Unmasking The Pagan Christ

Author : Stanley E. Porter
Publisher : Clements Publishing Group
ISBN 13 : 1894667719
Total Pages : 169 pages
Book Rating : 4.15/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Unmasking the Pagan Christ written by Stanley E. Porter and published by Clements Publishing Group. This book was released on 2006 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rabbi or Messiah? Prophet or the Son of God? People have debated the identity of Jesus of Nazareth since the first century. But what if there was no Jesus? What if there was no Mary or Joseph, no twelve apostles? What if the story of Jesus was no more than a myth to convey spiritual truth? These claims have been around for hundreds of years and have become more prominent with well-known religion columnist Tom Harpur's recent book, The Pagan Christ. Harpur claims that Jesus was not a historical figure, but was one version of an ancient myth that can be traced from ancient Egyptian religion to the Roman mystery cults. Stanley Porter and Stephen Bedard tackle this radical claim by looking at the roots of the "pagan Christ idea," examining the supposed pagan parallels and presenting the evidence for the historical Jesus. The authors demonstrate that the suggestion of pagan origins for the Gospel story is not based on historical or textual evidence, but rather on a desire to create a universalistic spirituality revolving around a "Cosmic Christ" within each person. A fair examination of both the mythological and biblical texts reveal that the traditional understanding of an actual historical figure known as Jesus of Nazareth appearing two thousand years ago is indeed the only logical conclusion. Stanley E. Porter is President and Dean, and Professor of New Testament at McMaster Divinity College, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Porter has M.A. degrees from Claremont Graduate School and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and the Ph.D. from the University of Sheffield. He has written widely on issues of concern in study of the New Testament, such as Jesus, Paul, the book of Acts, and John. He has a passion for education in the church, and preaches and teaches regularly. Stephen J. Bedard is the pastor of Woodford Baptist Church and First Baptist Church, Meaford, Ontario, Canada. He holds the M.Div. and M.Th. degrees from McMaster Divinity College, and is actively engaged in further graduate study. Bedard is an advocate of informed preaching and teaching, and is devoted to the ministry of the local church.

Author : Tom Harpur
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 0802777414
Total Pages : 258 pages
Book Rating : 4.16/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Pagan Christ written by Tom Harpur and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2006-05-01 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Challenging church orthodoxy, a religious scholar argues that the biblical Gospels should not be taken literally and that there is a connection between Egyptian mythology and Christianity, in a radical reinterpretation of scripture, the nature of Christianity, and its connections to other of the world's spiritual traditions. Reprint. 25,000 first printing.

Author : Tom Harpur
Publisher : Walker
ISBN 13 : 9780802714497
Total Pages : 260 pages
Book Rating : 4.98/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Pagan Christ written by Tom Harpur and published by Walker. This book was released on 2005-03-01 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A provocative argument for a mystical, rather than historical, understanding of Jesus, leading to a radical rebirth of Christianity in our time. For forty years, 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. Long before the advent of Jesus Christ, the Egyptians and other peoples believed in the coming of a messiah, a virgin birth, a madonna and her child, and the incarnation of the spirit in flesh. While the early Christian church accepted these ancient truths as the very basis of Christianity, it disavowed their origins. What had begun as a universal belief system built on myth and allegory was transformed, by the third and fourth centuries A.D., into a ritualistic institution based on a literal interpretation of myths and symbols. But, as Tom Harpur argues in The Pagan Christ, "to take the Gospels literally as history or biography is to utterly miss their inner spiritual meaning." At a time of religious extremism, Tom Harpur reveals the virtue of a cosmic faith based on ancient truths that the modern church has renounced. His message is clear: Our blind faith in literalism is killing Christianity. Only with a return to an inclusive religion where Christ lives within each of us will we gain a true understanding of who we are and who we are intended to become. The Pagan Christ is a book of rare insight and power that will reilluminate the Bible and change the way we think about religion.

Author : Tom Harpur
Publisher : Thomas Allen Publishers
ISBN 13 : 9780887621697
Total Pages : 20 pages
Book Rating : 4.94/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Pagan Christ written by Tom Harpur and published by Thomas Allen Publishers. This book was released on 2004 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tom Harpur's groundbreaking book "The Pagan Christ: Recovering the Lost Light" has inspired thousands of readers to reconsider the very nature of their faith.This discussion guide includes more than 100 questions about the material found in "The Pagan Christ" that will encourage a deeper, chapter-by-chapter analysis and a more profound understanding of the findings and arguments in this book.

