Tom Harpur - For Christs Sake

Copyright Tom Harpur, 1986
Preface copyright Tom Harpur, 1993

All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the publisher or, in case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency is an infringement of the copyright law.

First published by Oxford University Press, 1986
This edition published by McClelland & Stewart, 1993

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Harpur, Tom
For Christs sake
eISBN: 978-1-55199-473-4

1. Jesus Christ Historicity. 2. Jesus Christ Biography.
3. Jesus Christ Teachings.
I. Title

BT303.2.H37 1993 232.908 C93-094189-6

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program and that of the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Media Development Corporations Ontario Book Initiative. We further acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program.

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v3.1

For the Countess
Love is her greatest gift by far
And all her ways are peace.

I am very pleased to have the opportunity of writing this introduction to the new, McClelland & Stewart edition of For Christs Sake. This edition, with its cleaner, larger print and its much more relevant cover, is a form of literary resurrection. It combines two essentials that Christianity has always held to be true of each individuals personal resurrection one daytransformation simultaneous with recognizeable continuity! In addition, it brings me a special pleasure because it affords me the privilege, not often experienced by a writer, of being able to set my original work in a fresh and much wider context.

Before going further, however, I would like to caution the reader. This book is not for those who are at ease in Zion. In other words, it is not intended for those who are completely comfortable with the traditional version of the Christian faith and who have no intention of putting themselves through the pain of what the experts call cognitive dissonance, that is, the angst of entertaining new ideas. Those who feel no doubts, suffer no anxieties and hold no fears about the nature and the communication of the orthodox positions of the Church in the dying years of this millennium should read no further. I have no wish to upset anyone who would rather not be disturbed intellectually.

Since the spring of 1986, when For Christs Sake first appeared, causing a burst of controversy, much has happenedto the world itself, to the religious scene (particularly the study of who Jesus is and the nature of his mission) and, finally, to the book. I would like to comment briefly on each of these three dimensions, in reverse order:

The Book:For Christs Sake touched off a keen and at times acrimonious debate across Canada within days of its publication in mid-February 1986. It went into a third printing less than six weeks later and has now sold more than 30,000 copies to make it one of the best-selling books on religion by a Canadian. (Pierre Bertons The Comfortable Pew, which was commissioned by the Anglican Church of Canada and published by McClelland & Stewart in 1965, holds the record at 139,000). In 1987, Huntington College of Laurentian University created a seven-part series of thirty-minute television programs, also called For Christs Sake, which featured conversations with me about the books major themes. The programs were made for use in the colleges extension work throughout the North, and subsequently videos were made available for church study groups. When Vision/TV, the worlds first interfaith television network went on the air in 1988, they obtained a license for the series and have broadcast it from coast to coast to more than five million cable subscribers several times. The license was renewed in 1992 by Vision, and so it will be aired again from time to time over the coming months and years.

During the tumultuous weeks following its first appearance, the book was praised by many as a liberating breath of fresh air and criticized by others as an arrogant and flagrant example of heresy. A vigorous group of fundamentalists on the West Coast, mainly in and around Surrey, B.C., waged a strident, long-distance telephone campaign to have me dismissed both from The Toronto Star, where I have been a freelance columnist on religion and ethics since 1984, and from The Toronto School of Theology, where I was for five years a part-time lecturer on the theology and praxis of mass media. Other ministers, for example, a Salvation Army leader in Owen Sound, Ontario, took out advertisements in their local newspapers announcing sermons and lectures denouncing the book and my main thesis that Jesus was not a Christian. Most of the ultra-conservative Christian bookstores refused to carry itor any of my subsequent books.

There was a barrage of letters to the editors of many newspapers, and many were printed, even ones that took up an entire page in the weekend religion sections. Religious publications and most major newspapers carried reviews and sometimes a news story as well. The Canadian Jewish News, which later attacked me for my views on kosher killing (see God Help Us, M&S, 1992) ran two favorable reviews by distinguished rabbis. Interviews on Morningside and many other key radio and television talk shows, together with the other publicity, spawned a flood of personal mail. It still comes in and has remained overwhelmingly positive over the years. But there has been considerable vitriol as well. Hell hath no fury like religious people who have been forced to rethink their deepest beliefsor prejudices.

As hinted already, though, the most characteristic reaction from Church people and outsiders alike has been: Thanks for speaking out; its what Ive vaguely felt for years but could never express properly. Many, from all walks of life and from a kaleidoscope of denominational backgroundsas well as nonehave said they never would have lapsed from their churches if such a view of Jesus life and teaching had been available to them years ago. The response from young people, especially those at university, has been most gratifying of all. Except, that is, for the theologian at one of our largest Roman Catholic colleges who phoned after hearing an interview about For Christs Sake on CBCs religious radio show, Open House, to say that he was telling all his studentssome of them future seminarians to read it. He said: You have written what most of us would like to be able to say aloud but cannot for fear of being forbidden to teach at all.

Some theologians who agreed with my chief conclusions felt the book should have been much longer. And I agree, it could have been a much larger tome. The subject is huge and the issues raised are of extreme importance. But, over the years I have seen numerous thick, scholarly works on Jesus appear only to languish largely unread in theological libraries. I wanted the book to be read by as many people as possible and so I deliberately kept it short. If anyone thinks this made the task easier I should point out that its infinitely harder to say what you mean and have it understood in a short space than a long. As the man who was suddenly asked to give a speech said: When do you want it and how long should it be? If you want me to talk for ten minutes, I wont be ready until tomorrow. If you want me to talk for an hour, Im ready right now.