Book Review: The Christus Experiment by Rod Bennett

The Christus Experiment by Rod Bennett

Billionaire Anson MacDonald has financed what has to be the most outrageous experiment in time travel ever imagined--going back and capturing Jesus of Nazareth to see whether He really deserves that capital H or not. MacDonald's desert compound has a recreation of a Palestinian village so He doesn't get contaminated with information about the future. The compound is populated with scientists and theologians. The scientists are there for the extraction and eventual return (so there's no time paradox where Jesus suddenly vanishes in the middle of his ministry years). The theologians are there for assessment. Most of them are skeptical about the historical Jesus and have their own agendas. They grill the man but find out very little. So MacDonald brings in a different type of expert. Sylvie Fortune is a wheelchair-bound police consultant who has vivid flashes of traumatic events whenever she touches personal items of people who have been through great trauma. Maybe she can discover something the other experts haven't.

The book is both very imaginative and very grounded. The various characters all have different and strained relations with Christianity, so naturally they are guarded or even hostile with Christ Himself, except for the Mexican maintenance staff who were specifically selected for their indifference to or ignorance of Christianity. Jesus opens up to the Mexicans and not to the experts and important people in the compound. He has a simple and direct attitude that the theologians can't come to grips with. The frustration mounts as the time to return Jesus draws near and some anomalies in the security system indicate that someone may be sabotaging the experiment. The characters are realistic even in their fantastic setting.

The author starts his acknowledgements by saying, "This book is a spiritual and psychological adventure story full of wild and irresponsible religious conjecture, equally indefensible whether taken as theology or speculative fiction." Like any good fiction author, he presents a variety of ideas which may or may not conform to his beliefs. He's able to have different people with different attitudes and agendas meshing together in credible ways. Even if you don't agree with them, the encounters are entertaining and thought-provoking in the best sort of way. The plot goes a little weird at the end (it is a time travel story, after all) and fits well with the "wild and irresponsible" tone of the story.

Recommended.