Post by theoccultchrist on May 30, 2006 16:47:33 GMT -5
I hope this is approprate to place here.
I just picked up a book from my local metaphysical/New age/ Witch Shoppe.
It's titled "The Pagan Christ: Is Blind Faith Killing Christianity?"
Author: Tom Harpur.
I haven't started reading it yet but by the discription and things it looks promising.
Here is what the bakc of the book says:
"For forty years and in nine previous books, scholar and religious commentator Tom Harpur has challenged church orthodoxy and guided thousands of readers on subjects as controversial as the true nature of Christ and life after death. Now, in his most radical and groundbreaking work, Harpur digs deep into the origins of Christianity, arguing that "to take the Gospels literally as history or biography is to utterly miss thier inner spiritual meaning."
Here is editorial reviews from Amazon.com:
Book Description
For forty years and in nine previous books, scholar and religious commentator Tom Harpur has challenged church orthodoxy and guided thousands of readers on subjects as controversial as the true nature of Christ and life after death. Now, in his most radical and groundbreaking work, Harpur digs deep into the origins of Christianity. What he has discovered will have a profound effect on the way we think about religion.
Long before the advent of Jesus Christ, the Egyptians and other peoples believed in the coming of a messiah, a madonna and her child, a virgin birth, and the incarnation of the spirit in flesh. The early Christian church accepted these ancient truths as the very tenets of Christianity but disavowed their origins. What began as a universal belief system based on myth and allegory became instead, in the third and fourth centuries A.D., a ritualistic institution headed by ultraconservative literalists. “The transcendent meaning of glorious myths and symbols was reduced to miraculous, quite unbelievable events. The truth that Christ was to come in man, that the Christ principle was potentially in each of us, was changed to the exclusivist teaching that the Christ had come as a man.”
Harpur’s message is clear: Our blind faith in literalism is killing Christianity. Only with a return to an inclusive religion will we gain a true understanding of who we are and who we are intended to become. Drawing on the work of scholars such as Gerald Massey and Alvin Boyd Kuhn, Tom Harpur has written a book of rare insight and power.
About the Author
TOM HARPUR is a former Anglican priest and professor of Greek and New Testament at the University of Toronto. D.C. Coles
And here is a customer Review:
A Provocative Read, May 29, 2006
Reviewer: Carol Zilinsky "Scotty Zilinsky" (Fort Walton Beach, FL USA) - See all my reviews
It is said that the most powerful thing on Earth is an idea, and Tom Harpur has tapped into the idea of "God within", that runs like an underground river in the mystical branches of the Abrahamic religions of our time, and on the surface of ancient religions and modern Eastern spirituality. Harpur ladles out a generous cup of this enlightenment and offers it to a spiritually parched mankind.
Gnosticism claims that all men have a spark of divinity within, and that enlightened religion involves developing this divinity and manifesting it in the world. The connections to ancient Egyptian sources are documented by authors Massey and Kuhn, and are used to show where many Biblical ideas may have come from. I would have added Sumerian, Mesopotamian, Babylonian, and the Greek Mystery religions to this, although one might argue that they had a common source.
Whether or not authors Massey and Kuhn are historically accurate, the "God within" theme is a mythologically based spirituality that can empower humans. Egyptian religion developed many powerful ideas in it's long history, and it's libraries were an important source of learning and diffusion of ideas.
Harpur makes the point that religion has too often used literal interpretation of scripture to justify hate and war. He offers the "God within" alternative as a fruitful way to break through the tribalism of modern religions into inclusiveness.
The Jesus story may well be a mythological reenactment of an older stories. As several authors have pointed out, there are few aspects of his story that can't be found in the various mythologies of the dying and resurrecting God/men in previous religions. The idea of a Creator God putting a spark of divinity into humans may also be mythological, but does speak to human aspiration to goodness in a way that both the religious person and the heretic can relate to. I would prefer to think of such a spark as "Godlike" rather than God endowed. All the same,The Pagan Christ is a provocative read.
www.amazon.com/gp/product/0802777414/
Anyway, I was just curious if any one else had read this book or read anything else by/heard of this author? and what they think about this book(s) and the author?
