself.

Irma Voth

Irma Voth, the most recent novel by acclaimed Canadian author Miriam Towes is a tale of subtleties and secrets, where the dramatic becomes the understated, and the mere media of story reveals the interwoven complexities of a culture out of time.

Irma is young woman in her early twenties dealing with the loss of family, within the context of extreme proximity. After eloping with her then boyfriend Jorge, a mexican local, Irma - a canadian-born mennonite - is shunned from her family home. Though she works and lives just the other side of the Voth's farm, and can literally see her parent's house from her bedroom window, Irma is secluded and cut off from their lives except for the brief (forbidden) interactions with her rebellious younger sister Aggie. When a film crew move in the the only other house on the adjacent property to commence filming a story which will encompass the spirit of Mennonite life, Irma is immediately pulled into a whole new world of experiences and understandings as she is recruited as the crew's translator. Meanwhile, traditional and closed minded Mr. Voth sides with the majority of the Mennonite's views in their attempt to evict the film crew from their land and continue their lives in piece.

This story delves deep into the concepts of family, tradition and obedience within the context of broken and upturned homes. Small rebellions and unspoken words weave their way throughout the story to reveal a life style that is both sepearte from and inherantly connected to the context in which it thrives. While Irma and her sister Aggie try to find an identity of their own under the shadow of their father's dissapproval, they quickly learn that there is a fine line between necessary freedoms and ill planned rebellion.

Fraught with themes of freedom, supression, identity and expression, Irma Voth is a wonderful tale of a simple life style, complete with all it's over complicated relations.