{"id":1087,"date":"2016-02-11T11:09:35","date_gmt":"2016-02-11T18:09:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickduffel.com\/?p=1087"},"modified":"2016-02-11T11:09:35","modified_gmt":"2016-02-11T18:09:35","slug":"audiobook-review-risen-by-angela-hunt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/?p=1087","title":{"rendered":"AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: &#8220;Risen&#8221; by Angela Hunt"},"content":{"rendered":"<body><p><\/p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"  wp-image-1090 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nickduffel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/9781633897458_1-1.jpg?resize=300%2C300\" alt=\"9781633897458_1 (1)\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nickduffel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/9781633897458_1-1.jpg?w=1050&amp;ssl=1 1050w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nickduffel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/9781633897458_1-1.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nickduffel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/9781633897458_1-1.jpg?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nickduffel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/9781633897458_1-1.jpg?resize=768%2C768&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nickduffel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/9781633897458_1-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>I have always loved history, but I haven\u2019t read a lot of historical fiction.\u00a0 I prefer biographies and history-focused podcasts.\u00a0 In the arena of historical novels, <em>Risen<\/em> by Angela Hunt seems somewhat unique, blending fact, fiction, faith, and apologetics.\u00a0 In this novelization of the upcoming film, the circumstances surrounding the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (which I believe was an actual historical event), are presented through the eyes of two characters: a Roman tribune named Clavius, tasked with guarding Jesus\u2019 body, and Rachel, a peasant woman living in Jerusalem who is struggling in her Jewish faith.\u00a0 As it turns out, viewing the Resurrection through the eyes of these characters was a powerful and affecting experience for me, even though their stories are fictional.\n<p>The book works on many levels: detective story, inspirational journey-of-faith story, and a sort of \u201cback door\u201d defense of the historicity of the Resurrection.\u00a0 Clavius, as he is confronted with the empty tomb and searches for the missing body of Jesus, is the living embodiment of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle\u2019s famous quote: \u201cWhen you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Other themes this book explores include the transcendent nature of God verses the pantheon of Roman gods, political ambition, the complexities of an extramarital sexual relationship, fear of death, and the philosophical problem of pain and suffering.\u00a0 Another theme that I found particularly striking was the way the ideologies of Rome, represented by Clavius, crashed up against those of Christ.\u00a0 Rome, all about force, wealth, glory, and expansion didn\u2019t know what to do with these peaceful, unambitious followers of the Nazarene. \u00a0All of these themes are all explored through dialogue and story, making this a powerhouse work of fiction.<\/p>\n<p>However, Hunt does take a few missteps here and there.\u00a0 Clavius, as the central character is very well written for most of the book, but his characterization near the end of the book becomes increasingly inconsistent.\u00a0 Also, the disciples of Jesus are characterized in a one-dimensional fashion, with the exception of Mary Magdalene.\u00a0 And the climax of the book seems to run headlong into the predictable and clich\u00e9, as much as it attempts not to.<\/p>\n<p>None of these issues, however, are enough to ruin <em>Risen.<\/em>\u00a0 In fact, I would highly recommend this book, especially during this season leading up to Easter.\u00a0 For the skeptic, this book will introduce you to the glorious scandal that is the death and resurrection of Jesus.\u00a0 For the believer, this book will help restore the wonder of the central event of Christianity.<\/p>\n<p>One final word on the narration of this book: it is outstanding.\u00a0 Those chapters featuring Clavius are narrated by P.J. Ochlan, and those featuring Rachel are narrated by Alana Kerr.\u00a0 Both do a fantastic job.<\/p>\n<p>Please Note: This audiobook was gifted as a part of the Christianaudio Reviewers Program in exchange for my unbiased review of this work. This has in no way influenced my opinion or review of this work.\u00a0 More information can be found about this and other Christian audiobooks at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/christianaudio.com\/\">christianaudio.com.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have always loved history, but I haven\u2019t read a lot of historical fiction.\u00a0 I prefer biographies and history-focused podcasts.\u00a0 In the arena of historical novels, Risen by Angela Hunt seems somewhat unique, blending fact, fiction, faith, and apologetics.\u00a0 In this novelization of the upcoming film, the circumstances surrounding the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (which&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/?p=1087\" rel=\"bookmark\">Read More &raquo;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: &#8220;Risen&#8221; by Angela Hunt<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5,12],"tags":[15,22,76,84,93,111,150,156,157],"class_list":["post-1087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books-2","category-christianaudio-com","category-reviews","tag-52-books","tag-apologetics","tag-fiction","tag-god","tag-history","tag-jesus","tag-reading","tag-resurrection","tag-reviews-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7EHHr-hx","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}