Rating: 
Summary: Free will
Review: I can't say enough good things about this book. It makes a controversial topic very accessible to the layperson. It has been pointed out by other reviewers that the authors' theories are hardly original, but that's one of the points, isn't it? To show that very few stories/ideas are original including the Jesus story. The fact that it is a difficult topic shows just how much we have been indoctrinated with the 'truth' of the Bible, so much so that we are uncomfortable to even think of questioning it. And that is the goal of most 'conditioning' isn't it? The authors try to break through our conditioning and ask us to question what we've taken as 'gospel'.Other reviewers here have brought up some good critiques of this book - however it is funny to note that one reviewer will claim to be a scholar and disparages the research done by the authors, then on another page, another reviewer claims to be a scholar and highly approves of the research done! If we take them at their word, what we seem to have is a disagreement among scholars! One critique brought up is how the authors point out the inconsistencies of the Gospels and 'leap' to the conclusion that the books are not eyewitness accounts. The reviewer states 'forensic psychology' will tell you that four people watching a car crash are going to give contradictory and inconsistent reports of the event because they all experienced the wreck differently, but there shouldn't be any doubt that the main event happened. Well, no, but it's a CAR CRASH. A very common event. It is no comparison to a man raising the dead, walking on water or being resurrected. On the scale of impossible/improbability, you could just as easily claim an elephant walked down Main Street, sprouted wings and flew. Now, had four people claimed to be eyewitnesses to such an impossible/improbable event and had contradictory or inconsistent reports, I would have my doubts that the event happened at all. A good trial lawyer will tell you that they prefer not to have 'eyewitnesses' as they are usually a very weak source of evidence. An old Russian saying actually states, "He lies like an eyewitness." Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and 2000 year old so-called eyewitness accounts that have been translated, amended, abridged and spin-doctored over centuries do not give me confidence in their reliability. Another critique claims the bibliography of the authors is 'old' and could use updating due to new archaeological evidence. Point well taken, I'd noticed that as well. However, does that make all of the older references completely wrong? If we were to disregard material simply because it is old without closely examining the information given, then there are many 2000+ year old religious 'reference books' that need to be discarded as well. Yet another critique mentions how the authors reference the pagan Celsus' critique of Christianity but 'unfairly' do not give the Christian responses to his critiques. The reviewer assumes that the Christian refutations were logical, commonsensical and successful. I'd guess we'd all have to read the 'old' reference material and decide for ourselves, plus Celsus' critique was destroyed in one of the many religious purges. All we have is what the Christian apologist quoted in his refutation. The fact that the apologist felt Celsus' critique needed responding to 70 years after it was written to me is telling. Many people apparently saw the validity of Celsus' criticisms. Other reviewers complain that the book is written like a 'tabloid' with excessive use of exclamation points. Er, I really doubt anyone bought this book anywhere else other than a bright bookstore. The buyer saw its glossy cover with the shocking 'buy me' banner line and picked it up...and then they're disappointed that it's not written like a scholarly peer-reviewed journal on comparative religions or ancient cultures? The book is not perfect - and that's another point - no book is, including those touted as the 'Word'. Believe everything you read? The authors try to bring a controversial idea to the forefront of religious thinking people and present the material in a way to appeal and use their research to support their conclusions. I don't agree with all of it, I don't have to. Take their material, do research on your own, read up on the subject and draw your own conclusions. Much better than just 'believing' in dogma, no?
Rating: 
Summary: Finally! A taste of truth!
Review: Are you tired of being fed standardized lies and juvenile literalistic interpretations about the life of Jesus and the Bible as a whole? If so, this is an excellent book for those interested in delving beyond the cookie-cutter style religious propaganda which has flowed ceaselessly, to our collective woe, since Constantine's hijacking of *true* Christianity in 323CE. In a world rife with lies and driven by greed and the lust for power, it is no real surprise to discover that the many-headed hydra of intolerance and insidiousness that has posed as "Christianity" is in fact nothing short of the most massive and longstanding fakery ever put forth by human kind. But then, it doesn't take a book to reveal that these days, does it? The only failings of this otherwise excellent book (and its companion tome, "Jesus And The Lost Goddess") is that Freke and Gandy conspicuously avoid the rather obvious and intimate connections betwixt early Christians and mind altering plant compounds, known as entheogens. The Roman warmongers were against both esoteric spiritual thought and psychedelic plants even back then - followed by the zeal of a despotic line of popes - and their cruel war against consciousness continues unabated to this day. "Land of the free" - yeah, right. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain,.. Check out:
1) "Sacred Mushrooms And The Cross," by John M. Allegro.
