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Myth of the Resurrection and Other Essays
Did Jesus ever live? Was he the Messiah as Christianity has claimed? And what are the true foundations of the Christian religion?These are the fundamental questions posed by ex-priest Joseph McCabe (1867-1955), a prodigious scholar, translator, and lecturer, who tirelessly promoted scientific inquiry, skepticism, and anticlericalism in works that were exhaustively researched yet accessible to the general reader.In these three lively, informative, and combative essays, McCabe takes us through the ancient Mediterranean world to show how Christianity appropriated the ceremonies and myths of paganism to elaborate the Resurrection story. McCabe cogently demonstrates that the Jesus of the gospels is not historical at all but a curious amalgam built up after his death. The gospels themselves are completely unreliable as biographies of Jesus. Critically examining all the ancient sources, McCabe reveals a series of shameless distortions by Christian apologists who, he argues, destroyed classical civilization and inaugurated the Dark Ages.
168 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 31, 1993
3 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
About the author
Joseph McCabe
894 books26 followersJoseph McCabe was born in Cheshire, England, on November 12, 1867 to Catholic parents. His father, William McCabe, was born in Ireland and had inherited the faith. He fled famine and poverty in Ireland and wound up in the Lancaster slums of England. Joseph's mother, Harriet Kirk, was English and converted to Catholicism when she married William. Harriet named her second son Joseph, hoping he would follow his namesake's lead and enter the church.
The McCabe children attended the local Catholic schools where Joseph attained the stature of a model pupil and a zealous believer. (The details of McCabe's early life are in his autobiography and literary classic, Eighty Years a Rebel, published by E. Haldeman-Julius.) At the age of 16 (1883) McCabe entered the preparatory college at the Gorton Franciscan Monastery. He was ordained at age 23 (1890) and became a Catholic priest. Then, in recognition of his outstanding intellectual prowess, he was appointed to a prominent post of "professor of philosophy." However, as his knowledge deepened his doubts grew.
At the age of 23 he renounced the church and thereafter dedicated his life to promoting intellectual emancipation. It was during the Christmas break of 1895, while at the Franciscan Monastery, that he "descended" into the final crisis of faith.
McCabe was a very popular lecturer and gave many thousands of lectures for over five decades throughout the world, including frequent lecture tours in the United States. McCabe himself stated that, "At least one million folk have heard me lecture in America and Britain."
McCabe exchanged many letters with well-known politicians, scientists (most notably, Ernst Haeckel), and writers of his time. This correspondence included such famous men as Bertrand Russell, Arthur Conan Doyle, Francisco Ferrer, a Spanish anarchist, and the famous historian and writer, H.G. Wells, among many others.
It was McCabe's influence that is largely credited with convincing H.G. Wells of the nefarious nature of the Catholic church, to such an extent that Wells went on to write, "The most evil institution in the world is the Roman Catholic Church."
Haldeman-Julius, once wrote that, "If I had done nothing more than bring McCabe's talents to the attention of what has become a world-wide audience--if I had done only this job, I believe I'd have established myself as a force for mass education and enlightenment with immediate and constructive effects on the thinking portion of the population. My association with McCabe has been enough to build a career for anyone."
McCabe was an ardent student and supporter of the theory of evolution. His translation of Ernst Haeckel's work on evolution in 1900 (McCabe retitled it The Riddle of the Universe) put McCabe on the world's literary map. McCabe's translation sold an astonishing number of copies for that or any other period of time--over half a million copies in Germany alone and a quarter of a million copies elsewhere!
In 1949 Haldeman-Julius stated that by his own reckoning McCabe had written 121 "Little Blue Books" and 122 "Big Blue Books," for a total of some 7,600,000 words. For this monumental output the author was paid a total of about $100,000. McCabe, according to his own estimate, claimed that in his 50 years of writing he had penned the astonishing total of 15 million words--a record that may never be equaled in all of literary history!
You owe it to yourselves to acquaint and reacquaint and enrich and enlighten your life by learning more about this most remarkable man, Joseph McCabe.
More: https://ffrf.org/publications/freetho...
http://infidels.org/library/historica...
http://www.philosopedia.org/index.php...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_M...
The McCabe children attended the local Catholic schools where Joseph attained the stature of a model pupil and a zealous believer. (The details of McCabe's early life are in his autobiography and literary classic, Eighty Years a Rebel, published by E. Haldeman-Julius.) At the age of 16 (1883) McCabe entered the preparatory college at the Gorton Franciscan Monastery. He was ordained at age 23 (1890) and became a Catholic priest. Then, in recognition of his outstanding intellectual prowess, he was appointed to a prominent post of "professor of philosophy." However, as his knowledge deepened his doubts grew.
At the age of 23 he renounced the church and thereafter dedicated his life to promoting intellectual emancipation. It was during the Christmas break of 1895, while at the Franciscan Monastery, that he "descended" into the final crisis of faith.
McCabe was a very popular lecturer and gave many thousands of lectures for over five decades throughout the world, including frequent lecture tours in the United States. McCabe himself stated that, "At least one million folk have heard me lecture in America and Britain."
McCabe exchanged many letters with well-known politicians, scientists (most notably, Ernst Haeckel), and writers of his time. This correspondence included such famous men as Bertrand Russell, Arthur Conan Doyle, Francisco Ferrer, a Spanish anarchist, and the famous historian and writer, H.G. Wells, among many others.
