-Caveat Lector-
The mystics speak for themselves
-------------------------------------------------------
By David Allan Dodson
Special to CNN.com
ATLANTA (CNN) -- Timothy Freke doesn't sound like an
evil intellectual intent on destroying the moral
underpinnings of our society, but he is certain to be
accused of being just that. Soft spoken and
articulate, he seems like a man with the best
intentions, a person who truly wishes to improve the
state of religion and spirituality in Western society.
Freke, along with his lifelong friend Peter Gandy, is
the author of "The Jesus Mysteries," a radical new
look at Christian origins that suggests that Jesus the
man did not exist at all. Freke and Gandy pose the
view that Jesus was a mythical character created in
the mold of the mythological Osiris/Dionysus god-man
character. While the so-called "Quest for the
Historical Jesus" is nothing new, the thesis in "The
Jesus Mysteries" takes the mission one step further.
When interviewing Freke during his recent U.S. tour,
the first question was obvious: Why did you write "The
Jesus Mysteries"?
"I think we focused in on Christianity particularly
because we felt it was our own culture," Freke said,
"and because it seemed very stuck. It seemed
determined to say it was different, and it had a
unique claim on truth. Our gut feeling was, 'That
can't be right. Truth is something human and
universal.'
"We weren't looking at it at that point to try and
uncover that there was no Jesus," he continued. "It
was as much a shock to us as it will be to our
readers. We resisted it for a long time in our
research. But once the idea crystallized, the evidence
has just come piling in. So many things that didn't
make sense suddenly do, once you turn everything
around."
'The message ... was far deeper'
Far from being turned off Christianity by their
research, Freke and Gandy say their premise actually
strengthened their faith.
"What it's done," Freke said, "is completely transform
our understanding of Christianity. Its message is not
tied to belief in a historical event, so that you
either believe it happened, or you don't -- and if you
believe it, you're saved, and if not, you're damned.
What we've discovered is that the message of original
Christianity was far deeper than that. It was about,
for the original Christians, becoming a Christ
oneself.
"The great tragedy of literalist Christianity, which
focuses on the historical Jesus, is that it ends up
dividing itself from everyone else and we end up with
these horrendous religious divisions that have
bedeviled the world," he continued. "Christians are
not united. Baptists hate Methodists and Methodists
hate Catholics and round and round it goes, because
each one has their version of Jesus. (But) once you
understand it as a myth, everyone can have their
version of Jesus because it's about finding a
relationship with a mythic archetype, not arguing over
history."
A wave of discussion
The success of "The Jesus Mysteries" in England has
created a wave of discussion in academic and religious
circles. While one might expect a firestorm of
controversy, the book has been remarkably
well-received, reaching bestseller status in the
United Kingdom, garnering at least one "Book of the
Year" award, and receiving support from American
religious figures such as the Episcopal Bishop John
Shelby Spong.
And while their central thesis -- the non-existence of
Jesus the man -- has been the focal point of
discussion, Freke downplayed its overall importance.
"The key thing really is understanding that the Jesus
story as we have it is a myth," he said. "We can argue
in the dark about whether it was based on a living
man, but the fact is that if all that remains are
these mythic archetypes that pre-dated the Jesus story
and have been laid onto somebody, then still what we
have is a myth."
The life of Jesus as myth is not a new assertion. In
recent years, a new wave of "Historical Jesus"
research has emerged in the wake of the discovery of
the Nag Hammadi Gospels (also known as the "Gnostic
Gospels") in 1945 and the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947.
Academic figures such as John Dominic Crossan ("The
Historical Jesus"), Marcus Borg ("Meeting Jesus Again
for the First Time"), and Burton Mack ("Q: The Lost
Gospel"), among others, have struggled to separate
fact from fiction in the canonical gospels.
But most scholars agree that a man known as Jesus of
Nazareth existed and was crucified around A.D. 30.
Freke and Gandy challenge that assumption, and also
take on another major belief: the preeminence of the
Roman Catholic belief system in early Christianity.
The mystics speak for themselves
Until 1947, when a group of ancient manuscripts were
discovered near Nag Hammadi in Egypt, little was known
about the mystic Christian groups known as the
Gnostics. The only information came from orthodox
writers, usually in the form of a polemic. The
discovery of the actual Gnostic texts allowed the
mystics to speak for themselves for the first time in
nearly 2000 years. Using the writings of Paul and
early Christian history as a basis, Freke and Gandy
attempt to prove that the Gnostics were the original
Christians.
"Paul doesn't have a historical Jesus," according to
Freke. "His Jesus is a Christ within, it's a mythical
figure. He gives us no details of his life, he doesn't
quote a single quote from Jesus, even when it would
really help him. There's a massive silence in Paul,
which is a huge issue for most scholars in this area.
"But it's only a problem if you believe the Roman
story that Paul is this great literalist Christian. If
you listen to the Gnostics, he's the great hero of
Gnosticism."
The Gnostic tradition is now revealed to be
widespread, he added, and has its own take on matters.
"It's about listening to the losers (the Gnostics),"
said Freke. "We've listened to the winners, and their
story doesn't make any sense. So let's listen to the
losers and see if their story makes more sense. And we
think it does."
Still, Timothy Freke does not dismiss Christianity
outright. "The Christ story is the foundation story of
our culture in the West," he said. "Having said that
it's a myth, the next question becomes, 'What does it
mean, and can it still be useful to us spiritually?'
And for us, the answer is definitely yes."
So what would Freke and Gandy see as a positive
outcome to "The Jesus Mysteries"? Timothy Freke is
emphatic: "We want to start a debate, we want to open
up these questions, we want to break some taboos so
that we can ask these questions. And ultimately, for
us personally, we want to be able to suggest that
there is something universal about Christianity. It's
not exclusive, it's pointing to a universal truth, and
Christians who adopt that position can take part in
the great meeting of faiths which is actually possible
in the modern age."
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