2) "The Road To Eleusis," by Wasson, Hofmann & Ruck
3) "Mushrooms And Mankind," by James Arthur
4) "Food Of The Gods," by Terrence McKenna And, for your additional edification please study:
5) "The Essential Chomsky," by Noam Chomsky Do a keyword search combining "entheogens," "gnostics," and "esoteric Christianity" and follow your own leads, being careful to avoid predigested news sources (read: FOX, CNN, etc), with especial care to disregard the droll polemics of authoritarian mock "Christian" sources (including Publishers Weekly and other such undiluted sources of misinformation and NLP mindnumbing efforts) that only want to dumb you down, control your thoughts and fleece your wallet by using quasi-spiritual scare tactics (created by and intended for a 7th grade mindset). In closing, if there really is a "devil" or arch-fiend intent upon the destruction of humanity - his most faithful instruments are the supposed "Christian" churches and the zombie-like close-mindedness of the average person. Always question institutionalized authorities. Wake up while you still can.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating look at early Christianity
Review: A long-time reader of "historical Jesus" books, and books on the early Christians, I was surprised to discover this book, which somehow slipped under my radar. Usually I'm skeptical of books that try to prove that Jesus never existed; even Time magazine recently declared that "most intelligent people no longer question if Jesus actually existed," or something to that effect. However, that Jesus was a literary hybrid of Osirus-Dionysus and the Jewish Messiah is authors Freke and Gandy's theory, and they propose this theory so convincingly and meticulously that I was hard-put to think of a solid argument. The similarities between the ancient Osirus-Dionysus-Mithra mystery religions and early Christianity can not be denied, and shall prove to be startling to the fundamentalist Christian. What's even more startling is that these similarities were well-known to ancient pagans; in fact, several of them wrote treatises in which they put down the Christians for "stealing from" other religions! Many of these sources are painstakingly cited by the authors; likewise, they cite countless sources that justify their theory of a mystical Christ. One thing that concerns me is that the authors do not mention James Morgan Pryse; perhaps they just aren't aware of this author's works. Pryse unveiled all of the "secrets" Freke and Gandy expound in the Jesus Mysteries almost a hundred years ago: his "Apocalypse Unsealed" and "Restored New Testament" not only promote the theory that Jesus didn't exist and was merely a mystical allusion, but also go about proving as much, by revealing hidden, gnostic themes in the gospels themselves. It seems that most of the negative reviews on here come from those who disagree with the authors's contention, that Jesus did not exist. Though this theory has been advanced in the past (i.e., via James Morgan Pryse, Earl Doherty, and many others), the basic assumption made by most scholars is that Jesus in fact did exist. Freke and Gandy, however, choose to stick with their thesis, and their boldness is to be admired. However, I also suspect that they are so resolute because they desired the publicity such a claim would no doubt gain (it worked). The authors might have been better off postulating that Jesus did live, but his life story was mutated by a batch of Hellenized Jews, which grafted fragments from various Pagan Mystery rites onto his story. This theory is even offered by Robert Eisenman, in his magnum opus on the historical Jesus, "James the Brother of Jesus." In any case, I found this book to be very readable and enlightening. It's one that the reader can return to several times. Though Freke and Gandy aren't your typical "scholars," they are still to be admired for the depth and focus of their research. I would advise those who enjoyed this book to seek out their follow-up, "Jesus and the Lost Goddess," which I enjoyed even more.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book!
Review: I was in awe when I began reading this book. Having been raised a christian and trying to make sense of the whole "picture" we're painted, only coming up with loose ends, I began my search for more information when I found this book. I knew there had to be more to the story than what we were being told for the simple fact some things in christianity just don't add up and the bible does indeed contradict itself. I am so thankful that "christians" had the guts to ask the questions and write a book about it. The courage to do so is inspiring to me. I recommend this book to anyone looking for answers. For those of you who are, shall we say "churchified" this book may be upsetting to your pre-conditioned ideas. I have a stronger understanding of Christ now than I ever did before and in that I am so thankful. "I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me", "Christ within us, our hope of glory" have whole new meanings to me. Want a deeper meaning to life...buy the book, also read "Jesus and the Lost Goddess"!! You can't fight history.....
