Alternative Christs

by Olav Hammer (Editor)

Few, if any, individuals have had such a profound influence on Western culture as Jesus, even though not a single detail of his life or teaching can be confirmed with certainty. This lack of reliable biographical data has left his life open to broad interpretation. Jesus, gnostic and apocryphal sources insist, never truly died on the cross since he was a divine being, whose human frame was an illusion. Muslim sources affirm that Jesus was a prophet of God and will return at the end of time. Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels formulated racial theories in which Jesus was a redeemer for Aryans only, while the Renaissance polymath Guillaume Postel was convinced that Christ had returned as a Venetian woman. This book explores these and other views without taking sides in any theological arguments and presents research on a variety of alternative Christologies.

316 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2009

Reviews

[Shea · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a very interesting look at Jesus legends from various points in time. It’s a very broad survey that covers everything from Jesus in Islam and apocryphal texts to Jesus in theosophy or as a figure in a UFO religion.

The material was well presented, and the book was quite readable for an academic work. My only real complaint is the text is tiny