50bookchallenge, 15000pages
Book #101 -- Tom Harpur, The Pagan Christ, 228 pages.
This is one of those books that I think every Christian should read. The literalist approach to the Bible is what turned me away from Christianity in the first place -- if I'd been taught the approach this book suggests, I'd probably still be Christian. Harpur, an Anglican minister, lays out very convincing evidence that the gospels are not nor were ever intended to be the biography of a historical man. Instead he presents them as versions of a mystery play -- a retelling of an older 'saviour' archetype recast in a Jewish setting. The parallels between the biblical Jesus and other examples of the type, particularly the Egyptian Horus, are hard to ignore. Interpreting the gospels as an allegorical drama rather than historical biography immediately clears up most of the more troublesome contradictions and improbabilities as well. Moreover, as Harpur shows, the insistence on a literal interpretation is not evident in the writings of the Church Fathers until the 3rd or 4th centuries. Harpur's argument, and it is well supported, is that the literalist approach was invented around that time as a way to exert control on the uneducated masses. After all, not only was a religion based on an allegorical guide to self-enlightenment beyond the understanding and interest of the common people of the time, it is much easier to dictate people's actions when you claim to be doing the will of a literal god-figure whom they cannot hope to understand or emulate except through your guidance. Finally, it is Harpur's contention that the reimagining of the Biblical Christ as a spiritual Everyman and his 'biography' as an allegory for the Soul's journey through life does not in any way detract from the power of Christianity. On the contrary, it enhances it, making formerly inscrutable 'events' come alive with symbolic meaning. Hmmm . . . maybe I should try giving this book to my father . . .
Progress toward goals: 280/366 = 76.5%
Books: 101/150 = 67.3%
Pages: 26703/50000 = 53.4%
2008 Book List
cross-posted to 15000pages, 50bookchallenge, and gwynraven
This is one of those books that I think every Christian should read. The literalist approach to the Bible is what turned me away from Christianity in the first place -- if I'd been taught the approach this book suggests, I'd probably still be Christian. Harpur, an Anglican minister, lays out very convincing evidence that the gospels are not nor were ever intended to be the biography of a historical man. Instead he presents them as versions of a mystery play -- a retelling of an older 'saviour' archetype recast in a Jewish setting. The parallels between the biblical Jesus and other examples of the type, particularly the Egyptian Horus, are hard to ignore. Interpreting the gospels as an allegorical drama rather than historical biography immediately clears up most of the more troublesome contradictions and improbabilities as well. Moreover, as Harpur shows, the insistence on a literal interpretation is not evident in the writings of the Church Fathers until the 3rd or 4th centuries. Harpur's argument, and it is well supported, is that the literalist approach was invented around that time as a way to exert control on the uneducated masses. After all, not only was a religion based on an allegorical guide to self-enlightenment beyond the understanding and interest of the common people of the time, it is much easier to dictate people's actions when you claim to be doing the will of a literal god-figure whom they cannot hope to understand or emulate except through your guidance. Finally, it is Harpur's contention that the reimagining of the Biblical Christ as a spiritual Everyman and his 'biography' as an allegory for the Soul's journey through life does not in any way detract from the power of Christianity. On the contrary, it enhances it, making formerly inscrutable 'events' come alive with symbolic meaning. Hmmm . . . maybe I should try giving this book to my father . . .
Progress toward goals: 280/366 = 76.5%
Books: 101/150 = 67.3%
Pages: 26703/50000 = 53.4%
2008 Book List
cross-posted to 15000pages, 50bookchallenge, and gwynraven