Customer Reviews

The Gnostic Mystery

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The Gnostic Mystery is an intriguing tale that challenges the long-held beliefs of millions on all sides of the Middle East conflict.

I thought it unfortunate that the strong first paragraph is followed by some confusion as to whether this was to be a new meeting or reunion between protagonist Jack Stanton, and Professor Chloe Eisenberg. I did not feel that the flashback literary device worked well as an opening for this novel. Nevertheless, the technique caused no discomfort as the story progressed.

Although presented as fiction, The Gnostic Mystery reads as well documented fact complete with an extensive bibliography. Some readers will be shocked and confused by the concepts presented. The profoundly devout, may slam the book down mid-sentence or throw it at a wall. While others will devour every word with enthusiasm and appreciate it for the fine example of the Socratic Method that it is.

I recommend The Gnostic Mystery to those last without reservation, and I look forward to Devila's next.

This book was truly enlightening. I enjoyed it from the very beginning.

Having not been raised in any specific religion I'm a little lost when it comes to some of the stories and characters in The Bible. I do know the basics and the older I get, and the more I read, I'm beginning to piece together a fuller understanding of The Bible.

I had never heard of the Gnostics before reading this book. So I was coming to this one with a complete open mind. I think that is part of why I enjoyed this so much. The revelations made about Gnostic beliefs and current Christian beliefs seemed plausible to me. But, again I have a limited knowledge of The Bible, and an even more limited relationship with it.

This was not an action filled book. The things that the characters did was kind of a sub story, at least in my opinion. The main story was really a historical account of the Gnostics. There is a plot and there are things that happen that move the story along, but these events are not integral to the story.

I think this was very well written and I didn't get the feeling that it was trying to discredit modern Christian beliefs. I think the book takes the stance of: Here's some things that happened in The Bible and here's what people believe about them. One more than one occasion it is mentioned that just because it is believed that some don't count The Bible as an accurate historical account does it make Jesus' teachings any less valuable? I would say that it doesn't, but that's just my opinion.

Davila does us all a huge favor with this accessible story about how Christian dogma came to be. There is plenty of factual meat backing up the heavy meal his characters serve. It will be a painful but then refreshing read for some, while others will cry heresy...a familiar refrain that should help those others think twice. The thing I find so inspiring, however, is that the lessons coming out of the story sync beautifully with the core lessons of all seekers, i.e. there really is a common wisdom out there to know and discover. So don't be disheartened, those of you who might be 'afraid' to read such things. You are in for a terrific journey.

I found this book very interesting. A lot of the facts that he presented I was aware of and I also learned some new facts. He presents his theory about the origins of Christianity in a very easy readable way. I was thinking he should have written this as a non-fiction instead of fiction because his writing style is very simple, making a complex theory easy to understand.

This is not a Da Vinci Code type mystery as it is presented on the cover. It is a fiction book that explains what Gnosticism is and presents Davila's theory of the origins of Christianity. The plot and characters are secondary to Davila's theory and explanations of Gnosticism. Again he should have written a nonfiction book containing these ideas.

Some people will find his ideas upsetting and anti-Christianity. Other people will find them thought provoking and interesting.

If you have read A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle, you may find some similar concepts that relate to the ego; I think that would have been a better comparison than to the Da Vinci Code.

If you are a devote Christian and Catholic this book is not for you, but if you are open to controversial ideas that challenge your belief system than this book is for you.

I received this book as a part of goodreads.com's "First Reads" program/contest.

Could I give it less than one star? A quick look plot teaser on the cover of "The Gnostic Mystery" is reminiscent of a Dan Brown novel. The protagonist finds himself unexpectedly thrust into danger as he solves some mystery about the ancient Christian church. It is anything but this, however.

Looks can be deceiving, and the similarities with "The Da Vinci Code" or "Angels and Demons" are almost non-existent. There is almost no plot. As soon as Davila has enough plot to lay a foundation (the first 10-20 pages), the plot stops, almost completely, and the polemic begins. As if that was not enough, the plot that he does have jumps around chronologically, and unnecessarily, confusing and distracting the story. While one flashback might be acceptable, the story jumps forward and backward, and without any real flashbacks at all. Changes in the story time are indicated with large bold type "Three days earlier" or "Present day," but with a disjointed effect that hurts, not helps, the story. When the jumps in time suddenly end, at about the same time the plot slows to a glacial crawl for the duration of the book, it is a relief.

