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Note: these excerpt threads are subject to continual revision and updating as opportunity and priority permits Tom Harper: "While most of what is laid out in this book will possibly surprise and stir both faithful and outsider alike, that is not my primary intention. This book is not about seeking controversy or headlines; it is a sincere and earnest search for spiritual truth. Certainly it is in no way meant as an attack upon Christianity -- or any other religion, for that matter. Quite the opposite, in fact. In the end, it is about the realization of a richer, more spiritual faith than I ever knew before. I want to affirm with the utmost emphasis and sincerity from the very outset that the evidence investigated here, the discoveries I have made, and the inner struggles and deep insights that have flowed from them have made a joyous and life-changing imprint upon me... There is so much more to explore and share. Most potent of all has been the increasing knowledge I have gained of how the key early Christian doctrine, the incarnation of the spirit in human flesh or matter in each of us, is in fact the oldest, most universal mythos known to religion... Today there is no longer any excuse for any hierarchy to ignore the truth of what has actually transpired. The record is no plain for all to see... I have laboured to present this work as clearly as possible, yet in places some hard work will be required, and readers must be prepared to think on thier own and to be open to fresh ideas. It might well be a good idea to keep a Bible at hand, in case you want to check a reference for yourself, but this isn't essential. Keep in mind throughout that however negative -- even shocking -- the evidence may seem at times, a vast hope shines through it all... You will learn how any future faith must and can be grounded in nature and its cycles. The Jesus story will come alive and strike your heart and intellect as never before. Traditional rituals such as Holy Communion, baptism, and the Church's key festivals of Christmas and Easter will have new power once we understand their true meaning in the light of the ancient wisdom..." [3-13] THE PAGAN CHRIST "The enigma of the Bible has been largely solved. Dark passages, cryptic narratives or events -- all have been shot through with a new, though long-lost, light because of this awareness that they key to all Scripture is to be found in the doctrine of Incarnation. Once you really understand that all the myths, legends, stories, histories, allegories, parables, and symbols are a kaleidoscope of variations on this one central theme, the Bible comes alive in a wholly new way, I have found... it is particularly important to remember that the Bible books were never written in any normal, modern sense. From the beginning, they were preserved in memory only. They made up the body of what is known as the great oral tradition, a set of ritual formulas, ceremonial rites, allegorical depictions of truth, myths, number graphs, and pictorial symbols of the realities and the phenomena of human spiritual history that had been handed down from generation to generation in unwritten form. Only here and there, chiefly to avoid their being lost, forgotten, or too badly corrupted by change, they were set down in writing and so, at last, came to later ages as books, presumably written or edited and revised by somebody..." [181] THE PAGAN CHRIST "For the first time for me, a spiritual and mystical understanding of the Christ myth has made powerfully relevant the whole doctrine of the Cross, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection of the Christ. All the old business about blood and sacrifice and suffering gods finally comes into focus and grasps hold of both mind and heart. The love of God is seen more clearly than ever in the sacrifice, or constant outpouring of his divine nature, to secure our share in it forever. The mythical, allegorical meaning of the Passion of Jesus Christ as an enactment of God's role in our creation and our incarnation as embodied fragments of diety is far more profound than some imagined transaction where God's wrath is nullified by the literal death of an only son. The above point leads to my renewed awareness of the power and the symbolism of the Eucharist itself. It is no longer a crude, barbarous echo of some kind of cannibalistic rite, nor is it a purely polite symbolic recalling of a two-thousand-year-old event. It graphically and powerfully offers an immediate experience of inwardly feeding upon the facts that the divine has poured out its energies and life as our spiritual bread and drink. And it is a dramatic experience of re-membering, in the sense of bringing back together all the various fragments of the body of God. It is a potent symbol of the restoration of the whole family of humanity as the child of God." [185] THE PAGAN CHRIST: Is Blind Faith Killing Christianity? Note: the book itself presents a number of good insights with respect to the univeral Christ mythos and my intention is to later provide some examples, but for now these short excerpts should have sparked some interest. |