Rating:
Summary: Liberating, Perspective-Giving
Review: This book gives a strong new understanding of Christian origins and development to the general public, finally in a way that is not timid or couched to protect doctrinaire sensibilities. In the U.S. today, we're confronted with a discredited "Christianity" that's come to be identified with the most pedantic, mindless, authoritarian fundamentalism. It's very liberating and useful for people to understand that this is the result of centuries of re-written history, and suppression of independent thought by power-hungry institutional authoritarianism--and has really nothing to do with the original movement. Freke and Gandy make a strong, refreshing case which points to the mystical, personal, self-empowering nature of Christianity light-years removed from the petty, prudish, spiritual fascism and fundamentalism that usurps that name in our culture today. Great insights into Gnosticism and shows the cultural continuity of the original Christians with the pre-existing culture of the region. These people clearly had much more in common with the long mystery cult tradition than with any "Chrisitan" perspective popular today.
Rating:
Summary: The Jesus Mysteries - The truth at last!
Review: This is a book that all Catholics and fundamentalists should avoid . The writers have picked up on several hundred years of Christian researchers dead ends ? where they went looking for the real Christ and found another man-made story. The authors clearly explain how the roman church distanced itself from its pagan origins thru a river of blood and then cobbled together a series of folk tales and propaganda and called it The Bible. While the authors wishy-washy conclusion is that all will be resolved when the catholic and the pagan trends get back together ? the other more persuasive argument leaping out from their pages is that Man made god and not god(s) made man - in other words the atheists argument. Despite this 1 quibble, it?s a book I would highly recommend .It should be compulsory religious education reading to counter all the usual Christian propaganda school kids have to put up with! steve
Rating: 
Summary: Good compendium of pagan influences on Christianity
Review: The influence of pagan mystery plays and inclusion of pagan motifs in the Gospel and Church ceremony and the Church calendar is fairly convincing, but not original. It's a claim made by many other authors. It's presented here in a crisp style and the first 2/3 of the book is worth reading for that reason alone. The problems start with the rejection of the historical Christ as a living human being and then the grotesque simplification of Gnosticism into pure knowledge. They are not convincing in advancing the premise that we are all Christs(literally) all Sons of God and not subservient to the Historical Christ. The attempt to make the historical Christ a literary construct rather than a real being that fulfilled both Jewish and pagan mythologies doesn't hold water. The existence of Pagan mythical elements in the Scripture does not invalidate Christ's existence. For some reason (money or controversy) the author's make a radical conclusion that the two are anti-thetical positions and can't both be true and then do an incredibly poor job of supporting their premise in the last 1/3 of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Deconstruction of Literalist Christianity
Review: I've always been aware of the many close parallels among Christianity and the Mystery Cults--from ritual practices to teachings--and have been suspicious of them. This book presents all of the similarities and rightly asks the question, "Just what is going on here?" Well, a big mistake that occurred in the ancient world which took the mythical Jesus as the Hebrew equivalent of Osiris and turned him into an actual historical figure whose life is, supposedly, revealed in the four canonical gospels. The authors keep asking, "Why should we not believe the fantastic tales of other saviour gods from various mystery cults of the ancient world, but suddenly believe that similar stories that involve Jesus and the apostles are true and actually happened?" Its a good question, indeed! A good thing in the book, besides the excellent documentation, is that each chapter has a summary list of the main points covered in the chapter. This helps the reader keep track of all of the information coming at him. Another excellent quality of the book is that, even though it trashes literalist interpretations of Jesus Christ, it acknowlegdes the spiritual value of the Christ myth and its relevance to us today. Indeed, the book is dedicated "To the Christ in You." Fundie Christians may despise this book and its conclusions, but the reality is that the authors are simply finalizing and completing the research of scattered religion scholars of times past who pointed out the problems with "the historical Jesus" and the huge similarities among the Jesus story and the stories of other dying God-men like Mithras, Adonis, Attis, and Osiris (among many others).
Rating:
Summary: The best heretical book you'll ever love!
Review: Imagine a book that tears down everything you believe about Christianity. And then builds it all back up again into a completely different religion. That is this book. We find out how all our Christian beliefs are ~borrowed~ from the previous prominant world religions (Egyptian, Zoraster, Greek), then the newborn Christian church proceeded to destroy all the previous religions and their books so no one would ever find out. But enough evidence was found so we could find out. Read this book!
