Rating: 
Summary: an opinion
Review: To be fair, I am not a fan of this book, but I have decided to revisit it lately. It fails on two basic levels: an understanding of theology; and an understanding of history. There is absolutely no understanding of culture and religion and how these work in a society. The authors have a tendancy to confuse philosophy and religion.
In terms of histiography, its pretty poor. This book is filled with wild conclusions on shaky evidence. They also have a tendancy to misquote and to take out of context.
Rating: 
Summary: RE SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
Review: If God wrote the Bible, then why did He write both Leviticus & Deuteronomy when they cover the same subjects? What can be said about Creationism, that doesn't begin with the two separate creation stories placed side by side in Genesis? How could Paul write so many epistles and never mention any of Jesus' teachings even once? What sense does it make to call on the precious name of Jesus, if His name was really Joshua? What can Justin or any of the church fathers have to say about Jesus/Joshua that any school kid from Minnesota can't say about Paul Bunyan & Babe the blue ox? These are just a few of the questions that serious defenders of the faith have to deal with. This book gives us something to think about.
Rating:
Summary: The Jesus Mysteries - Highly Recommended
Review: This book is a revelation - not about the truth or fiction of an historical Christ, but about the phenomenon of Mediterranean culture known as Mystery Cults and their impact on the formation of Ancient Christianity. This thesis is not new with the current authors, but never has it been carried with such clarity for the general reader interested in Ancient Christianity but largely ignorant of its cultural milieu. The influence of the Mystery Cults on Judaism didn't start with Christ. It may have even predated the influence of Alexander the Great; there's a strong argument that it reflects the influence of Egyptian religion and older religions that arose in the Mediterranean family of tribes and nations. These arguments cannot be discounted or dismissed because of the use the authors have put them. The book relies on the most recent studies by archeologists and Bibical scholars, two fields that have virtually exploded in the last 20 years with more accurate pictures of the Meditarranean cultures and writings and more accurate datings of familiar events. In fact the notes and the bibliography alone are worth the price of the book. This book has led me on a wonderful voyage of exploration and discovery. If there are any out there who would like to plot their own voyage, I encourage you to get the book and start now on your trip. You won't be disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: A product of the human mind
Review: For anyone who as ever thought that the story of Christ is the product of the human mind and nothing more, then the confirmation of your suspicion is within this book. What's more, the authors argue, it's not even an 'original' product of the human mind. The authors demonstrate that what most Christians believe to be the true and inspiring story of their Lord and Saviour is actually a Judaicised version of the oft-told pre-Christ tales of the dying and reviving God-man known variously as Mithras, Osiris and Dionysus to name a few, a widespread Mediterranean mystery cult. Virtually nothing that Christ said or did wasn't already said or done by these metaphorical God-men before He supposedly existed. In fact the only real difference between this Gnostic pagan religion and Christianity is that Christians happen to believe that their version is literally true. Something comparable to every culture having written a version of Moby Dick but one group claiming that Ahab and his whale were real. A history of church building shows that a lot of Christian churches throughout Europe were built on top of the sacred sites of these mystery cults. It has long been argued that Christianity has acquired pagan overtones wherever it has spread. This book turns that thesis on it's head by producing evidence that this pagan cult actually acquired Jewish characteristics when it tried to penetrate Judaea. This is probably why the Jews (who let's remember were expecting a Messiah two thousand years ago) never recorded the existence of Jesus and quite rationally do not acknowledge the credentials of a Messiah who is but a new facet of a religion they were familiar with because of the spread of Greek culture. Sure, this book is written in the usual "hidden conspiracy" style displayed in Holy Blood/Holy Grail but that's just to shift the book from the shelves. An awful lot of detective work has gone into this book and, as others have pointed out, serious scholarship and that's what makes it a must read. If Creationists are going to argue Genesis alongside evolution in classrooms, the least we should expect is this book alongside relgious insruction in our churches. Then we'd see just who is right.
