The Pagan Christ is a thought-provoking book written by Tom Harpur in 2004. In this book, Harpur challenges the traditional understanding and interpretation of Christianity by making connections between ancient pagan myths and the story of Jesus Christ. Harpur argues that Christianity is not a unique or original religion, but rather draws heavily from various mythologies and traditions that predate it. He suggests that many aspects of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus can be traced back to earlier pagan myths, such as those of Osiris, Dionysus, and Mithras. According to Harpur, these parallels point to a hidden truth that has been concealed and distorted by religious authorities throughout history. He contends that the true origins of Christianity lie in these older myths and that the story of Jesus is a symbolic representation of universal spiritual themes rather than a historical account.

The Pagan Christ

The existence of Jesus Christ is debated regarding author Tom Harpur's analysis of the New Testament.

• Streaming
• Airings

Loading. Please wait.

My cable/satellite provider:

There are no TV airings over the next 14 days. Add it to your Watchlist to receive updates and availability notifications.

He contends that the true origins of Christianity lie in these older myths and that the story of Jesus is a symbolic representation of universal spiritual themes rather than a historical account. Harpur further argues that by embracing the pagan roots of Christianity, believers can gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of the religious and spiritual dimensions of human existence. He proposes that by shedding its dogmas and doctrines, Christianity can evolve into a more inclusive and meaningful faith that transcends traditional boundaries.

Latest News See All

Popular Movies See all movies

I Am Chris Farley

A look at the life of actor and comedian Chris Farley, whose meteoric rise to fame was cut short by his death at the age of 33 from a drug overdose. The film showcases his most memorable characters and skits from film and television and also includes interviews and insights from his co-stars, family and friends - including the likes of Christina Applegate, Dan Aykroyd, Mike Myers, Bob Odenkirk, Bob Saget and Adam Sandler.

One Life

Key moments in the life cycles of various creatures are captured in this nature documentary, which focuses on animals that have never been seen before on screen or that are being filmed in a new way.

The Beekeeper

Faces of Death

A collection of death scenes, ranging from TV-material to home-made super-8 movies. The common factor is death by some means.

Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros

A chronicle of the day-to-day activities of a Michelin three-star restaurant and the family that owns and operates it. A chronicle of the day-to-day activities of a Michelin three-star restaurant and the family that owns and operates it.

This Is Paris

Meet the real Paris Hilton for the very first time as she embarks on a journey of healing and reflection, reclaiming her true identity along the way.

The Pagan Christ: Recovering the Lost Light

Author, columnist, and ex-Anglican priest Tom Harpur has long positioned himself as the champion of a personal and deeply psychological brand of spirituality that stands in direct opposition to the narrow, literalist teachings of mainstream Christian churches. His latest book introduces readers to the works of a number of scholars who have, according to Harpur, proven beyond a doubt that the historical figure and life events of Jesus Christ are actually an amalgam of ancient sacred myths, mostly Egyptian in origin. Harpur argues that the stories contained in the Gospels, like the Egyptian source texts and rituals upon which they are based, were not meant to be understood literally, but rather as allegorical truths about the divine spark of God manifested in human form. The Church’s insistence on Jesus as a historical figure has robbed traditional Christianity of the true message of the Gospels.

If Harpur had written The Pagan Christ as an introduction to these ideas, the book might have made for an interesting, if somewhat derivative, read. Instead, he attacks the reader with the hectoring emotional enthusiasm of the new convert, repeating his rhetorical points ad nauseam. Similarities between stories and rituals contained in the Bible and those from older religions or traditions, he insists, “establish beyond doubt” and with “utmost certainty” that understanding Jesus as a historical man is a “colossal blunder.”

Harpur is on steadier ground when he documents the historical persecution of heretics and competing schools of philosophy in the first five centuries of the Church. However, his insistence that the Church has been united in its suppression of any allegorical or symbolic readings of the Bible in favour of historical literalism is ridiculous. The Philokalia , a collection of often highly allegorical theological writings spanning almost two millennia, is still revered in all of the Eastern Orthodox churches and quoted by many Catholic and Protestant commentators. Harpur also ignores the more nuanced and symbolic readings of sacred texts by countless Christian saints and theologians.

