PART 8 of the BustedHalo interview with Anne Rice on the release of her second book on the life of Jesus: Christ the Lord, The Road to Cana.
TOPICS DISCUSSED: The Catholic imagination. What is Christian art? Protestant resistance to a novel about Jesus. The long tradition of art and sensuality in Catholicism. The politics of organized religion.
View other parts to this series:
Part 1: Jesus’ Loneliness & Love & The Da Vinci Code
TOPICS DISCUSSED: Discussion of research for the new book. Taking the Bible completely seriously as a writer. Jesus loneliness & love of Avigail. Taking on the DaVinci Code. Trying to write an exciting novel about a character who is sinless, celibate and didn’t marry. Is the US a Post-Christian nation?
Part 2: Religious Obsession & The Virgin Mary
TOPICS DISCUSSED: American religiosity, the struggle to write a novel about Jesus that is both compelling and Biblically faithful. The perpetual virginity of Mary. Her theological conservatism and her disagreements with some skeptical critics.
Part 3: Disagreement With & Dependence Upon Scholars
TOPICS DISCUSSED: Controversies surrounding John’s Gospel and her interactions with scripture scholars.
Part 4: Beauty, Artifice, Sensuality & Faith
TOPICS DISCUSSED: Connecting directly with her longtime readers via the web. The continuity between her Vampire books and her Christ the Lord series. Love of beauty, artifice and sensuality in the Vampire Chronicles and her Catholic faith. The Catholic artistic tradition. Being a Christ haunted writer. The Eucharistic symbol of blood in her Vampire books.
Part 5: The Christian Story of Lestat & The Role of Women & Gays
TOPICS DISCUSSED IN PART 5: On the possibility of revisiting Lestat and bringing her vampires into a Christian context. How is her life different since coming back to faith and the Catholic Church? Loving her enemies and neighbors. Christians persecuting other Christians. The role of women and gay people in the Church. Her son Christopher’s activism for gay rights. Homosexuality in Jesus’ day.
Part 6: A Memoir, a “Tragic Mistake,” & a Regret
TOPICS DISCUSSED IN PART 6: Her spiritual memoir “Called out of Darkness” to be published in the fall of 2008. The pain of looking back on her catholic upbringing. Losing her faith at 18. Advice to young seekers. How did her conversion happen? Her regrets. Talking to God.
Part 7: How Her Son Saved Her Life & Sobriety
TOPICS DISCUSSED IN PART 7: How her son saved her life and the difference between her public image and her day to day life.
Part 8: Catholic Imagination & Controversies
TOPICS DISCUSSED IN PART 8: The Catholic imagination. What is Christian art? Protestant resistance to a novel about Jesus. The long tradition of art and sensuality in Catholicism. The politics of organized religion.
Part 9: Supporting Hillary Clinton & Being a Pro-Life Catholic Democrat
TOPICS DISCUSSED IN PART 9: Her support of Hillary Clinton. On the issue of abortion and being a “committed, old-guard social justice Catholic Democrat” in 2008.
Part 10: Books & Collected Artwork
Author Anne Rice gives BustedHalo editor-in-chief Bill McGarvey a brief tour of some of the religious art in her home as well as paintings by her late husband Stan Rice.
