The Pagan Christ: Recovering the Lost Light
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(out of 3 reviews)
List Price: CDN$ 22.95
Price: CDN$ 16.75
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Rating: (out of 3 reviews)
List Price: CDN$ 22.95
Price: CDN$ 16.75
[wprebay kw=”pagans” num=”0″ ebcat=”all”] [wprebay kw=”pagans” num=”1″ ebcat=”all”]
Review by T. S. Montgomery for The Pagan Christ: Recovering the Lost Light
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On a recent roadtrip I read The Pagan Christ out loud while my husband drove. It was a new experience in every sense. We left the organized church last year after the rector of our parish invited us to do so. After the shock wore off and parish officials declined our request to meet and seek reconciliation, we began to question the meaning and relevance of organized religion. This was not the first “un-Christian” experience we witnessed over the years in several parishes and different denominations but it was the most painful and led to an extended questioning of the meaning of Christianity in general and for our lives in particular. Then the review of Harpur’s latest book, Water Into Wine, appeared in the Toronto Star and we immediately ordered both books.
Reading The Pagan Christ answered many questions that had been lurking in the backs of our minds–and sometimes consciously–for many years. Neither of us have taken the Bible literally since we were old enough to think for ourselves. On the other hand, we had never questioned the “historical Jesus,” always unquestioningly assuming that the Jesus of the synoptic gospels walked the earth, even as we saw the various “miracles” and other events as allegorical.
Harpur has made sense of this for us. A quarter of the way into the book, I interrupted my reading to comment, “Now I know why ‘Immortal, Invisible, God only Wise’ has long been my favourite hymn.” Harpur’s faith in God, even as he dissects the the historical/Egyptian roots of the New Testament, especially the canonical gospels, is unwavering. His discussions of St. Paul and his various letters to the emerging church, gave us a new appreciation of this earliest writer of Christianity. I have long had problems with the misogyny I perceived in Paul’s letters; Harpur has enabled me to transcend this concern and examine in a new light Paul’s teachings about “the Christ within,” as Harpur often puts it.
My only quibble with The Pagan Christ is that Harpur does not address, except in passing, what for me is the central, distinguishing tenet of Christianity: God’s love for humankind and the concurrent requirement that we love one another as God has loved us. Harpur’s detailed comparisons of the Egyptian religion and the canonical gospels (as well as some material in the Old Testament) make it clear (at least to us) that love was not a central tenet in the former. For us, however, love is what distinguishes Christian teachings from other religions.
That concern aside, The Pagan Christ will not be “good news” for Christians wedded to a narrow, literalist interpretation of the gospel story. It is very Good News, however, for Christians seeking to understand the obviously irreconciliable “facts” presented in the New Testament. And, most important, it provides those of us in this category new, powerful reasons to try and live our faith every day.
Review by Stephen Pletko for The Pagan Christ: Recovering the Lost Light
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Partial table of contents:
4 The greatest cover-up of all time: how a spiritual Christianity became a literalist Christianism
5 It was all written before in–Egypt
7 The Bible–history or myth?
9 Was there a Jesus of history?
The above is a partial table of contents of this mesmerizing book by Tom Harpur. He is a columnist for “The Toronto Star” newspaper, a Rhodes scholar, a former Anglican priest, a professor of Greek and New Testament at the University of Toronto, and an internationally renowned writer and author on religious and ethical issues.
In this book, Harpur researches deeply into Christianity’s origins. What he has found is profound and may change the way you look at religion.
His entire thesis is based on the distinction between objective history and myth. Harpur elaborates:
“[A]nyone who wants to understand religious ideas, and religious documents–that is scriptures of any kind–must realize that the divine, the mysterious, the ineffable, the workings of the spirit in the human heart or the cosmos at large cannot be adequately expressed other than by myth, allegory, imagery, parable, and metaphor.”
Once this is understood, everything else falls into place.
Why is what Harpur proposing important? Here is one good reason that Harpur states:
“This has enormous potential for world peace, since there is currently an underlying religious dimension to almost every conflict on the face of the globe.”
One might get the impression that Harpur through his book is attempting to bash religion in general and bash Christianity in particular. NO. Harpur again explains:
“The discoveries and revelations in this book have had a profound effect upon my own personal spiritual journey. It is hard for me even now to believe that throughout all my previous training in and inquiry into the spiritual and religious dimensions of life, I could have missed something so important. Indeed, the uncovering of these truths has been unquestionably the most transformative experience of my life. My hope is that my excitement and inspiration will be passed on to you.”
This book has three excellent appendices. My favourite is entitled “Two strange passages.” This refers to two odd passages from the text of the New Testament.
There is also a helpful glossary. It is brief but VERY important.
Finally, I have read criticism of this book (mainly by religious folk) that states that it is not based on the work of “scholarly sources.” What they mean is biblical scholarly sources such as theologians. This criticism is unjustified. Biblical scholars are biased (that is, they interpret events from always a religious perspective) while this book is unbiased. That is, this book presents the work of unbiased sources. As well, Harpur does some of his own interpreting of events found in the Bible. With his qualifications (see above), I trust his interpretations absolutely.
In conclusion, this is truly an eye-opening book. I leave you with some crucial questions and answers from this book:
“Ask yourself, is a poem true? Can it contain truth of infinite value even though its content is symbolic or fictional? Are the plays of William Shakespeare true?…Yes, through fiction, they are supremely true. But they are not exact history, nor can they ever be. That is precisely the case with Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.”
(first published 2004; author’s note; acknowledgements; 10 chapters; epilogue; main narrative 195 pages; 3 appendices; glossary; notes; bibliography; index)
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Review by bigv for The Pagan Christ: Recovering the Lost Light
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Too many people got hooked up on the contraversy surounding the title. Take the time and read this book! It provides hope that we are all believing something inheritly similar. This book renewed my faith and made me a stronger beliver! Thank you Tom Harpur!