The Gaze of Jesus

"Let me be with you!" Homeless, living for years in a state of demonic insanity, Ithamar one day spots a mysterious man on the shore, runs to him, and finds himself wholly cured. But when he begs this healer to take him as a disciple, he is rejected and ordered to go home. Jesus and his entourage sail off toward the horizon without him. Why was he turned away--and how can he begin a new life?

Eight-time Nobel Prize nominee Riccardo Bacchelli imagines the life of the Gerasene demoniac after his exorcism: his inner battles, his return to the family and the first-century Jewish community, his quest for love and meaning. The healer's gaze has been branded into his mind, but he cannot grasp who this man really is. As he gathers secondhand news of the Galilean miracle worker, he is determined to piece together the puzzle.

Elegantly translated and introduced by Anthony Esolen, The Gaze of Jesus is a gripping psychological, historical, and theological investigation into what it takes for the "uncalled" to follow Christ, to seek the face of Jesus from a distance. Bacchelli offers a vivid and visceral experience of the world of the New Testament, including some elaborate character studies of the Bible's darkest figures: Herod, Herodias, and Judas.

Riccardo Bacchelli (1891-1985), nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature eight times, was one of the great Italian writers of the twentieth century and a giant in Catholic letters. He was acclaimed for his dedication to the Italian literary tradition, and for his historical novels, including The Mill on the Po.

Anthony Esolen, a professor of English and a writer in residence at Magdalen College of the Liberal Arts, is well known for his translation of Dante's Divine Comedy. He is the author of twenty-eight books, including Sex and the Unreal City and his book-length sacred poem The Hundredfold: Songs for the Lord.