However, the end of the jumping, just a few pages into the book, indicates something else, also: the end of the plot. With no real tension or conflict between the characters or in the plot, and with the modicum of plot out of the way, Davila gets to work on what appears to be his real purpose all along: a polemic against the miracles, virgin birth, death and resurrection, and atonement of Jesus Christ. Attributing these "myths" to the manipulation of Eusebius and Constantine, Davila proceeds to spend the lion's share of the book with conversations between an a Catholic "believer" and a seasoned academic. Their discussion of about religion is really the process of the academic disabusing the believer of his faith that Jesus was divine or that the circumstances around his life were touched by the divine. And the believer rolls over so fast one wonders if he really ever had faith in the first place. In the final analysis, by Davila's estimation, Jesus was at best a teacher and an amalgamation of pagan beliefs with a revolution in spiritual beliefs, a confluence of the mythology and power of Zeus and Apollo on one side and the morality and gentility of Buddha on the other.

And did I mention there's almost no plot against which this boring polemic is set?

In the end, I finished it just to see where Davila would take his arguments against organized religion. As I come from a Restoration perspective established on roots not connected to the events that resulted in the modern Catholicism, I did not have any problem seeing the events of the early Christian church that Davila describes in the light of what I know. What Davila describes with his limited research is what we now know to have been general apostasy of the church in the centuries after Christ and his apostles. It was no test to my faith, nor do I think someone who roots their faith in, surprise surprise, faith, in contrast to archeological research, would find their faith tested either. His arguments are heavily one sided, superficial, and would make great paper tigers for a real discussion by persons representing both sides (Hugh Nibley would get a kick out of this).

All that said, I don't recommend you waste time with this book. It is boring, lacks character or plot development, and is a polemic disguised as a novel. Go read Dan Brown if you want a mystery about the Catholic church.

The Gnostic Mystery by Randy Davila tells the story of Jack Stanton, an American who travels to Israel, meets up with his good friend Punjeeh, and discovers an ancient scroll written by a group of early Christians known as the Gnostics. With the help of a local professor of philosophy and religion, Jack learns about the history of the Christian church and tries to make sense of what the scroll reveals, questioning his own faith in the process.
The information about the early Christian church and the Gnostics was very interesting, but the book's plot and characters were rather simplistic. Overall, I enjoyed the story well enough, but think The Gnostic Mystery might be more suitable for young adult readers.

First off, I wanted to say I found this book fascinating. However, it seems the book tries too hard to get its message accross, and the plot is secondary, if really important at all. The characters don't seem to be too developed, and I can't say they are extremely memorable.
The book is an excellent reference for Gnostic information for anyone interesting in the topic, and it really opened my eyes in regards to many Christian teachings.
At times this book reminded be of Angels and Demons, and The Da Vinci Code, with the way Robert Langdon explains how certain icons or modern teachings have origins in the distant past. Unfortunately, that's where the similarities end, as this novel lacks the plot and drive of the more popular novels.
Still an interesting read, and I would suggest it to anyone interested in the origins of Christianity or the study of religion.

In The Gnostic Mystery, a religious American investor, Jack, visits his old college roommate, Punjeeh, who is now an emergency room physician in Jerusalem. While there, visiting various "historic" sites from early Christianity, he comes across an ancient scroll written in the first couple of hundred years after the death of Jesus. As he and his friends try to track down a companion scroll, they discuss the early Gnostics and their impact on "modern" Christianity. What in the Bible is really attributable to Jesus? What is fact versus fiction? Did a priest from hundreds of years ago really set the stage for the delusion of hundreds of millions of people who believe in the teachings of the New Testament?

Author and religious studies specialist Randy Davila tells you his perspective in The Gnostic Mystery. Unfortunately, the tale of Jack and his adventures is extraordinarily weak, and the attempt to use this format to educate the reader about the Gnostics and their influence on modern Christianity makes the book dry and leaves the reader with some head-scratching. What, exactly, is Davila making up? What is part of the fictional story?