The Pagan Christ eventually degenerates into a new form of fundamentalist scriptural interpretation more to Harpur’s taste, going so far as to say that “the entire course of Western history over the past eighteen hundred years would have been far different if a more spiritual understanding of the Christ and Christianity had prevailed at the outset.”
There is some truth in Harpur’s assertion, but he doesn’t explain why, in the centuries before the message of the older religions got co-opted by Christianity, the world was still beset by warfare, social inequity, slavery, and the kind of brute religious literalism that made most Egyptians believe in the divine kingship of the Pharoah.

Reviewer: James Grainger

The Jesus Mysteries: Was the 'Original Jesus' a Pagan God?

The traditional history of Christianity is hopelessly inadequate to the facts. From our research into ancient spirituality it has become obvious that we must fundamentally revise our understanding of Christian origins in the most shocking of ways. Our conclusion, supported by a considerable body of evidence in our book, The Jesus Mysteries, is that Christianity was not a new revelation. It was a continuation of Paganism by another name. The gospel story of Jesus is not the biography of an historical Messiah. It is a Jewish reworking of ancient Pagan myths of the dying and resurrecting Godman Osiris-Dionysus, which had been popular for centuries throughout the ancient Mediterranean.

The stories told about Osiris-Dionysus will no doubt sound familiar. He is the Son of God who is born to a virgin on the 25th of December before three shepherds. He is a prophet who offers his followers the chance to be born again through the rites of baptism. He is a wonderworker who raises the dead and miraculously turns water into wine at a marriage ceremony. He is God incarnate who dies at Easter, sometimes through crucifixion, but who resurrects on the third day. He is a savior who offers his followers redemption through partaking in a meal of bread and wine, symbolic of his body and blood. The Jesus story is a synthesis of the Jewish myth of the Messiah Joshua (in Greek Jesus) with these Pagan myths of the dying and resurrecting Godman.

It is hard for us today to imagine the Jesus story being consciously created, but this is because we have misunderstood ancient spirituality. Myths were not seen as untruths as they are now. They were understood as allegories of spiritual initiation, which encoded profound mystical teachings. Reworking old myths to create new ones was a standard practice in the ancient world.

The conquests of Alexander the Great had turned the Mediterranean world into one culture with a common language. This created an age of eclecticism, much like our own, in which different spiritual traditions met and synthesized. Jewish mystics of this period, such as Philo Judeas, were obsessed with synthesizing Jewish and Pagan mythology. In light of all this, it is actually no surprise that some group of Jewish mystics should synthesize the great mythic hero of the Jews, Joshua the Messiah, with the great mythic hero of the Pagans, Osiris-Dionysus.

At the time, both Pagans and Christians were well aware that the Jesus story was a myth. The early Christians, known as Gnostics, understood the Jesus story as allegory, not history, and even called Jesus by the names of the Pagan Godman. The Gnostics were brutally eradicated by the Roman Church in the 4th and 5th cence then we have believedturies, and sin the official propaganda that these Christians were dangerous heretics who had gone Pagan.

Actually the evidence suggests the opposite is closer to the truth. The Gnostics were the original Christians, just as they themselves claimed. They had synthesized Jewish and Pagan mythology to produce the Jesus story and many other extraordinary Christian myths largely unknown today. The Roman Church was a later deviation, which misunderstood the Jesus story as history. It was, as the Gnostics said at the time, an imitation Church teaching a superficial Christianity designed for the masses.

Roman Christianity, and all its subsequent offshoots, is based on the idea that if you believe in the existence of an historical Jesus you will go to heaven when you die. For the Gnostics, however, Jesus is an everyman figure in an initiation allegory. They taught that if you yourself go through the process of initiation symbolized by the Jesus myth, you would die to your old self and resurrect in a new way. The Greek word we translate as resurrect also means awaken.

For the Gnostics, Christianity was about dying -- the idea of giving up your mortal body and awakening to your immortal essence as the Christ within -- the One Consciousness of the Universe. This mystical enlightenment was not something that happened after death, but could happen here and now.

