Rice on Christian Art and Her Conversion--this was too good not to share.

The Narnia movie has upset some for being too Christian, and others for being too magical. You can't please everyone. But given the growing anti-Christian atmosphere, believers ought to consider the interaction of art and faith. What is art, exactly, and what is a Christian's role in creating it? John Eldredge is insightful, but never quite speaks to the issue. Anne Rice did however, on yesterday's Tavis Smiley show.

Tavis: . . . What makes Anne Rice want to write a four-[volume] novel about Christ the Lord?

Rice: I think that we as Christians are obligated to tell the story of Jesus over and over again. We're obligated to tell that story, to live that story, to enter into that story and proclaim that story. For a writer like me, this is an opportunity to write a modern novel with suspense, a plot, reality, you know, the illusion of reality, and to put the Lord in that novel and try to make him real to people maybe who never thought about him or who simply are not reading the Bible. I want to say enter into this novel and you'll believe in him.

Tavis: Can a writer even of Anne Rice's stature perhaps get into some trouble trying to "novelize" Jesus?

Rice: Well, I think all Christian artists run some risk. You know, if you paint a picture of Jesus, if you do a stained glass window with Jesus in it. Anything you do, you're going to run some risk because somebody's going to come along and say, "That's not the Lord the way I see it" or "How could you do that? How could you paint that image?" But we do that because we want to use our talents, what we have, our skills to make him real. That's our obligation. I mean, Mel Gibson did it when he made the movie, "The Passion". Zeffirelli did it with the great mini-series, "Jesus of Nazareth". I want to do it with this novel.

Tavis: Of course, in Gibson's case, he made a whole lot of money (laughter), but he got in trouble too, though.

Rice: But millions came out to see that movie and they loved it and it brought them closer to the Lord and that's what Christian art has to try to do over and over again. It has to try to bring people closer.

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Finally, you must read some of Rice's testimony. After explaining why she left her childhood faith, she comes to the Vampire Chronicles:

Those books are like chronicles of pain and searching and that was me. That was me going through all this, never giving up on the idea that there was something redemptive. There was going to be art, there was going to be music. Beauty itself was going to redeem us, but I was going to find it. [Sounds like John Eldredge again, and C.S. Lewis, see Pilgrim's Regress.]

I searched everywhere. I went to Israel in the 1990's. I went to Rio de Janeiro and climbed Corcovado Mountain and stood at the foot of that great big stone Jesus with his arms out over the harbor. I was looking for God all the time, you know, searching. And the books reflect this. They reflect this journey.

Finally, what happened is I realized I wanted to go back, that I believed in God. I wanted to talk to him. I wanted to go back to the altar in my own church, the banquet table. I wanted to be included again. I thought, put aside all your theological questions and your sociological questions and your history of religion questions. Put it aside, turn to God and say, "Please help me. Just help me solve all this. I want to come back to you because I know you're there", and that's what happened.

And isn't that what faith is all about?