I'm certainly not a biblical scholar. I recently read both the The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot: A New Look at Betrayer and Betrayed and Desire of the Everlasting Hills: The World Before and After Jesus. Thomas Cahill in particular makes history interesting without resorting to a fictional tale in Desire Of The Everlasting Hills. I suspect that Davila was attempting to capitalize at least a little bit on the mega-success of The Da Vinci Code. It didn't work.

What reading this book did do is get me interested in the topic. I'm going to track down the book Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why. If readers can suggest a better, or more readable book on this topic, let me know.

There was this discussion between the characters in the text regarding why this material was not more widely known and discussed (p. 169):

"But if people knew this, I think everything would change," Punjeeh argued.

"Would it?" Chloe asked rhetorically. "I'm afraid that the few Christian pastors over the past few years that have been brave enough to advocate discarding these outdated beliefs and focusing only on the revolutionary aspect of jesus' teachings have been largely ignored."

Professor King's expression turned solemn. "Sadly, that is correct, gentlemen, because in most Christian denominations today, the beauty of Jesus' message is still overshadowed by people's need to believe in supernatural tales about his life and death."

Interesting. People don't change until they are ready for change. Today's news about a physics professor arguing for the addition of a thirteenth zodiac symbol (horror!), "Orphiuchus," is burning up electrons on the internet. However, there seems to be little care about the historical accuracy of religious events, whether Christian, Muslim, Mormon, or ancient Greek.

I received this book from the publisher as part of an early reviewer program on LibraryThing. I thought the concept was interesting and looked forward to reading it. In the end, I only finished it because I had promised to review it as part of the program.

Having finished it, I am a bit concerned by how many reviewers read this book and enjoy it not as a piece of fiction (there's room for taste when it comes to that sort of thing), but because they find it to be enlightening as to the nature of two religious systems: Christian Gnosticism and Christianity. Word to the wise: the book does *not* represent good scholarship in either case, and if you want to really learn about either the history of either belief system, this is not the place to look.

As a novel, the book suffers from a lack of character and plot development. The characters don't ring true and are very two-dimensional, largely because they seem to only exist to either carry the ideological agenda of the author or to illustrate the evils of sectarian violence. The dialogue is stilted and the characters do not have distinct voices, for the most part. The plot is very thin, and even the uncovering of the "mystery" (which I found very predictable by about 1/4 of the way into the book) is plodding and dull because over 3/4 of the book is essentially an extended lecture by one character.

As a piece of scholarship, which is really closer to what the book seems to want to be, it suffers from enormous bias and over-simplification. If you already know anything about church history, the first 100 pages are pretty much an over-simplified and slanted recap of basics. If you don't, then while the first half of the book may seem more interesting because the information is new, it's important to note that you are only going to get a very biased and not well-documented alternative account from this book.

Some people may enjoy the book. I did not, as I found it to be lacking both as a mystery novel and as a book tackling very serious issues, because it does so in an irresponsible way. The concept of the book was a good one, but I would simply urge the reader to realize that much of what is presented as fact in the book is arguably as fictional as the plot that attempts to carry the polemic.

Randy tells an interesting adventure--and a mystery at more levels than one. After you've read through a few chapters, you'll realize the added bonus of an educational back door that weaves into the story a primer on Gnosticism and other religions.

This education may be a real eye opener for some people. I predict the biggest part of that group to be mainstream Christians. Regardless of how you respond to the education, you'll walk away with a much better understanding of Gnosticism

I throughly enjoyed this book, and recommend it to others.

Just be open minded as you read it, and you'll learn a lot. And Randy's message will touch you.

Through life, I've observed that a great way to pass along important information to people is through a good story. Randy does that well.

I must admit my knowledge of Gnosticism is limited to no formal education in that field, and only having read Pagels and Freke/Gandy. From what I know, Randy's message seems to follow what I've learned.

Another interesting point I gain from the book are similarities in Gnosticism and Eckert Tolle. (OK--maybe everybody else had already nailed that one, but is just came to me today.)









































































































I've been reading it since Wednesday night, and am nearly finished. I recommend it as an entertaining and educational book.

Disclaimer: I first met Randy on Wednesday evening at an Eckert Tolle group, learned that The Gnostic Mystery had just been published that day. I mentioned my limited knowledge of Gnosticism (no formal education--just reading Pagels, Freke/Gandy, etc. in the past few years), and he graciously gave me a book, with the only caveat that I pass it along when I'm finished.