{"product_id":"the-pagan-christ-recovering-the-lost-light-9780802714497","title":"The Pagan Christ: Recovering the Lost Light","description":"\u003cp\u003eA provocative argument for a mystical  rather than historical  understanding of Jesus  leading to a radical rebirth of Christianity in our time. For forty years  scholar and religious commentator Tom Harpur has challenged church orthodoxy and guided thousands of readers on subjects as controversial as the true nature of Christ and life after death. Now  in his most radical and groundbreaking work  Harpur digs deep into the origins of Christianity. Long before the advent of Jesus Christ  the Egyptians and other peoples believed in the coming of a messiah  a virgin birth  a madonna and her child  and the incarnation of the spirit in flesh. While the early Christian church accepted these ancient truths as the very basis of Christianity  it disavowed their origins. What had begun as a universal belief system built on myth and allegory was transformed  by the third and fourth centuries A.D.  into a ritualistic institution based on a literal interpretation of myths and symbols. But  as Tom Harpur argues in The Pagan Christ  \"to take the Gospels literally as history or biography is to utterly miss their inner spiritual meaning.\" At a time of religious extremism  Tom Harpur reveals the virtue of a cosmic faith based on ancient truths that the modern church has renounced. His message is clear: Our blind faith in literalism is killing Christianity. Only with a return to an inclusive religion where Christ lives within each of us will we gain a true understanding of who we are and who we are intended to become. The Pagan Christ is a book of rare insight and power that will reilluminate the Bible and change the way we think about religion.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45118273224757,"sku":"ByrdShop_0802714498","price":27.56,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780802714497.jpg?v=1780613537","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-pagan-christ-recovering-the-lost-light-9780802714497","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}