Jesus’ Silent Years (4 book series)

Jesus’ Silent Years is a four-volume series of historical novels, written in modern language for modern people (not using ancient-speak). These novels have one focus, Jesus of Nazareth. They paint contrasting stories from different points of view about Jesus. More than one storyline designed to complexify his person, nuance his character. Tales from good and bad folks smack up against each other. Each story shows how Jesus’ character was shaped.

All of us mature by going through the same tasks: leaving home, managing puberty, hormones, shaping our identity, forming friends, finding a vocation and life partner—or lack of one. Jesus was no exception. The author, a clinical psychologist, alternates between developing Jesus’ interior life and his relationships with family, friends, and foes. He marries lyrical writing with a training manual, teaching with parables how to live wisely in today’s world—regardless of your faith, or lack of it.

Foundations, volume one, gives you a snapshot into Jesus, the teenager. He figures out how to leave home, make friends, manage moods, and deal with complex identity issues. He learns how to risk loving a beautiful woman from another culture and yet stay loyal to his felt destiny or calling.

Parables, volume two, picks up the story at around twenty years of age. We learn how Jesus survived a shipwreck, saved Claudia from drowning, and became a master teacher. Jesus did not speak without telling parables. He told stories of good people who went bad; bad people who went good; stories with sad outcomes and glad ones. He taught by contrast: this is a good person, that is a bad one. He didn’t lecture. He told stories.

Journey, volume three, walks alongside Jesus in his mid-twenties. These adventure stories are set inside the Italy, modern day Albania, Cyprus, and Egypt. Journey showcases a growing Jesus who deals with authority, regulates his moods, deals with abuse, and balances love with loss. We also see how his Spirit, Windy, travels the planet with and apart from him, weaving his presence back and forth into his life and the lives of those he loved.

Homecoming, volume four, takes Jesus back to Israel from Egypt in his late twenties. We walk with him, and his friends, through the desert. We witness the slow healing of one friend, Slow, who’s been fractured into many parts by childhood sexual abuse. We see the ambivalence of Barabbus (aka Rabbus), teetering on the brink of following Jesus or giving into his desire for revenge. Jesus learns to trust God for water out of hard rock. We learn by story how God seeds us, weeds us, tenders us into adulthood, each in our own way.

These fictional tales of Jesus align with the character of the man we see in scripture. They’re a backstory to the New Testament gospels and detail the classic hero’s journey—beginning with an average but unremarkable life. This naïve young man dares to leave home, leave the familiar, fall, and fail. Jesus’ Silent Years ends as he comes to the Jordon River for John, his cousin, to baptize him. The story ends where the New Testament begins, at age thirty. He’s no longer naïve, but he’s still innocent and living on a much higher plain than he had ever dared to dream.

Some studies report that the average person experiences about 60,000 thoughts a day and eighty percent of them are negative in nature. Jesus’ Silent Years will help you flip your script from negative to positive.

Take a look from a new angle on the best story the world has ever known. Think two thousand years ago, Middle Eastern culture, an enemy-occupied country, and a growing Son of Man.