Pagan Resurrection Myths and the Resurrection of Jesus: A Christian Perspective (Southern Academic Editions) [Hardcover]

Leon R. McKenzie (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 167 pages
• Publisher: Bookwrights Pr; 1 edition (September 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1880404133
• ISBN-13: 978-1880404133
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,979,628 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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18 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tour de force, February 1, 2002

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Aquinatis (Paris) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Pagan Resurrection Myths and the Resurrection of Jesus: A Christian Perspective (Southern Academic Editions) (Hardcover)

McKenzie, a retired prof. of religion, tackles here the difficult question of resurrection myths in relation to Christ's resurrection. He analyzes all the literature produced on the subject, and comes to a balanced view. Coming to a conclusion similar to Nash's book on the subject (The Gospels and the Greeks: Did the New Testament borrow from Pagan Thought, which I also recommend), he show that their a major discontinuity between Jesus resurrection account and pagan myths. More than the differences in the stories, the major difference lies in that the pagan stories (Tammuz, Adonis, Aastarte, Attis, Marsyas, Hyacinth, Osiris, Dionysus and Demeter) are ahistorical, truly mythical which cannot be said of the accounts about Jesus. BTW, what the previous reviewer says, that McKenzie considers the myths as historical, is simply false and only shows he even did not have the books in hands. But whereas Nash (whose book is more detailed on the topic of mystery religions and Gnosticism) takes a fundamentalist turn, rejecting the pagan myths as delusion, McKenzie offers a response to the problem of the frequency of resurrection stories. Introducing Jung's theory of archetypes, he brings a rationale for the pagan resurrection myths which can then be seen as a preparation for the Christian gospel - I found this is the most original contribution of the book. Finally McKenzie criticizes modernism and postmodernism, and makes a defense of the bodily resurrection of Jesus that is not as good as the one defended in William L. Craig's books and debates.

12 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Trying To Plug The Leak, August 2, 2000

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David A. Lee "Musophile" (Cincinnati) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pagan Resurrection Myths and the Resurrection of Jesus: A Christian Perspective (Southern Academic Editions) (Hardcover)

McKenzie plays the part of the little boy who puts his finger in the dam, trying to stop the leak.

Christianity simply cannot honestly be reconciled with history. This is an inconvenient reality for many who either depend on the Christian myth for their world view or depend on a loyal flock for their livlihood. Nobody considers historical the stories of Attis, Mithras, Horus, Dionysis, Aesclepius or others the Jesus myth depends on for source material, yet McKenzie attempts to dignify them as such to the extent that he thinks it will lend his derived mythology some historicity.