The Pagan Christ: Recovering the Lost Light

Tom Harpur's "The Pagan Christ" presents a convincing and lucid case that Christianity (and religion in general) can be revived by a return to its spiritual roots. He believes that the spirituality of Christianity has been eroded by the elevation of Jesus to equivalence with God. In fact, the myth of Jesus' virgin birth, martyr's death on the cross and Resurrection is common to ancient pagan myths, specifically of ancient Egypt. It was intended, like all myths, to be allegorical, and in this case the message is that the suffering of Jesus, like the suffering of man, leads to a spiritual oneness with God. As St. Paul said, "The spirit of God dwells in you," meaning that every person is "imbued with a latent divinity" (Carl Jung). show more Assigning divinity to Jesus alone detracts from this powerful spiritual concept. Jesus never claimed that he was the son of God, and believing it dilutes his message of love and forgiveness and humility.
The idea that God is within every man is also the central tenet of Gnosticism and Sufism. Hindus also believe that in their Heaven, Nirvana, the human soul is united with the World-Soul or supreme God.
A return to the spiritual basis of religions will combat the fundamentalist trend of today, not only within Islam, but also within Christianity and other religions. Dogmatic adherence to ancient religious dogma and scriptures is not the way to spiritual revival. show less

This is an easy to read, fully referenced argument that provides a a fascinating and soulful insight into the deeper meaning of ancient scriptures.

This is not an anti-God book, but it does challenge the edifice of religion beautifully, leaving anyone who feels confused about religion and what religion tells us about the world, enlightened and lifted.

This book could have been written in less pages. It felt like the author was trying too hard to write his own words when all the ideas were someone else's.

ESSENTIAL BOOK for anyone claiming interest in Christianity. It made my spiritual life as a Unitarian Universalist much sharper and more comfortable.
(Bet it's banned in the USA. Or at least in the Bible Belt)

Piece of junk, not worth reading, poorly written, poorly researched, biased, no footnotes, historically innaccurate, shameful...you get the idea. This book is not worth reading even if someone paid you to read it. I read it, only because I have friends who actually think it's good.
For some other thoughts see: http://ruminationsbythelake.blogspot.com/search?q=harpur