From Library Journal
Caldwell's 1959 best seller, a public library staple for decades, has been more or less out of print for the last ten years, so its appearance on audiotape is a bit puzzling. It's the story of Luke, a Greek physician and companion to St. Paul, who, according to tradition, wrote the third gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. The Lucanus of Caldwell's story is the son of a former slave; a rich benefactor recognizes his merit early and subsidizes his education. Though Lucanus never meets Jesus, he intuits the presence of an unknown God from childhood and stumbles across a Chaldean cult, which worships Him, even before the birth of Christ. Revolted by the human suffering he witnesses, he turns away from God, only to become reconciled over time, especially upon meeting the Virgin Mary. Narrated by John McDonough, this is an old-fashioned epic, with larger-than-life characters, prose that sometimes goes over the top, glacial pacing, and a disgust for Roman excess that seems to condemn the present as well. Librarians in facilities where Christian fiction is popular might still wonder whether this tape is worth the steep price and five inches of shelf space. John Hiett, Iowa City P.L.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
The world-famous novel about the triumphant story of St. Luke Man of science, and Gospel writer Today St. Luke is known as the author of the third Gospel of the New Testament, but two thousand years ago he was Lucanus, a Greek, a man who loved, knew the emptiness of bereavement, and later traveled through the hills and wastes of Judea asking, "What manner of man was my Lord?" And it is of this Lucanus that Taylor Caldwell tells here in one of the most stirring stories ever lived or written. Lucanus grew up in the household of his stepfather, the Roman govenor of Antioch. After studying medicine in Alexandria he became one of the greatest physicians of the ancient world and traveled far and wide through the Mediterranean region healing the sick. As time went on he learned of the life and death of Christ and saw in Him the God he was seeking. To find out all he could about the life and teachings of Jesus, whom he never saw, Lucanus visited all the places where Jesus had been, questioning everyone-including His mother, Mary-who had known Him or heard Him preach. At last, when he had gathered all information possible, he wrote down what we now know as the Gospel according to St. Luke. Taylor Caldwell has chosen the grand, the splendid means to tell of St. Luke. Her own travels through the Holy Land and years of meticulous research made Dear and Glorious Physician a fully developed portrait of a complex and brilliant man and a colorful re-creation of ancient Roman life as it contrasted in its decadence with the new world Christianity was bringing into being. Here is a story to warm, to inspire, to call forth renewal of faith and love lying deep in each reader's heart.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
by Piers Paul Read
by Lucy Beckett
by Scott Hahn
by Sigrid Undset
by Pope Benedict XVI