Rating: 
Summary: A Book For Anyone, Including Sheep
Review: Readers of this book must take it for what it is - simply pages of words that present information. From there, the reader must make up his/her own mind. The book gives strong argument that Christianity is the result of the Pagan Mystery Cults. However, does that mean the book is undeniably fact? Not necesarily. But because there may be errors in Freke's and Gandy's writing, does that mean Christianity came into being without the influence of the Mysteries? Again, not necessarily. This book is a good jumping-off point for debate. Those who are stongly religious may take this book as heresy, and those who are not religious (or not Christians) may take this book as their "bible" (to make a bad pun, but a good analogy.) Certainly by the way it's written, the text was meant to sway the reader in favor of the Mystery Tradition. However, it doesn't appear that it was meant to be a slam against Christians, and shouldn't be read with that kind of slant. What it comes down to is this - if you've heard the Denial of Jesus story before and don't care to hear the same things over again, (whether you believe them or not), this book may not be for you. But if you haven't heard the argument or are just interested in a lesser known point of view, this book is a great read. This book is not the be-all end-all proof that the Jesus story was not original, nor will there ever be be-all end-all proof for either side of the argument. This book is best read with an open mind, and then draw from it your own conclusions.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating theory; mediocre execution
Review: Although their argument is not quite so revolutionary as the authors would lead you to believe, it is fascinating and compelling. First, I should make a few caveats. The writing style is often less than scholarly at best and insulting at worst. For instance, the authors repeatedly use exclamation points for emphasis! They include lengthy bullet point summaries at the end of each section to repeat their ideas -- usually with exclamation points! And they present every one of their ideas as though it is a startling new revelation when a large number of their ideas are commonly accepted by academics! From the prose alone, I felt like I was reading a "self help" book. When is the inspirational lecture tour? Second, many of the arguments are flawed or overly simplistic. For instance, to argue that Christianity is derived entirely from the mystery religions, the authors lump a wide range of classical thinking into their catch-all category of the mystery religions. For instance, they cite similarities between Plato and Christianity to argue that Christianity was derived from the mystery cults. Although Plato may have participated in the mystery cults, it is a gross generalization to characterize all of his philosophy as coming from the mystery cults. The real argument here should be that Christianity was entirely derived from classical thought and religions -- not just from the mystery cults. The authors also site a number of second and third century pagan sources to argue that Christianity is based on those ideas. The date of these particular sources, however, suggests that the influence may have run from Chistianity to the pagan cults, not vice versa. Despite these flaws, I found myself making a number of new connections. The book made a persuasive argument for my own suspicions that Christianity is entirely derivative and that a historical Christ probably never existed. The mystery cults and gnosticism provide the perfect explanation as to how and why the Christian myth was created in the first place. Once I read past the histrionic prose, the bullet points, and a few sloppy arguments, I found this book an entertaining and informative read. Now, will someone else please come forward and make this same collection of arguments in a more serious and careful work of scholarship?
Rating:
Summary: The most memorable of the Christ-myth books
Review: As a rational theorist of religious experiencing, I was able to immediately revise my theory of the visions of Christ after reading this book -- it saved my universal theory of how the mythic-only death-and-rebirth savior figure works psychologically. The Christ-myth theory so vividly and compellingly explained in this book enabled me to make very slight adjustments to suddenly move from an untenable, only locally or "tribally" valid, Christianity-centric explanation of the entheogenic ego-death experience to a largely universal and ecumenical, non-Christian theory of the experience of Christ. This book marks a major turning point or breakthrough past the impasse of the popular assertion that Christianity is uniquely inspired. It turns out that the unique inspiration of the Christ vision is not the property of Christianity; Christianity stole and monopolized the idea that everyone already believed (the Christ-myth), literalized the story, and then killed all the mythic-Christ believers and burned their writings. This book has freed the Christ myth from the clutches of Literalist, historicist Christianity. These authors have a high regard for The Gnostic Gospels, which I then read; taking the two books together, it becomes clear how the Literalist view garnered power for the authorities through creating an artificial scarcity of seeing Christ. Christ as a mystery-religion renders the savior-vision democratically and directly accessible to all people, rather than forcing people to access Christ through the narrow conduit of the priestly hierarchy. This book is fun, exciting, profound, and easy to read. It also explains some of the pagan philosophy of the ego-death experience. It is more informed by pagan and non-Christian philosophy than most of the Christ-myth books, which focus on Christianity in too much isolation from the surrounding religious philosophies. The Jesus Mysteries is not coming from within Christianity and coming into contact with pagan religious experiencing; it moves the other direction, which is historically more comprehensible and vivid: from a universal mediterranean backdrop of pagan religious thought, the book shows how Christianity developed by combining and modifying ideas about the mythic Christ figure.
