The Lost Gospel: The Book of Q & Christian Origins

A reconstructed collection of sayings attributed to Jesus reveals Jesus as a Jewish sage who was later mythologized into the "Christ" revered by the world's Christian communities. By the author of A Myth of Innocence. Major ad/promo.

Mack, Burton L.

Religion & Spirituality

Harpercollins

The first book to give the full account of the lost gospel of Jesus' original followers, revealing him to be a Jewish Socrates who was mythologized into the New Testament Christ.

The Lost Gospel: The Book of Q and Christian Origins

History

World

HarperOne

A reconstructed collection of sayings attributed to Jesus reveals Jesus as a Jewish sage who was later mythologized into the ""Christ"" revered by the world's Christian communities. By the author of A Myth of Innocence. Major ad/promo.

Christian Books & Bibles

Harper-San Francisco

Burton L. Mack scrupulously examines the Christian Testament and fleshes out both the social and the cultural context from which it emerged. In contrast to the widely held view of the gospels as complementary accounts of a single set of events, Mack offers a history of divergent Christian communities and their anonymous writers who wrote widely different chronicles for distinct purposes and audiences over a period of more than one hundred years. He delineates how Christians in later centuries assigned the names of apostles and disciples to the anonymous stories about Jesus and his teachings, adjusted the chronology, and erased cultural differences in an effort to present a coherent history of the faith and invest the new church with authenticity. Much as The Iliad and The Odyssey mythologize events and figures in the remote Greek past, the New Testament writings, Mack shows, transform the historical Jesus, a counter-cultural philosopher with no grand messianic pretensions, into the Christ, the dying and rising son of God. Ultimately, then, the New Testament consists of a powerful religious mythology comparable to those of other great religions.

Who Wrote the New Testament?: The Making of the Christian Myth

The Making of the Christian Myth
Commencing in mid February 2004, SBS TV (Australia) will run a two–part documentary based on this title.
In this groundbreaking and controversial book, Burton Mack brilliantly exposes how the Gospels are fictional mythologies created by different communities for various purposes and are only distantly related to the actual historical Jesus.
Mack‘s innovative scholarship which boldly challenges traditional Christian understanding‘ will change the way you approach the New Testament and think about how Christianity arose.
The clarity of Mack‘s prose and the intelligent pursuit of his subject make compelling reading. Mack‘s investigation of the various groups and strands of the early Christian community out of which were generated the texts of Christianity‘s first anthology of religious literature and makes sense of a topic that has been confusing.

Ancient Civilizations

A preeminent scholar explores the evolution of the Christian worldview and argues that it no longer offers a satisfactory vision for our democratic, multicultural society This book is the culmination of a lifelong scholarly inquiry into Christian history, religion as a social institution, and the role of myth in the history of religions. Mack shows that religions are essentially mythological and that Christianity in particular has been an ever-changing mythological engine of social formation, from Roman times to its distinct American expression in our time. The author traces the cultural influence of the Christian myth that has persisted for sixteen hundred years but now should be much less consequential in our social and cultural life, since it runs counter to our democratic ideals. We stand at a critical impasse: badly splintered by conflicting groups pursuing their own social interests, a binding common myth needs to be established by renewing a truly cohesive national and international story rooted in our democratic and egalitarian origins, committed to freedom, equality, and vital human values.

The Rise and Fall of the Christian Myth: Restoring Our Democratic Ideals

Americas

Yale University Press

Rhetoric and the New Testament (GUIDES TO BIBLICAL SCHOLARSHIP NEW TESTAMENT SERIES)

Fortress Press

This book traces Burton Mack's intellectual evolution, from a creative analyst of ancient texts, to a scholar searching for the motives and interests of Jesus's followers who composed those texts, and for the social logic of "the Christian myths" they created. Mack rejects depictions of Jesus that have emerged from the quest for the "historical Jesus"—peasant teacher, revolutionary leader, mystical visionary or miracle-working prophet—on the grounds that they are based on a priori assumptions about Jesus, and are therefore contradictory. In addition, he argues, these portrayals are untrue to the many images of Jesus produced by the early Christians. Using systematic analysis, Mack seeks to describe and understand the cultural and anthropological influences on the conception and adoption of Christian myths and rituals.

The Christian Myth: Origins, Logic, and Legacy

Continuum Intl Pub Group

Paperback. Wrappers and edges of leaves are stained, foxed and worn.

Patterns of Persuasion in the Gospels

Robbins, Vernon K.

Polebridge Pr Westar Inst

The Myth of Christian Supremacy is the culmination of a lifelong scholarly inquiry into Christian history, religion as a social institution, and the role of myth in the history of religions. Mack shows that religions are essentially mythological, and that Christianity has been an ever-changing mythological engine of social formation, from Roman times to its distinct American expression in our time. 
Burton Mack explores cultural influence of the Christian myth over the last sixteen hundred years and asks whether religion has anything left to say about the social and cultural issues of the present state of the world. 
We stand at a critical impasse, badly splintered by conflicting groups pursuing their own social interests. A binding common myth needs to be established by renewing a truly cohesive national and international story rooted in our democratic and egalitarian origins, committed to freedom, equality, and vital human values.

The Myth of Christian Supremacy: Restoring Our Democratic Ideals

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Mack, Burton L.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Mack, Burton L.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Mack, Burton L.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Lost Gospel: The Book of Q & Christian Origins

The Lost Gospel: The Book of Q and Christian Origins

The Lost Gospel: The Book of Q & Christian Origins

Who Wrote the New Testament?: The Making of the Christian Myth

Who Wrote the New Testament?: The Making of the Christian Myth

The Rise and Fall of the Christian Myth: Restoring Our Democratic Ideals

Rhetoric and the New Testament (GUIDES TO BIBLICAL SCHOLARSHIP NEW TESTAMENT SERIES)

The Christian Myth: Origins, Logic, and Legacy

Patterns of Persuasion in the Gospels

The Myth of Christian Supremacy: Restoring Our Democratic Ideals