Rating: 
Summary: The Library at Alexandria Reborn
Review: We may indeed, as Jacques Barzun noted, be living in an Alexandrian age, a time when an advanced civilisation loses sight of its true values, when even the most literate read not the original, but guidebooks and digests. There comes a time when the encrustation of book upon book means that one need turn to monkish devotion to plough through a subject, if at all. In this book, Acharya S does what few of the devout do, and that is parse the sources. Perhaps in a way that a Barzun did not expect, Acharya S takes a fable, long intertwined with our beliefs, and shows that it, too, is cobbled together from vastly older tales. Personally, I found this book to be a thrilling explanation of matters which are almost willfully left mysterious by those who ought to know better. The real miracle at the heart of Christianity is that there came men and women from its traditions who wrung enduring art and thought further from it. But the awe which we might feel at the antiquity of the far- older stories, themselves the kernel and then some of the Jesus fable, is due to Acharya S's work. I suspect that the special sections of the destroyed Library at Alexandria had its own scholars who could recognise the thought train here.
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Summary: A very healing and enlightening resource.
Review: Achayra S. presents a well documented and scientifically objective resource for any serious student of ancient history or religion. Unlike the author of another review here I never felt mislead or lead by the material. Clear evidence was presented and I did not have any problem forming my own perceptions of what the evidence might mean. The information has also lead me into further study of ancient civilization and given me a framework of which to observe and formulate my own opinions about the evolution of civilization and religion. I strongly recommend this resource to the beginner or advanced student of religion and science; believer and non-believer alike. This work has been a milestone in my search for knowledge, and has made me aware of a realm of information which will no doubt revolutionize our understanding of religion and ancient history.
Rating: 
Summary: A House of Many Add-ons and Patches
Review: The Christ Conspiacy is a brave and well-fitted book.It's author, Acharya S , shows us how various religious thoughts from different epochs and places were fused together to form Christianity. Acharya draws on a comprehensive amount of texts to show how pagan documents were turned into Christian, and how astrology is really the basis for for many of the Christian writings. The evidence seems quite overwhelming, to an open mind, that the Roman state was the one to "make human" the vaious myths and astrological figures in order to cement the identification of a state religion with the devine right power of the emperor. And for various reasons since then, religious groups since then have used it for their own purposes. The Christ Conspiracy is an entertaining to read book that has humor and attitude to spice up the facts. It's a shme that anyone would condemn the book out- right, unless that person had incontrovertable facts to rebuke the author. After all, You can't use the Bible to defend itself. Acharya S has written the book I would have if had more gumption and courage.
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Summary: Don't Read This Book If You Can't Handle the Truth!
Review: I read the book in two weekends; i.e., once I picked it up, I could not put it down. The research/documentation is of the highest standards. And, people who know me, know that I demand statements claiming to be facts to be supported by documentation. Acharya S. never failed to provide concise and detailed citations. It is apparently that this author/researcher/writer is well versed in her subject and I look forward to her next book.
