Life of Jesus by Francois Mauriac, 257 pages
This is Mauriac's treatment of what he describes as "the only subject that really matters, and also the only one of which it is impossible to treat successfully." Despite his hedging, his Life of Jesus is a vivid portrait of the God-man, a portrayal that balances the man who is God and the God who became man. Although the text itself is superficially objective, this masks the deeply personal nature of Mauriac's use of his renowned psychological imagination to discover the Beloved - "Here is the Man who is (and this is sure) the One I love the most in this world - and who for this reason is the One I have most betrayed."
Thoroughly compelling, oftentimes surprising, and resolutely orthodox, Mauriac's Life of Jesus deserves to be recognized as the modern classic it is, worthy of a place beside Guardini's The Lord. Such profound works of the mind and heart may go out of fashion but can never become obsolete, for, as Mauriac himself observes, "Everything changes, except the need of the man without God for God, of the Christian who has forgotten Christ for Christ."
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