the pagan ChristJuly 25, 2008 1 out of 15 found this review helpful
i read about 1 1/2 pages and threw it in the garbage. It is a mainstream attempt to discredit Jesus as the savior of the world .
Well written and informativeJuly 4, 2008 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I really enjoyed this book. It brought out ideads and information that I never really thought about previously. Yes, Mr. Harpur uses author's named Kuhn and Massey for much of his information. But that just made me want to READ books by those authors and increased my desire to search out more information. A search online will reveal MANY sources that provide even more analysis concerning the way organized religion has twisted the truth about Christ. I find it interesting/amusing that those that attack Tom Harpur's ideas are the same ones that espouse the dogma of church teaching. Yet they offer no historical evidence or proof of Christ's existence. They simply perform a personal attack on the author because he's not "expert" enough to have his own opinion. Gee...are us common folk too stupid to be able to form our own thoughts, opinions, and theories too? Are we limited to accepting what "experts" tell us as well as the church? Oh yeah....I forgot...we aren't supposed to question the church because what they teach is "divinely inspired". Riiiiiight.
For Mature ChristiansMay 2, 2008 3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book is a breathtaking insight into the origins of biblical stories. Definitely not for fundamentalists, this book is for mature multi-faceted Christians, as well as non-Christians, whose faith is solid. As Tom Harpur reiterates, seeing the origins of this literature only makes those of us with open minds more aware of the universality and power of the Divine among all peoples in all times.
Review - The Pagan ChristDecember 13, 2007 10 out of 12 found this review helpful
Recently the CBC in Canada aired a program which examined the views put forward by Theologian Tom Harpur in his bestselling book - The Pagan Christ. Harpur's book challenged the literalist view of Christianity and it is not the first time this position has been brought to light.
The mythological figure of the dead and resurrected god-man have long been exposed as universal myth motif that has been enshrined by a long list of cultures predating Christianity as we know it today. The universality of this motif has been meticulously documented, not only by Harpur and one of his main references Gerald Massey, but also the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung and more recently Joseph Campbell. Jung wrote a detailed account of the origins of Christian myth motifs in "Symbols of Transformation" first compiled in 1920. He was later followed by Joseph Campbell whose most recognized work amongst many was "The Hero With A Thousand Faces".
Massey's comparative examination of Christian religon and Egyptian myth produced a staggering number of points of comparison - roughly two hundred in number. His entire volume works are freely available online for examination. While the documentary focused mainly on the Egyptian figures of the Horus and Isis, they could have extended the list to many more mythological figures that share the same characteristics. A detailed comparative examination is included in Harpur's book and reveals a list that includes Tammuz, Adonis, Mithras, Dionysus, Krishna, amongst many others shared these key characteristics that are attributed exclusively to Christ - miraculous births, turning water into wine, death and resurrection, a spiritual leader accompanied by twelve deciples, to name only a few. Many of these motifs are not only confined to the Mediteranean cultures but can been seen in north american myths as well pointing to the fact that they products of human imagination that attempt in symbolic form to enshrine the immeasurable value of the human spirit.
This spirit is myopically viewed as the life force found in the human emotion of love and is in many cultures extended to be the source of a broader range of qualtities that include creativity, memory and in some instances the very "the seat of intelligence". The journey of the archetypical hero in all of these myths was an attempt to enshrine the journey of self-discovery in stories so that they would inspire this inward journey and in turn draw the power of this force outward to the benefit of society.
The path of literalism has left humanity and our collective psyche in a state of fragmentation by obsessing over the tribal peacock feathers of cultural forms and lead us to our present deplorable state that can nowhere be seen more clearly in the eternal Greek tradgedy of the middle east where the world's great religons face off in the endless insanity of war while they defend mythological belief structures that were originally intended to unite humanity by recognizing the common element of the human spirit, or as Joeseph Campbell aptly put it "they're dying for metaphors".
Harper's work is an attempt to draw those people whose adoration of the beauty and power of the human spirit has been lost in the outward projected symbolic forms of religon. The release of the outer forms is the first step in the journey to rediscover what myths were originally intended to represent - the inward journey of self-discovery. To inspire this journey is the goal of Harpur's book. The book is not anti-christian and the idea that it is anti-christian leaves one with great concern as to whether his critics even opened it. Harpur is not requesting that readers dismiss the human spirit, but embrace it on the hopes that as a species we can more forward united and in peace.
Steve - Toronto
refreshing addition to the thinking person's libraryDecember 8, 2007 5 out of 6 found this review helpful
This book satisfied my thirst for knowledge about the origins of Christianity. It's well written in a journalistic style and therefore a pleasure to read.
Although fundamentalist Christians are not open to this discussion, seekers will find the message a positive and inspirig path to a reasonable faith for to-day.
