Minas Papageorgiou - Jesus Mythicism: An Introduction

One of the most fundamental axioms of Christianity is the faith in the historical existence of Jesus, in his miracles, his martyrdom on the cross and his resurrection as described in the New Testament. But is there any historical evidence for all the above? Is this a true story or another myth? These exact questions are raised by Mythicism, a movement that since the Enlightenment advocates that many old gods, including Jesus, are not real persons. Also, mythicists detect archetypal similarities between a large number of pre-Christian deities and texts that lead to fascinating conclusions.
The early mythicists started to investigate the problem of the historicity of Jesus back in the late eighteenth century. Since then additional evidence has been reported by several academics, historians, theologians, and independent researchers that shed more light on the mystery of Jesus life. This book brings for the first time together the views of various mythicists and other experts creating a very interesting mosaic of views. Minas Papageorgiou has selectively gathered here nineteen interviews by prominent academics and researchers who were all asked to comment upon the question: Did Jesus really exist?
The interviewees are: Dr Robert Price (theologian), Dr Richard Carrier (historian), Dr Maria Dzielska (historian), Dr Gerd Ludemann (theologian), Dr Gunnar Samuelsson (theologian), Dr Lena Einhorn (biologist and history researcher), Dr Payam Nabarz (writer and recreationist of the Mithraic Temple), Raphael Lataster (academic and researcher), Earl Doherty (historian), D. M. Murdock/ Acharya S (writer and scholar of comparative religion and mythology), Kenneth Humphreys (writer and researcher), Joseph Atwill (writer and researcher), Neil Godfrey (coordinator of the mythicist blog Vridar), Fritz Heede (filmmaker), Francesco Carotta (linguist and researcher), Daniel Unterbrink (writer and researcher), Ioannis Mpousios (writer and organiser of the Gardens of Adonis celebrations), Christos Morfos (writer and researcher), and Harita Meenee (philologist and writer).
Customer ReviewRegardless of ones personal position on the historicity or non-historicity of Jesus, Greek journalist Minas Papageorgiou provides us with a welcome collection of snapshots of the basic views of most current Jesus mythicists (or near-mythicist fence-sitters). Like many of their secular Historical Jesus counterparts, Jesus Mythicists have a variety of views as to what factors, motives, texts and their interpretation most influenced the birth of Christianity. Journalist Papageorgiou does not take sides or express any favoritism, but lets each theologian, historian, or researcher/writer present a synopsis of his or her own views regarding their skepticism of any singular historical figure at the core of the Christian faith. We are also treated to some current Greek perspectives and practices involving Grecian ancient gods and traditions which I found interesting.In addition, I enjoyed getting a sense of some of modern Greeces societal pressures and perspectives regarding Christianity and current conditions in Greece which are not overdone by the writer and speak to many of us across the Atlantic to some extent or another as well.Since this is a translation and took time to complete, a few interviews may seem a little dated but still enjoyable and informative. For instance, I noted that Raphael Latastermade the same mistake in his interview with journalist Papageorgiou that he made in his own book. Lataster mistakenly refers to Dr. Bart Ehrman as an atheist even though Ehrman always proclaims himself as agnostic. I presume the interview was done around a year or so ago. Also, Dr. Richard Carriers On the Historicity of Jesus had not been released yet but Carrier does give an overview of OHJ and his Bayesian probability results regarding Jesus being non-historical (using a stripped down version of what Carrier called the Earl Doherty Thesis. Doherty also has quite an extensive interview, by the way.Similarly, recent books by two other heavyweights in the field (Dr. Robert Price and D.M. Murdock) are not listed nor mentioned in their interviews, as I recall. But these are just minor observations of one who is keenly interested in this area so is just a heads up for folks more current in the mythicism-historicity dialogues and debates.As I learned quite a bit about positions of some authors I have not read on the subject, this should be an enjoyable book for anyone wanting to get a sense of the variety of Jesus myth theories.