Author : Wendy Porter
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1606083988
Total Pages : 160 pages
Book Rating : 4.87/5 ( download)

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Download or read book McMaster Journal of Theology and Ministry: Volume 9 written by Wendy Porter and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2009-02-10 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The McMaster Journal of Theology and Ministry is an electronic and print journal that seeks to provide pastors, educators, and interested lay persons with the fruits of theological, biblical, and professional studies in an accessible form. Published by McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton, Ontario, it continues the heritage of scholarly inquiry and theological dialogue represented by the College’s previous print publications: the Theological Bulletin, Theodolite, and the McMaster Journal of Theology.

Author : John Mackinnon Robertson
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 474 pages
Book Rating : 4.65/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Pagan Christs written by John Mackinnon Robertson and published by . This book was released on 1903 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Walter Wink
Publisher : Fortress Press
ISBN 13 : 1506438547
Total Pages : 520 pages
Book Rating : 4.42/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Engaging the Powers written by Walter Wink and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2017-10-15 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this brilliant culmination of his seminal Powers Trilogy, now reissued in a twenty-fifth anniversary edition, Walter Wink explores the problem of evil today and how it relates to the New Testament concept of principalities and powers. He asks the question, "How can we oppose evil without creating new evils and being made evil ourselves?" Winner of the Pax Christi Award, the Academy of Parish Clergy Book of the Year, and the Midwest Book Achievement Award for Best Religious Book.

Author : Jeremiah J. Johnston
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 0567669513
Total Pages : 317 pages
Book Rating : 4.13/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Resurrection of Jesus in the Gospel of Peter written by Jeremiah J. Johnston and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2016-01-28 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All four canonical gospels identify the resurrection of Jesus, yet none detail the exact moment of its happening. The absence of this narrative detail was hotly contested in the second century, when critics derided a resurrection account without credible witness. Thus, the discovery of the Akhmim fragment at the end of the 19th century, which purports to provide exactly that detail, is a huge and surprisingly under-utilised addition to Biblical scholarship of the Apocryphal gospels. Johnston examines both the impact of this discovery on the scholarship at the time, and argues for the dating of the fragment to the second century AD. He identifies shared characteristics with other documents from this period, including a rise in anti-semitic feeling, and developments in concepts of the afterlife, and makes a claim for this fragment being the text that aided the development of these movements. The Second Century was the key time in which the non-canonical Biblical texts were established. It was also the era in which theologies which would become 'orthodox' in the third century were penned and defined. The significance, then, of dating the Akhmim fragment to the second century AD is huge. This work will be of great use to scholars of Second Temple Judaism, and those with an interest in the creation of the ideas that surround scholarship of the Bible.

Author : Craig A. Evans
Publisher : Westminster John Knox Press
ISBN 13 : 0664239323
Total Pages : 210 pages
Book Rating : 4.29/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Jesus and His World written by Craig A. Evans and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 2013-01-01 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A world-renowned scholar explores the latest archaeological evidence about the historical Jesus and His world. -- Book Cover.

Author : Maurice Casey
Publisher : A&C Black
ISBN 13 : 056701505X
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.51/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Jesus: Evidence and Argument or Mythicist Myths? written by Maurice Casey and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2014-01-16 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Did Jesus exist? In recent years there has been a massive upsurge in public discussion of the view that Jesus did not exist. This view first found a voice in the 19th century, when Christian views were no longer taken for granted. Some way into the 20th century, this school of thought was largely thought to have been utterly refuted by the results of respectable critical scholarship (from both secular and religious scholars). Now, many unprofessional scholars and bloggers ('mythicists'), are gaining an increasingly large following for a view many think to be unsupportable. It is starting to influence the academy, more than that it is starting to influence the views of the public about a crucial historical figure. Maurice Casey, one of the most important Historical Jesus scholars of his generation takes the 'mythicists' to task in this landmark publication. Casey argues neither from a religious respective, nor from that of a committed atheist. Rather he seeks to provide a clear view of what can be said about Jesus, and of what can't.