Enlightening
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I think this book is indeed essential reading for the initiate. Written in a way that all may understand, it sweeps away any thought that somehow gnosticism is "elitist" I am indeed glad that I own this book as it clarifys most of the myths and early Christian writings I have been reading about in other books. Please do not let this one pass you by. Take the red pill and see how deep the rabbit-hole goes.
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An intellectual's paradise
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I have given this book three stars for the quality of the writing and the meticulous and careful research that the authors have obviously carried out. I bought this book, because I am a doubter by nature, and I wanted to read a mythological theory related book to give me a more balanced overview. The problem I have with Gnosticism is - Where is the accountability? Apparently Jesus really signifies the perfect person we should all strive to become, and by achieving 'gnosis' and by looking inward we will eventually become like god and an all round good egg. This is all very well for a small minority of us - but what about at least 90% of the rest of the population who are not intellectuals? What are we supposed to do? We are sinful by nature, and if you don't do it, then you will think it, it's the way we are made, so if what this theory is saying is true, then it is practically impossible for anybody to achieve 'gnosis'. Yes there are remarkable coincidences and synergies between the goddess legends and the new testament story and characters, but you can find synergies with any story if you look hard enough. They talk about the bridegroom being Christ and the bride being the goddess, and that this is proof that the theory is taken from these legends. Well could it not have been a saying taken from the Old Testament? It often refers to the bridegroom and the bride symbolically, but it means something totally different. How do the authors know where all of the theories come from, and does it really matter anyway? Surely the evidence we have of the grisly ends that were met by the disciples who actually knew Jesus at the time means more? Because it is all very well dying for a belief - but dying for something that you know to be a lie, is something different altogether. If everything that Jesus ever said in the bible was also made up, then those authors at the time must have had divine inspiration anyway, because Jesus's words are easily some of the most profound words that have ever been uttered in history! Freke and Gandy cannot explain that at all. A well written and interesting book however.
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The Original Christians
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This book certainly had a profound impact on me. I lost my 'faith' a few years back and drifted away from the Christian Church but still wanted to believe in something. I have to thank Dan Brown for pointing me in the direction of this book (and others). If I have to say anything good about The Da Vinci Code it was the fact that it challenged my current thinking about Christianity. In the last couple of years I've become interested in Reiki, meditation, spiritualism and all things esoteric. I've always been drawn to these areas but now feel I've come home. It's what I believe and accept to be the truth and this book helped me realise it. It now makes perfect sense to me that Jesus could not possibly be a real living breathing person and I do feel a certain amount of frustration and anger that the Christian Church supressed a lot of the original Christian teachings. This book is not an easy read and it took me a couple of attempts to get my head around a lot of it. But it is definitely worth it. Yes, it won't be everyone's cup of tea but then I bought this book because I am seriously interested in Gnosticism and the authors' ideas didn't horrify or upset me. Certainly if you find the idea that your life is all an illusion to be abhorrent or utter codswallop then don't buy it. If you are seeking some answers and have lost faith in organised religion then I would say give it a try.
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Yet another book that will 'change your life forever'
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Better presented than many books of this kind, yet still suffering from the perennial condition of all these books that discover ancient and objective lost truths about 'Everything That Really Matters', in that it doesn't offer a critique of its own postulations, just trawls through countless texts to find 'evidence' of its own veracity.
This book will change your life forever if you want it to - I won't deny that.
having said this, ask a cross section of people from different walks of life what profoundly changed their lives forever and you'll get answers ranging from songs, to a particular painting, to novels, to an event, to a charismatic person or whatever. So in other words, just because something genuinely changes one person's life doesn't mean that that something contains an objkective truth that will resonate with everyone who has the 'eyes to see it'.
The trick seems to be that as long as something is reasonably well presented and somehow resonates with our own existing core beliefs (or doubts) it will change our lives.
For me this book was a bit ho-hum. But hey, there are thousands of other books out there written by authors who have 'discovered something no-one else has', or else broken open a conspiracy that no-one knew existed until the author mentioned it.
I'm sure one of them will ring my bell... maybe even change my life... but this book ain't it.
NB,
I only gave this book 2 stars because it was professionally formatted.
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Nothing original
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Sorry, but little needs to be said. Just like all the authors you can see below in the "people who bought books by X also bought books by Y" (eg, Elaine Pagels, Margaret Starbird, Michael Baigent, etc) this is just another pseudo-scholarly attempt to make the idea that Jesus has been misrepresented to us look credible. The reviewer below might wish to consider his comments that all the theologians and writers through the ages have had access to the same material as these authors. Did every single one of them "choose to repress or ignore it"? Or could it just be possible that it is Freke and Gandy who are actually misrepresenting the facts? Nothing very original, nothing very inspired, nothing very much to talk about.
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