Rating:
Summary: I couldn't put this book down...
Review: I had decided on my own long ago that Jesus was pure mythology, but it was refreshing to read a very well argumented case, all the negative posters notwithstanding, showing exactly where this myth came from. I always found it humorous that all the ancient Greek & Roman "gods" were learned about in mythology classes, and yet our own mythology was somehow embraced as truth. Am I the only one who sees this readily apparent hypocrisy? Are there factual errors in the book? Probably... we're dealing with events that took place 2,000 years ago, so there is gonna be dispute among modern scholars. Is this the final book on the subject with all questions finally answered... no need to look further? No, that would be ridiculous... knowledge is a continuous journey; this book simply provides some keen insights into a history of Christianity probably much closer to the truth than the commonly accepted history. Are there kernels of truth scattered within these pages? Absolutely, to those who are concerned with truth, and not just seeing what they want to see. This is a life-changing book for those on the fence who read it with an open mind. Some people will never admit to what is readily obvious to others. History will ultimately show them in their self-deceptions. As to the negative reviews... well, what can you say.... some of the posters obviously didn't even read the book, others had their mind made up about it before they even read the book, and others make ample use of the 2,000 years of forged & specious evidence created by the church to shore up their arguments. None of the negative reviews have any real substance to their arguments; the only one that caught my eye before I read the book was part of "a reader from UK"'s post, as follows, QUOTE: "They explain how only seven of Paul's letters in the New Testament are genuine (arguable but reasonable) and that Acts is written too late to be reliable (ditto). But they then quote from some of the spurious letters (Ephesians and Colosians) and Acts to help make their own point that Paul was a gnostic! This is invalid and quite possibly dishonest." END QUOTE It's the Pastoral letters which are "univerally regarded as fakes" and which they do NOT quote from, other than showing the anti-gnosticism of them. 7 of the 13 are regarded as largely authentic, which leaves the other 6 which includes Ephesians and Colosians. The author of these letters is open to debate, but they are not considered complete fakes. They may very well have been penned in Paul's name by his disciples because they read very much like the original 7, but they could also be a combination of Paul's writings along with his disciples. The point that the authors were making is that ONLY in the Pastoral letters is Paul anti-gnostic and his other writings are very Gnostic-like, and the authors take quotes from all the "authentic" letters, both the 7 considered largely authentic and the 6 which are less authentic but in the same vein. > This is invalid and quite possibly dishonest. You strike me as intelligent, so I say you intentionally miscontrued their scholarship, which I consider dishonest. To those willing to challenge traditional beliefs & not be blinded by the deceptive light of the masses... read on; I think you'll find some of the clues you are looking for contained within these pages. Free your Mind!
Rating:
Summary: Atheist Candy
Review: One of the peculiar characteristics of freethinkers is a sense of pride in their objectivity, an aspect of personality considered to be anything from reprehensible to blasphemous by theists. Therefore it seems sad that a book like this will probably speak only to those primed elsewhere for the theme, and to others it will say nothing. The opportunity is there, in my opinion, to rescue the remarkably hip idea contained in this book from such a fate. The entire book (and especially the final third) leans heavily on claims that much of the New Testament and most Christian commentaries on it are forgeries. However, not one proof or even example is offered. Photos showing variations in handwriting would have been nice, for instance. Instead, there are only repeated references to conclusions made by "scholars" as if that should suffice in place of evidence. Ironic, no?
Rating:
Summary: good
Review: an informative book on the roots of christianity.
although good in establishing the hellenic
(in contrast to near-east) ingredient of the latter
it is too poor in discussing the whys.
| 