Rating: 
Summary: Painfully inaccurate
Review: First, so you don't get the wrong impression - I am not a Christian. In fact, I'm a pretty thorough-going atheist. On top of that, I doubt that Jesus ever existed. So my low rating is not based on personal bias. That taken care of, on to the review.The first thing I noticed while reading this book was that Acharya sounds very angry. Her writing is heavily biased, and that is unprofessional. Though I can't completely condemn the book solely for this, it does make the book less enjoyable to read. The next thing I noticed was that a very large percentage of the writing is not Acharya's, but very long citations from other authors who share the same view as Ms S. Countless "Massey relates", "Doresse remarks", "Bowersock continues", "Wheless says", etc (and often two to three long quotations per page), disrupts the flow and is annoying. Again, I can't completely condemn the book for this fault - the ideas and concepts could be good, but simply the presentation of them bad. But even that's not happening here. Many of the books she quotes from are quite old - up to seventy years old. New Testament scholarship has made some very big changes in seventy years, and books that old are too unreliable. Also, Acharya relies on such sources as Kersey Graves' "The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviours" to prove a few points. Graves' book contains so many outright lies that it cannot be relied upon for anything - few scholars deny this. Anyway, that's not a *big* deal here. She doesn't quote from him too much, but she still should have been aware of how inaccurate Graves' book is (and how inaccurate the older books that she quotes from are as well). Bad scholarship. The worst part of the book is definitely 'Chapter 4: Biblical Sources'. Acharya is a terrible Biblical scholar, and this is clearly evident in this chapter. It is almost universally accepted that the order that the four canonical gospels were written in was Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John. Acharya rearranges the order to Luke, Mark, John, and Matthew. To make matters worse, Acharya dates the gospels between 170 and 180 CE. Now, that doesn't make any sense. The gospel of Mark was most likely written sometime around 70 CE, because of chapter 13 of the gospel speaks of the Jewish War (which was around 66 CE). Acharya's order of the gospels makes even less sense. Matthew and Luke borrowed from Mark (approx. 90% of Matthew comes from Mark, and 50% of Luke also from Mark), so Mark would have had to have been around first (it makes more sense that if any borrowing was done, that the new copied text would add in original material, rather than take much of the copied text away). Besides, Papias and Justin Martyr (early-mid first century CE) both quoted extensively from Matthew. We even have fragments of John's gospel dating around 130 CE. The NT gospels are very important issues that must be properly taken care of to argue that Jesus never existed, but Acharya falls far short of doing this successfully. 'Chapter 5: Non-Biblical Sources' is better than Chap4, but still contains two big flaws. She adequately refutes the claim that Pliny, Suetonius, and the Talmud make reference to Jesus, but she handled Josephus' and Tacitus' references very poorly. Acharya says "Although much has been made of these 'references' [in Josephus' texts], they have been dismissed by scholars and Christian apologists alike as forgeries" (p50). That, is inaccurate. Most scholars (even liberal ones) and most apologists believe that the references to Jesus in Josephus' works are only partly forged. They believe that the Testimonium Flavianum has some valid reference to Jesus behind the forgery, and that the reference to 'Jesus, brother of James' is completely valid. Her refutation of these references is simply naming a few scholars that do believe they are forged. She also states that Tacitus' writings were forged. Her proof? The fact that we do not have any of the earlier copies of Tacitus' work. That clearly doesn't cut the mustard. A good refutation of Josephus' and Tacitus' references can be found in other books (like Doherty's "The Jesus Puzzle"). 'Chapter 9: The Characters' is a comparison of Pagan deities to Jesus. Some of the parallels are quite strong, but some of her sources for these parallels come from Kersey Graves. Additionally, some of the other parallels seem to be stretched a bit, and others are very unprofound (such as Budda being referred to as 'Lord', 'Master', and 'Holy One' - such titles should be expected in other religions.). And as David Braunsberg brought to my attention, Acharya fallaciously states that Mithra was born of a virgin - most Mithraic art depicts him as being born from a tree, rock, or egg. Acharya also states that Krishna was crucified, even though the stories say that he really died by accidently getting shot by a hunter with a bow and arrow. Another important issue that must be taken care of to successfully argue that Jesus never existed is the Q document/gospel of Q. Q is a hypothetical document of sayings attributed to Jesus that was composed sometime around 50 CE. Though no copies of it have survived, its existence is likely, based on dozens of common sayings of Jesus in Matthew and Luke that appear in entirely different contexts. Acharya barely makes an attempt at handling this issue, and does not provide any evidence for her assertions. Now I must end the review - the 1000-word limit approaches. I found the generally positive reviews for this book to be very misleading, and I hope that others will come to realize the dishonesty of Acharya S. Earl Doherty's "The Jesus Puzzle" and Dennis MacDonald's "The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark" are two better books that are much more scholarly and reliable.
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Summary: Excellent work BRAVO!!
