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.