Son of Man: The Mystical Path to Christ

Rating:
Summary: Mystical Christ
Review: Andrew Harvey is an excellent writer who has covered everything from outposts of Buddhism in Ladakh to transalations of the Sufi genius Rumi. In this book,which arches at being a modern version of The imitation of Christ,he puts forth of image of Jesus as THE mystic,the Alpha and Omega of existence.It succeeds much of the time.The historical Jesus presented is lacking somewhat, though the book picks up in part 2, the mystical Christ. Some people,especially those of a literal bent, wuould be slightly put off in the section Christ and the sacred feminine.The final section of the book, The Direct Path to Christ is a series of meditations and "exercises",which are worth the price of the book alone.Mr. Harvey believes that we need no intermediaries between us and God, and that Jesus shows us this way. The traditional harrangue against Christianity is softened by Mr. Harvey's genuine passionate love of Christ. There are lovely phtographs by Eryk Hanut throughout, which actually enchance the pleasure of this book. Not an easy read,{Mr. Harvey rarely is}, this is a book menat to be read and taken slowly, to draw deeply from this source. This book is quite beautiful, and is and important addition to any spiritual library. This is an important and wonder-filled book, and is hugely recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Another Tome for Oppression Studies, Inc.
Review: Interesting how reviewers tend to either love or hate this work. I TRIED to listen to it several times, and while I liked Harvey's "Ladakh" book, it was very different from "Son of Man."
I suspect that those who like it approve of its interpretation of Christ as a "radical", visionary iconoclast overturning the orthodoxy of Old Testament Judaism. I sympathize with this view to some extent, but Harvey does (as several reviewers suggest) seem to simply IGNORE the relevance of the overall tradition out of which Christ comes, the tradition of Law, Judgment, of the wrathful God, as simply mistaken and somehow part of a subtle conspiracy of oppression. The Old Testament CAN be hard to reconcile with Christ, it can be infuriating, but a theological balance must be struck.
As a former academic in the humanities, I just could not stomach the cant of modern academe in this book: everything must be an "extremely radical" vision, we must always work everything around to feminism (or some other "ism) overturning patriarchy, we must speak about the "margins" and oppresive "power structures." Harvey has evidently had many rich experiences in life, but the jargon and verbosity and two-dimensional politics of academe constantly get in his way here.

Rating:
Summary: Great Work on Christ
Review: This book is a very interesting book that points readers into looking at Jesus Christ as a non-dogmatic, unconditionally loving spiritual maaster and not the Christ that we here in churches...A religious leader out to propogate a religion and condemn non-believers of him.
Of course, this book will not be accepted by all since it can be seen as overly liberal and unconventional. How? Since Mr. Harvey is primarily out to paint a portrait of a loving, mystical Christ that could never have even intended to be deified and who mainly wanted to teach a love based spirituality, the author uses quotes from many unconventional sources like the Gnostic Gospels (Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Mary, Secret Book of James, Gospel of the Savior and others). That unto itself will spark some controversy for this book.
Mr. Harvey's Christ has a through-line of that of an enlightened master, say a Buddha of Nazereth, so it is with that Christ in mind that he writes and he pulls from many Christian sources to keep in line with this mystical, unconditionally loving Christ.
What this adds up to is for those that are spiritual 'seeker' types who are lovers of Light and seeing spirituality through Oneness and an Eternal Truth of Unity without dogmas you'll find this book extremely fascinating. For those "fundamenalist" types, you'll either brush this book of as some kind of new age concoction or it'll make you reconsider some of your preciously held beliefs about who Jesus Christ was.
There are some very well written chapters on: Jesus' Message, Jesus and family, Jesus and women, Jesus and the rich, Jesus and religion, Jesus and his Disciples and other topics. Mr. Harvey shows us through Jesus teachings how he promoted love, humility and acceptance in all these areas.
Another nice bonus is that the book has some beautiful Christ based meditations.

This book is unique in that the author is a scholar, well rounded spiritual teacher and poet all at the same time. The author manages to be remarkably intuitive and speak from the heart while always remaining centered and intelligent, not just "way out there". The book is rooted enough in research to deserve to be considered a serious work on Christ (although, many will disagree with me because of the uncommon philosophies put forth). The book has a heartfelt-poetic quality to it while simultanously being very scholarly which is extremely rare. Even though I consider myself to be an open minded spiritual seeker that always saw Christ as a great teacher of Unity, I never saw Christ's teachings with the depth of Mr. Harvey's book. Very enlightening.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, driven portrait of Christ
Review: While I don't think this book is quite enough to pass the bar as a historical work on the life of Jesus Christ, and at times is laced with New Age/Evangelist absurdity of the most corny variety, Harvey definitely has something here. His Jesus Christ is not the one I was brought up with (thankfully), but a political, social and personal revolutionary who deliberately rebelled against the dangerous atmosphere of his times to convey his message of unconditional love. Harvey harps far too much on his "Divine Feminine" concept, which while interesting is more idiosyncratic than relevant, but his enthusiasm for Christ's love of the disinherited, rebellious and suffering of all kinds is infectious. While one may be up in the air as regards faith and the divine, this book is a necessity notwithstanding. The quotes introducing each chapter are taken from the most diverse and obscure of sources, everyone from Boehme to Luther, Kempis to Griffiths. I hope Harvey doesn't go haywire with the the circle of believers he will undoubtedly attract and start some "Cosmic Christ" cult.