lonlesol
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Tom Harpur, the Pagan Christ, and the CBC
In search of the Cosmic Principle—Tom Harpur and the Pagan Christ
A Response by Craig A. Evans
Not long ago Tom Harpur’s The Pagan Christ created a sensation by presenting in new form the odd notion that Jesus did not exist.* I say odd, because almost no serious academic—of any ideological, religious, or non-religious stripe—doubts that Jesus of Nazareth actually lived some time in the first century and was crucified by order of Pontius Pilate, governor of Judea. The evidence for the existence of Jesus—literary, archaeological, and circumstantial—is overwhelming. Accordingly, Christian, Jewish, and secular historians have no doubts whatsoever that Jesus was a figure of history.
According to Harpur, “there is nothing the Jesus of the Gospels either said or did—from the Sermon on the Mount to the miracles, from his fleeing as an infant from Herod to the Resurrection itself—that cannot be shown to have originated thousands of years before, in Egyptian Mystery rites and other sacred liturgies such as the Egyptian Book of the Dead.”** In short, Harpur tells us, the gospel writers have transformed an important Egyptian theme of spirituality into a Jewish allegory of a man who never existed. In this way, the fictional Jesus passes on an ancient religious legacy, a legacy that might be called the Pagan Christ.
It is hard to imagine how the evidence of history could be more forced and distorted than what we find in The Pagan Christ. Unfortunately, the tax-payer subsidized CBC decided to produce and air (Thursday evening 6 December 2007) a documentary based on this intellectually bankrupt and utterly discredited hypothesis. And, of course, the CBC chose to air it in the days leading up to Christmas. The CBC’s lack of scholarly judgment is only exceeded by its lack of sensitvity and respect for the faith of the majority of Canadians. One wonders if the CBC would produce and air during Ramadan a documentary that suggests Mohammed never existed?
Harpur at one time believed that Jesus was a historical person. In fact, as seen in his earlier writings, Harpur believed that Jesus truly healed people and was raised from the dead. He now denies all of this in The Pagan Christ. What brought on the change? Judging by comments that he makes at the beginning of his book, his change in thinking had little to do with critical, historical work. It had more to do with adopting the theosophic views of Gerald Massey (1828–1907) and Alvin Boyd Kuhn (1880–1963). The work of these men, especially their reconstructions of ancient history and attempts to draw lines of continuity between Egyptian religion and Christianity, is deeply flawed. No qualified historian takes the theories of these men seriously. Anyone charmed by Harpur’s Pagan Christ should beware. We are talking old, odd stuff here. Personal philosophy and introspection it may be; history in any responsible, recognized sense it is not.*** In future, let us hope the CBC exercizes better judgment.
*Tom Harpur, The Pagan Christ: Recovering the Lost Light (Toronto: Thomas Allen, 2004); reprinted as The Pagan Christ: Is Blind Faith Killing Christianity? (Toronto: Thomas Allen, 2005).
**Harpur, Pagan Christ, 10. Much of what Harpur claims on this page is simply not true.
***For trenchant criticism of the Pagan Christ, see Stanley E. Porter and Stephen J. Bedard, Unmasking the Pagan Christ (Toronto: Clements Publishing, 2006).
http://adc.acadiau.ca/tom_harpur_the_pagan_christ.html
This program is on tv at this moment, February 9th 2008...
Posts: 478 | From: Quebec | Registered: Mar 2005
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