It was McCabe's influence that is largely credited with convincing H.G. Wells of the nefarious nature of the Catholic church, to such an extent that Wells went on to write, "The most evil institution in the world is the Roman Catholic Church."
Haldeman-Julius, once wrote that, "If I had done nothing more than bring McCabe's talents to the attention of what has become a world-wide audience--if I had done only this job, I believe I'd have established myself as a force for mass education and enlightenment with immediate and constructive effects on the thinking portion of the population. My association with McCabe has been enough to build a career for anyone."
McCabe was an ardent student and supporter of the theory of evolution. His translation of Ernst Haeckel's work on evolution in 1900 (McCabe retitled it The Riddle of the Universe) put McCabe on the world's literary map. McCabe's translation sold an astonishing number of copies for that or any other period of time--over half a million copies in Germany alone and a quarter of a million copies elsewhere!
In 1949 Haldeman-Julius stated that by his own reckoning McCabe had written 121 "Little Blue Books" and 122 "Big Blue Books," for a total of some 7,600,000 words. For this monumental output the author was paid a total of about $100,000. McCabe, according to his own estimate, claimed that in his 50 years of writing he had penned the astonishing total of 15 million words--a record that may never be equaled in all of literary history!
You owe it to yourselves to acquaint and reacquaint and enrich and enlighten your life by learning more about this most remarkable man, Joseph McCabe.
More: https://ffrf.org/publications/freetho...
http://infidels.org/library/historica...
http://www.philosopedia.org/index.php...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_M...
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 6, 2024
I dislike reading things simply with a view of critiquing them. I find that an almost useless process, so I try to read even things with which I think I'm going to disagree with the view that I will learn SOMETHING along the way. This work was no exception. There are some solid historical bits and humor mixed in with a lot of things that I didn't find persuasive. So this will read more negatively, but so it is.
The easiest critique to get out of the way is the editing. This was originally published in 1925, then republished in 1993 by Prometheus Books. There are errors on EVERY SINGLE PAGE. It is, quite frankly, some of the most atrocious editing I've seen to date (assuming the editing process occurred at all?!)
On to content: essays are divided into three sections-1) The Myth of the Resurrection, 2) Did Jesus Ever Live?, and 3) How Christianity "Triumphed."
His main point from section one is that the resurrection of Jesus is no different from previous stories of Greek gods that were resurrected from the dead, spending a lot of time on Adonis. But Adonis was associated with the changing of seasons, the rebirth in spring, if I understand correctly, not a physically resurrected form of a human body. So this section contained a lot of interesting historical Greek tales, but the main premise fell flat.
In the second section, he argues that Jesus was a historical person, whose biography "grew" as time went on. In some sense, yes, it did. I grant that. I don't think that makes the witness of the gospels untrue. And though they don't contain NT writings, per se, I also could not help but wonder how he would have responded to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls?
Finally, he argues that Christianity triumphed through no natural means of appeal, but through violence. Much of this is very true after Constantine. However Christianity "triumphed" though, isn't really relevant in relationship to it's truth.
In all, there are no new criticisms of Christianity here. Similarly, there is nothing new in the Greek tales to warrant reading. There is some humor, but the combination with poor editing makes this overall of little value.
The easiest critique to get out of the way is the editing. This was originally published in 1925, then republished in 1993 by Prometheus Books. There are errors on EVERY SINGLE PAGE. It is, quite frankly, some of the most atrocious editing I've seen to date (assuming the editing process occurred at all?!)
On to content: essays are divided into three sections-1) The Myth of the Resurrection, 2) Did Jesus Ever Live?, and 3) How Christianity "Triumphed."
His main point from section one is that the resurrection of Jesus is no different from previous stories of Greek gods that were resurrected from the dead, spending a lot of time on Adonis. But Adonis was associated with the changing of seasons, the rebirth in spring, if I understand correctly, not a physically resurrected form of a human body. So this section contained a lot of interesting historical Greek tales, but the main premise fell flat.
In the second section, he argues that Jesus was a historical person, whose biography "grew" as time went on. In some sense, yes, it did. I grant that. I don't think that makes the witness of the gospels untrue. And though they don't contain NT writings, per se, I also could not help but wonder how he would have responded to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls?
Finally, he argues that Christianity triumphed through no natural means of appeal, but through violence. Much of this is very true after Constantine. However Christianity "triumphed" though, isn't really relevant in relationship to it's truth.
In all, there are no new criticisms of Christianity here. Similarly, there is nothing new in the Greek tales to warrant reading. There is some humor, but the combination with poor editing makes this overall of little value.
November 30, 2023
The majority of this book is focused on the existence of Jesus. The first essay is about the ancient religious myths that came first and there connection to the Jesus story. Essay two was the one more focused on Jesus's existence and explaining the pros and cons and his own theory using the historical evidence available. I say this because these essays were written in the 1920's and though outdated in some areas the author makes a very compelling case. After reading these two essays you get to the third and discover it's about how Christianity became so popular and survived so long. Even though it is important it just seemed out of place with the topics of the other two essays. I think that is why it didn't grab my attention like the other two or maybe it is because I'm drawn to books on rather Jesus was real or not.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews