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Summary: Connecting mysticism and Christianity
Review: Since Jesus didn't actually exist, this book is not about any real goddess either. If there's no Jesus, there's obviously no Mary Magdalene or Virgin Mary either. (and no Peter. But there is a Paul. Odd.) But this book does have some insightful explanations of what I would call mysticism (rather than specifically gnosticism.) And it does suggest some interesting parallels between the Old Testament Jewish story, the story of Jesus, the story of Mithras, and other myths. But the OT and NT seem to much more specifically historical than other "myths." I find much hard to swallow here--Jesus was first a mythological story later historicized? (doesn't it usually work the other way around?) And the Roman Catholic Church *caused* the Fall of Rome and the Dark Ages by killing all the (wise and gentle) pagans and gnostics? Um, I know the winners write the history books, but this seems like quite a lump to get down my throat. I will say that I agree with their point that we don't need a goddess now, but an image of God that transcends maleness and femaleness both. But then the goddess remains lost, doesn't she? So their title is a bit of sensationalizing.
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Summary: Truth-at its finest!!!!!!
Review: This book to many christians, or other students of the christian faith would claim this book lies, and heresy. Well i can clear up that confusion, this book finally validated my opinions on what i thought jesus was the whole time, and who mary magdalene really is. I never have seen a book with this type of view before, and i agree as with the rest of you that this is the truth whether you want to accept it or not. Though it does not speak much about the lost goddess, it is still a great read that give a breif overview that we are all Christs(kings) of our own fate, with a more indepth explaination. A good read for those who are confused and balancing on pagan and christian faiths. Great for those who are lost and dont know what to believe, i would say this book has the answers. I believe everyone should read this, whether they agree or not. Great book, great read, told to me by a "modern day "true" christian" that it is udder trash and lies, i would say that close minded people who make such comments will never know true gnosism. Excellent book-one of a kind!
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Summary: An eye opening book all 'Christians' must read
Review: This work is a fascinating examination of how Gnostic and other Pagan myths influenced the movement called 'Gnosticism.'
'Gnosticism' is a complex movement that appeared to arise, along with a pluarality of other 'Jesus' movements in the period from about 50 A.D. to 200 A.D. As any Christian with half a brain and who is not brainwashed into mindless fundamentalism should know, at this time the four 'canonical' Gospels were composed by various authors along with the canonical and deutrocanonical letters of Paul, drawing from an original source of sayings known as the 'Q' or 'Quelle' document. In addition, Gnostic writers used this source to create the 'Gospel of Thomas' and other Gospels, which contain various Gnostic teaching about the origin and destiny of the universe, the nature of man, the nature of Christ and Sophia, and so on. The Gospel of Thomas is perhaps the most beautiful, including the saying 'Whoever learns these teachings will not taste death.'
It is unfortunate in many Christian bookstores I see book after book claiming to prove with absolute truth that the entire Bible was we now have it is infallibe, God's eternal word, not to be changed and not to be understood in light of other religions. One depressing and faith-destroying argument I see especially pushed by Evangelicals is that all religions bar Christianity are the 'Devil's Inspiration' and those who refuse to accept Christ as the 'Lord and Saviour' will burn in the 'lake of fire' (see Revelation). I knew that this was nonsense; how can one part of the Bible claim 'God is love' and yet the same God create eternal hellfire with no chance of redemption? Evangelicals and fundamentalists often cite the passage where Jesus says 'I am the way, the truth and the life' taking it to mean that it is either Evangelical or Fundamentalist Christianity you accept, or you are condemned to eternal hellfire. Much as militant Muslims blow up buses carrying schoolchildren in Israel because they are 'infidels', this sort of nonsense destroys the true heart of the Christian message, 'God is love.'
The authors make the useful distinction between those who seek salvation by 'faith' and those who do so by 'Gnosis', or mystical insight. Gnosis comes from the Greek word for knowledge or knowing. The authors make the argument that political authorities have corrupted the true Christian message - that salvation is found within by understanding the Bible as a sort of symbolic text rather than a literal history. And I agree.
For twenty or so centuries Christian thinkers have held the Bible to be factually true. Even today, we see 'Creation Scientists' trying miserably like the workers who made the Tower of Babel trying to raise miserable sophisms against science, especially evolution, to salvage the archaic idea the world must be 6000 years old. Treating the Bible as infallible, literal history has been nothing short of a disaster, and has resulted in terrible persecutions reminiscent of the Stalinism and Nazism Evangelical and Fundamentalist apologists often attack when we let go of 'absolute values.'
The authors stress we need to recover the allegorical and mythical dimension within the Gospel, which is key to understanding the concept of Christ's 'Kingdom on Earth.' While they sometimes stretch some parts of their case very thin and their own philosophical prejudices intrude, I believe their basic thesis that we need to pay more attention to the mystical aspects of Christian myth needs to be taken seriously, especially the role of the Divine 'Sophia' or 'Wisdom.' Mention of 'Wisdom' so many times in the Bible reminded me it is far more than a boring history book of ancient Israel, which fundamentalists seem to insist is exactly what we should take it to be. That realisation liberated me from the shackles of fundamentalist/literalist 'either/or' without having to abandon the faith that has such a beautiful inner message in common with the teachings of the mystics of other world faiths, such as Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, the Hermenetic traditions, and so on. For the past few thousands years the feminine element of the divine has been played down while the male images of the reality called 'God' have been invoked to the point where God is not much more than a nasty despot, exactly the sort of figure atheists so rightly hate.
While I can't agree with some of the author's arguments, which appear to be casual dismissals rather than scholarly findings, i.e. 'The historical Jesus never existed' or 'The God of the Old Testament is a jealous, murdering patriarch', where the authors do argue their case with good evidence, such as the Gnostic influence on Paul, they are excellent.
So, for the fundamentalist or evangelicals among you, this will just be another work inspired by Satan, but for those with an open mind and a more critical and open stance towards their faith, this book is good and makes you feel more at home among those early Christians who, like me, 'Take the best of other traditions and integrate them into their own (Christian) perspective to reach God.'
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