From Cyber Books to Moses Mania, the Stories We’ve Brought You During the Year Have Had Some Surprising Developments : Moses Makes a Major Comeback

Now that “Moses a Life” has been on bestseller lists, and Moses the movie star has arrived from DreamWorks in “The Prince of Egypt,” and Time magazine has put him on its cover, it seems safe to declare that outbreak of Moses mania we predicted.

Since September, when we reported the upcoming release of two books and the DreamWorks movie about the biblical hero, several more books, a CD of the film’s score and a religious study guide have been added to the list of items that one day might be unearthed as Moses artifacts themselves.

Rabbi Barton Visotzky, a consultant on the movie, published his Moses book, “Road to Redemption” (Crown Publishing), in October. Along with the movie soundtrack, DreamWorks Records has released a gospel and a country and western take on Moses, three albums in all. The study guide, for religious leaders, parents and teachers to use in Moses discussion groups, comes from the University of Judaism and is available on the Internet at https://www.prince-of-egypt.com.

“Moses a Life” (Ballantine) and its author, Jonathan Kirsch, have been featured in Time, Life and the New Yorker. Kirsch has been a guest speaker at Jewish community centers and synagogues around the country.

Why is Moses making waves now, centuries after he first saw the Red Sea part?

“My generation, the boomers, are famous for our spiritual restlessness,” Kirsch says. “We’ve gone very far afield, from goddess worship to Asian religions to New Age. We’re coming back, full circle. There’s a deep impulse to look to the ancient wisdom found in the Bible. It’s not just a media trend.”