The historical figure of Jesus has been so central to Western culture that it is hard to question his existence. As soon as we hear his name we can see him in our mind's eye, in his flowing white robes, with long hair and a beard. Yet this picture of Jesus was not created until the 8th century. Early portrayals of Jesus show him clean-shaven with short hair and wearing a Roman tunic. St Paul says that long hair disgraces a man, so presumably his image of Jesus was not the same as ours.

The fact is that everything we think we know about Jesus, like this romantic picture of the bearded savior, is a creation of the human imagination. Actually there is barely a shred of evidence for the existence of an historical Jesus and this dissolves on closer inspection. Paul, the earliest Christian source, shows no knowledge of an historical man, only a mystical Christ. The gospels have been thoroughly discredited as eyewitness reports. Other bits of traditional evidence, such as references to Jesus by the Jewish historian Josephus, have been shown to be later forgeries. If solid evidence had existed, there would have been no need to have created such fabrications.

A little over a century ago most people believed the story of Adam and Eve to be history. To most thinking people today its is obviously a myth. We predict that within a generation a similar revolution will have taken place in our understanding of the gospels. People will look back at the beginning of the 21st century and be amazed that a culture with the technology to travel to the moon could see the fabulous story of Jesus as anything other than a myth. However, we do not want to dismiss the Jesus story as nonsense. For us it is truly the greatest story ever told, because it has been thousands of years in the making. It is a perennial tale that has fascinated the human soul since the dawn of time.

Whilst our ideas clearly rewrite history, we do not see ourselves as undermining Christianity. On the contrary we are suggesting that Christianity is in fact richer than we previously imagined. According to the original Gnostic Christians, the Jesus story is a perennial myth with the power to impart the mystical experience of Gnosis, which can transform each one of us into a Christ, not merely a history of events that happened to someoneelse two thousand years ago.

The book sparked controversy and received both praise and criticism from scholars, theologians, and religious leaders. Supporters of Harpur's thesis appreciate its attempt to bridge the gap between different religious traditions and foster interfaith dialogue. Critics argue that Harpur's claims are unfounded and undermine the historical and theological integrity of Christianity. Despite the controversy, The Pagan Christ has contributed to ongoing discussions about the intersection of religion, mythology, and spirituality. It has prompted Christians and non-Christians alike to reconsider their understanding of the origins and nature of their faith. By challenging long-held beliefs, Harpur invites readers to explore new perspectives and engage in a deeper exploration of the human search for meaning and truth..

Reviews for "Pagan Symbols in Christian Worship: Analyzing the Pagan Christ Argument"

- John - 2/5 stars

I found "The Pagan Christ" to be quite a disappointment. While the idea of exploring the historical context of Jesus is intriguing, the execution fell flat. The author seemed more focused on pushing his own agenda rather than presenting well-founded arguments. Additionally, the writing style was dense and convoluted, making it difficult to follow the author's train of thought. I can understand why some may find this book thought-provoking, but it simply did not resonate with me.

- Sarah - 1/5 stars

"The Pagan Christ" was a complete waste of time in my opinion. The author's constant references to obscure sources and convoluted theories only served to confuse and frustrate me. I had hoped to gain a deeper understanding of the historical background of Jesus, but instead, I was left with more questions than answers. Furthermore, the book lacked a coherent structure, bouncing from one topic to another without clear transitions. I would not recommend this book to anyone seeking a comprehensive analysis of Jesus' origins.

- Michael - 2/5 stars

I had high hopes for "The Pagan Christ," but unfortunately, it fell short of my expectations. While the author did present some interesting theories, I found his arguments to be unconvincing and lacking substantial evidence. The book seemed more like a collection of speculations rather than a well-researched exploration of Jesus' historical context. Additionally, I felt that the author often resorted to sensationalism to grab the reader's attention, which undermined the credibility of his overall argument. Overall, I was left feeling disappointed and unconvinced by this book.

The Pagan Christ and the Birth of Christianity: Examining the Role of Pagan Influence