Review: I am 53 years old, was once a catholic, and I have been studying Comparative Religions for over thirty years. My library contains works by Robertson, Whelas, Carpenter, Frazier, Campbell, Smith, Keller, Kolb and too many others to mention, but if I had to recommend ONE book to the interested student who wished to have her/his eyes opened to the unfiltered truth about christianity in particular and religion in general, that one book would be The Christ Conspiracy, by Acharya S. It takes many years of thought and effort to wade through the complete works of Josephus, various translations of the bible, numerous texts (some enlightening - some inane and dogmatic) in an honest and scholarly examination of the major creeds that exist on this planet at this point in time. If you wish to just 'skip to the end of the search' where the judeo/christian theology is concerned (or should I say astro-theology),then buy a copy of this book, read it twice, and then loan it to a friend. Archarya's work is one of the most heavily documented texts I have yet studied, and unlike some reviewers who claim to have had some difficulty verifying quotes and context where notations are concerned, I had none of these difficulties. Moreover, I found that her conclusions, where drawn, were accurate and reasoned. A certain 'spirit' in the style of her writings is refreshing. The reader must keep in mind however, that this is a purposefully confrontational and brutally eye-opening text. If you are content believing that the Creator of the entire inner and outer universes found it necessary to "atone" for human "sins"by impregnating a little virgin girl 2000 years ago, growing into a God/man so that It could be tortured to death by the humans, and further, that this God wishes humankind to drink blood and eat God flesh on a regular basis as a remembrance of the holy death, then don't buy this book! If you suspect that the true meaning of life, and God's plan has nothing to do christianity, or any other religion for that matter, then gain some strength by getting some truth - read Christ Conspiracy and bolster that knowlege with any of the other texts referenced by Acharya. I loved it, and would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a wide ranging - yet easy read on this fascinating subject.
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Summary: Finally, the truth is revealed
Review: You will seldom see such a brilliant exposition of scholarship into the origins of the New Testament. The book explores the how and why of the creation of the Jesus Myth. It is time the world learned the truth. "The Christ Conspiracy" is a must-read. Raja Bhat
Rating: 
Summary: Good book but missing a key element
Review: This was obviously a well researched book but the author is trying to use that fact that the Catholic and Orthodox bibles, traditions and beliefs are a composite of pagan religions to justify that Jesus never lived. Flavius Josephus verifies the existence of many of the "made up" characters of the so-called NT. This book proves that Catholism\Orthodoxy are lies, but not that the Messiah never lived.
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Summary: The book every Christian should read!
Review: In looking over these reviews I see a few reviewers that are trying to tell people that this book is "not scholarly" or that "the author has not researched her claims very well". These reviewers have probably not read the book. They are probably basing their claims simply on the title of the book. Either that or they were confused by the booknotes. As someone that studied the bible to great lengths, and lead bible study groups I found this book fascinating. I have a hard time putting it down, and look forward to my next reading session. It is true that the author has a somewhat Atheist attude, but that is easy to ignore. I enjoyed finally discovering the significance of many bibilcal 'mysteries' that had often left me wondering. I guarantee, if you read this book thoroughly you'll be able to give great insite to the readings at the next bible study! No Christian should remain ignorant of the origans of the bible or of their faith. This book goes into great detail about these, often using the bible itself as reference. Do you know that the name "Israel" means? Do you know why we end prayers with "Amen"? Why were there 12 disciples? What does menora mean? What was the original reason for the 7 candles on a menora? Why is it hard to spread Christianity to India? What so enraged the Spaniards when they landed at Mexico? Knowledge is a wonderful thing. Know your bible - know your faith. Don't let someone tell you, learn it for yourself!
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Summary: Controversial biblical research
Review: If you are looking for a mainstream "orthodox" biblical commentary, then this is not the book you want to purchase. If you on the other hand are seeking a new perspective on the highly contradictory "tale" of the Christ figure, then I can recommend this book. Drawing upon the work of such scholars as e.g. Frazer, Higgings, Doane and Barbara Walker, Acharya guides the reader through many a different and often suppressed theory of the Christ myth, the heathen background thereof and its syncretic compilation. She goes on to reveal the different motives of the early church fathers and the reasons they might have had to create a cultural, political and religious unifying system that we since came to know as Christianity. All in all this book is a thorough introduction to the critical study of the myth of the Christ figure and Christianity in general.
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