And if you haven't heard of this book or author then I am just putting an awareness out about it.
I just picked up a book from my local metaphysical/New age/ Witch Shoppe.
It's titled "The Pagan Christ: Is Blind Faith Killing Christianity?"
Author: Tom Harpur.
I haven't started reading it yet but by the discription and things it looks promising.
Here is what the bakc of the book says:
"For forty years and in nine previous books, scholar and religious commentator Tom Harpur has challenged church orthodoxy and guided thousands of readers on subjects as controversial as the true nature of Christ and life after death. Now, in his most radical and groundbreaking work, Harpur digs deep into the origins of Christianity, arguing that "to take the Gospels literally as history or biography is to utterly miss thier inner spiritual meaning."
Here is editorial reviews from Amazon.com:
Book Description
For forty years and in nine previous books, scholar and religious commentator Tom Harpur has challenged church orthodoxy and guided thousands of readers on subjects as controversial as the true nature of Christ and life after death. Now, in his most radical and groundbreaking work, Harpur digs deep into the origins of Christianity. What he has discovered will have a profound effect on the way we think about religion.
Long before the advent of Jesus Christ, the Egyptians and other peoples believed in the coming of a messiah, a madonna and her child, a virgin birth, and the incarnation of the spirit in flesh. The early Christian church accepted these ancient truths as the very tenets of Christianity but disavowed their origins. What began as a universal belief system based on myth and allegory became instead, in the third and fourth centuries A.D., a ritualistic institution headed by ultraconservative literalists. “The transcendent meaning of glorious myths and symbols was reduced to miraculous, quite unbelievable events. The truth that Christ was to come in man, that the Christ principle was potentially in each of us, was changed to the exclusivist teaching that the Christ had come as a man.”
Harpur’s message is clear: Our blind faith in literalism is killing Christianity. Only with a return to an inclusive religion will we gain a true understanding of who we are and who we are intended to become. Drawing on the work of scholars such as Gerald Massey and Alvin Boyd Kuhn, Tom Harpur has written a book of rare insight and power.
About the Author
TOM HARPUR is a former Anglican priest and professor of Greek and New Testament at the University of Toronto. D.C. Coles
And here is a customer Review:
A Provocative Read, May 29, 2006
Reviewer: Carol Zilinsky "Scotty Zilinsky" (Fort Walton Beach, FL USA) - See all my reviews
It is said that the most powerful thing on Earth is an idea, and Tom Harpur has tapped into the idea of "God within", that runs like an underground river in the mystical branches of the Abrahamic religions of our time, and on the surface of ancient religions and modern Eastern spirituality. Harpur ladles out a generous cup of this enlightenment and offers it to a spiritually parched mankind.
Gnosticism claims that all men have a spark of divinity within, and that enlightened religion involves developing this divinity and manifesting it in the world. The connections to ancient Egyptian sources are documented by authors Massey and Kuhn, and are used to show where many Biblical ideas may have come from. I would have added Sumerian, Mesopotamian, Babylonian, and the Greek Mystery religions to this, although one might argue that they had a common source.
Whether or not authors Massey and Kuhn are historically accurate, the "God within" theme is a mythologically based spirituality that can empower humans. Egyptian religion developed many powerful ideas in it's long history, and it's libraries were an important source of learning and diffusion of ideas.
Harpur makes the point that religion has too often used literal interpretation of scripture to justify hate and war. He offers the "God within" alternative as a fruitful way to break through the tribalism of modern religions into inclusiveness.
The Jesus story may well be a mythological reenactment of an older stories. As several authors have pointed out, there are few aspects of his story that can't be found in the various mythologies of the dying and resurrecting God/men in previous religions. The idea of a Creator God putting a spark of divinity into humans may also be mythological, but does speak to human aspiration to goodness in a way that both the religious person and the heretic can relate to. I would prefer to think of such a spark as "Godlike" rather than God endowed. All the same,The Pagan Christ is a provocative read.
www.amazon.com/gp/product/0802777414/
Anyway, I was just curious if any one else had read this book or read anything else by/heard of this author? and what they think about this book(s) and the author?
And if you haven't heard of this book or author then I am just putting an awareness out about it.