Rating:
Summary: pleasantly surprised
Review: I was a bit hesitant about this book. Knowing that it is written in popular style, I thought perhaps it would be one of those "Jesus Conspiracy theory" books. Some have made it out to be such. But throughout the work there are huge amounts of footnotes and a good sized bibliography. Obviously these guys are wanting to be taken seriously, but wanting to make their book accessible to the average reader. It's not a conspiracy theory if it's true. And while...there is a slim chance that there was a Jesus whom the New Testament works were based on...no theory makes better explanations for all the evidence available than: "The Jesus Mysteries." I think we've all become "attached" to Jesus being this historical figure. I have no idea why. Whether or not Jesus actually existed is immaterial. Those who have experienced Christ as a spiritual reality...have still experienced Christ. Jesus has become a legitimate masculine face of the Divine...and whether he is a "real" person or not makes no difference since he is a living spiritual reality. I've also seen those who are all upset because they think this book "promotes gnosticism." Well? They had to come to SOME conclusion, and when dealing with religion, it's going to be a religious one. In addition, I don't see them as "promoting gnosticism." Not once did they say: "Hey, we think you should all become Gnostics." For atheists...the argument that Gnosticism was the original Christianity is of no consequence...anymore than Christians care whether or not Gardnerian Wicca is the "real Wicca." It only really matters to those who follow the religion. The people who have been the most upset about this book are the literalist Christians...but I'm not seeing any better theories coming from them. I've read the "Christian apologetic" books that tell us why Jesus is a real person. These books are high on rhetoric and low on evidence. The evidence they do have is no real evidence at all until they've put a "spin" on it. The evidence presented in the "Jesus Mysteries" doesn't require any spinning. Do the authors have a personal view on the matter? yes they do. But what people have to understand is...when someone goes to write a book like this...by the time they put words to paper, they've already looked at all the evidence and they've already decided what they think. So, they've said it. So what? Even without their opinion, just looking at the evidence itself without any editorial comments at all, it's easy to come to the same conclusions. In addition, it shows the problems in looking for the "historical Jesus." Historical Jesus scholars would have us believe there is some major evidence out there for Jesus being a real person...but their really isn't. Most historical Jesus research just takes the miracles out of the New Testament. How is this proof of a historical Jesus? Especially when all you are looking at are the texts that were voted on by the Roman church to be canonical and are ignoring all other texts? Could there have been a person or persons that the Jesus figure was roughly based on before adding all the Pagan myth and Pagan teachings? Yes...but when you strip away the Pagan elements...you are left with a very bald Jesus...almost no Jesus at all...and none of that can be historically confirmed anywhere. The question could then be posed...was Osiris based on a real person? Perhaps...but no one is looking for the historical Osiris. The fact is...that the only thing that even compels us to look for a historical Jesus is the fact that the New Testament "looks like" history. Because we have a rough time period to look in. But do we go out looking for the characters in historical fiction to find out "who they were based on?" Most fictional Characters are based more or less to some degree on living people. Usually it's a composite of people you know and people you've observed...often the author uses a lot of him/herself to create the character. But it's a fictional Character. That's how realistic fictional Characters are created...by observing how real people including yourself think and act and then creating the character on that. So it can be said that yes, Jesus was probably more or less based on real people to some degree somewhere...but no more so than any other fictional character. I think this obsession with finding the "historical Jesus" comes down to cultural conditioning and the fact that many of us have "experienced Jesus" so how can he "not be real" to say he's not real is to say we've had an imaginary friend all this time. But this is a conclusion also that is foisted upon us by literalist thinking. Jesus not being a historical person doesn't make him "not real." Jesus is a spiritual reality. Jesus exists because the stories have been told...because that face of the Divine has been carved out of the whole. So Jesus certainly exists to those who have experienced him as a face of Divinity, but looking for the "historical Jesus" seems to me to be wrongheaded and based on childish fantasies of "proving" one religion over another. But spiritual truth cannot be materially pinned down. By trying to make Christianity "literally true" we have created fanatics and atheists. The fanatics follow the logical conclusions of what they are told is true...and the atheists follow the logical conclusions of using their reason and common sense. But anyway...that's my rant. I think it's a brilliant book, and anyone who wants to say it's a stupid theory. Fine. But back it up with some evidence. Not backing up your assertions with evidence makes them opinions only...it's like flat earthers and creationists. If you don't wish to use common sense...stick with the fantasy world of apologetics and stay out of scholarship. Zoe =)
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