"Regarding Anne Rice and her upcoming book Christ the Lord, I was amazed that so many who had read so little of my work cared so much to say so much about it. For what it's worth, I appreciate your taking the time to focus on it, and be assured that the book is a deeply considered and deeply committed attempt to bring to life the Christ of the gospels for my regular readers and perhaps for many who've never thought about Christ before in any significant way. I'll do just about anything to get the word out. For me Christ is the ultimate supernatural hero, and the ultimate outsider, and the single most influential figure in western history. I could say more about that but since the book concerns one year in his life as a child, it's enough to finish here with the hope that some of you do give the work a chance. Obviously this book isn't up against indifference. It's up against cynicism and misinformation. And it's up against a certain hostility that surfaces in people of late when anyone takes on the subject of Christ for any reason. I guess I'm ready for all that. Thanks again for your time.You have my love,Anne Rice."

Author: The above quote from Anne Rice was written to a public web forum hosted by Chuck Palahniuk. The book, titled Christ the Lord has to be about the archetype of Jesus Christ, which C.G. Jung termed the Christ archetype, that of God, the core Self, within the human psyche.
 
Christ the Lord cannot be about Jesus as a real man. That is for sure, because Anne Rice has not separated out the archetype from the human. Norman Mailer was unable to separate out the difference between person and archetype in his The Gospel According To The Son, where Mailer speaks in first person as Jesus commenting on his life and the gospels written about him after his resurrection. Mailer's Jesus is able to rise from the dead and be so human that he can read the gospels written about him and then go on to write his own gospel through Mailer's word processor.

An amazing feat, if you ask me. How far do we have to go to find Jesus fully human?

Anne Rice states she wants to "bring to life the Christ of the gospels."

Some respond, Is not the Christ already alive in the gospels?

How can Rice think she can do any better than the original five gospels, including now the gospel of Thomas, recognized by scholars as an original and authentic gospel at least as early as the synoptic gospels, and certainly earlier than the gospel of John? What could Anne Rice possibly add? What could any of us add? What will the author of THE JESUS NOVEL possibly add? THE JESUS NOVEL will not add to the gospels or to the traditional view of Jesus as the archetype, Jesus Christ.

It is good that Anne Rice, Norman Mailer, Robert Graves and other proven fiction writers show a strong interest in the subject of Jesus and try their hand at it. I have written Anne Rice that my view is that she can write a good novel in itself that will create a world of the imagination where readers can enter and experience the presence of Jesus for themselves in some form. I think she has an excellent chance of doing better than Mailer, and certainly far better than Wangerin, who needs to go to both psychology and writing school somewhere.

This author emphasizes that, no matter how good a writer with a following you are, you cannot get to the authentic Jesus without yourself practicing and living the teachings of the historical Jesus.

And to do so, you must separate out in your own heart and mind the Mystical Jesus of Jesus Christ, the archetype, from the historical Jesus as religious genius and wisdom teacher. The historical Jesus teaches that our life purpose should be to manifest in our lives that of God and divinity that resides from within, thus changing our lives for the better. Hopefully readers will experience how this is done in The Jesus Novel as is now coming through me.

An ultimately, it is only my version of a fictional world created out of me. I don't speak for any sect or religion of Christianity. Nor do I speak against Christianity and its varied views of the image and teachings of Jesus. I write only for readers who want something more and different to read and experience of the historical Jesus. I am much more in the scholars' tradition outside the Church. You will find me there if you look and do not try and place me within the Christian tradition.