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Creating Christ: How Roman Emperors Invented Christianity Kindle Edition
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James S. Valliant
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LanguageEnglish
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Publication dateSeptember 7, 2016
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File size6006 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"I have rarely encountered a book so original, exciting, accessible and informed on subjects that are of obvious importance to the world and to which I have myself devoted such a large part of my scholarly career studying. In this book they have rendered a startling new understanding of Christianity with a controversial theory of its Roman provenance that is accessible to the layman in a very powerful way. In the process, they present new and comprehensive archeological and iconographic evidence, as well as utilizing the widest and most cutting edge work of other recent scholars, including myself. This is a work of outstanding and original scholarship. Its arguments are a brilliant, profound and thorough integration of the relevant evidence. When they are done, the conclusion is inescapable and obviously profound."
--Prof. Robert Eisenman, Author of James the Brother of Jesus and The New Testament Code
"A fascinating and provocative investigative history of ideas, boldly exploring a problem that previous scholarship has not clearly or credibly addressed: how (and why!) the Flavian dynasty wove Christianity into the very fabric of Western civilization."
--Mark Riebling, author of Church of Spies: The Pope's Secret War Against Hitler
"Valliant and Fahy have given us a rare and valuable gift worthy of the Magi: A readable, balanced, and scholarly text on one of the most controversial topics in history. What makes this work approachable are its clearly wrought style and beautifully organized sections. What makes it invaluable for anyone (scholar or amateur) with an interest in Christianity (be it religiously inspired or not) is that it provides the reader with research that is too compelling to dismiss."
--Eric Hill, University Honors College Senior Instructor, Rhetoric (Semiotics, Epistemology, Abrahamic Religions, and Translations), Oregon State University
Product details
- ASIN : B01LRP3EDG
- Publisher : Crossroad Press; 1st edition (September 7, 2016)
- Publication date : September 7, 2016
- Language : English
- File size : 6006 KB
- Simultaneous device usage : Unlimited
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 361 pages
- Lending : Enabled
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Best Sellers Rank:
#245,510 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #192 in Religious Studies - History
- #507 in Christian Church & Bible History (Kindle Store)
- #530 in General History of Religion
- Customer Reviews:
Customer reviews
Top reviews from the United States
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The writing style was slightly repetitive, maybe that is good to reinforce their points and carefully build their case but I was annoyed by it. The location of the notes all at the end was not super convenient, I prefer them on page or at the end of the chapter. They refer to Pericope de Adultera when discussing early sources without mentioning it does not appear in early sources, that was slightly jarring.
Regarding the content, the idea is very interesting and they make an interesting case. The basic idea is that somehow early Christianity was somewhat deliberately encouraged by the Flavian emperors and their administration in a form that would allow Jewish zealots to transition to a more empire friendly theology. They refer to the "Paul is a secret agent" theory and build their case by noting a few factors.
- One is similarity between iconography between early Christianity and the Flavians,
- Another is the huge messy overlap of various characters swirling around in a nexus of connections between the NT and the Roman power elite.
- Another is the exceedingly positive view that Book of Acts, for example, portrays various Roman and Empire connected people.
- They discuss Josephus and his thematic and content similarities to the Gospels.
One thing they do not address which would need some sort of explanation is the synoptic problem and the tension between Mark and Matthew for example. How is the evolution of Mark to Matthew to Luke explained in this model? We may never know the precise mechanism but it seems that this theory of origin needs to account for it somehow.
Whether or not you believe their overall hypothesis, there are points that really strike a nerve. Their discussion of the repeated rescue of Paul by Roman figures really shows the incredibly pro-imperial sentiments in parts of the NT. We know already that Luke is really pushing the Pauline school but he really lauds the Roman authorities. They also point out that 20th century media seems to have forgotten that and made Romans the bad guys in various films and such.
Again neglecting their hypothesis the discussion of the coin and tomb iconography is pretty thought provoking.
In the larger picture, presumably the "fake new religion" just got out of hand and people took it for real within a generation or two. This really has significant echos of both Mornomism and Scientology, so if true, maybe this is the dominant way large new religions are formed and not an outlier.
This alleged literary connection between the Flavian emperors and the nascent Christian sect does therefore not withstand scrutiny, but the use of the identical symbol is a tangible proof of this connection even if the Gospels were written only much later, once Christianity had become independent of this link. However, its roots in the ideology of the Roman Empire remain unmistakable even today: According to a recent cover story in The Atlantic Monthly, "To save the Church, dismantle the Priesthood", by a former priest who became a critic of the clerical hierarchy and its lack of accountability to anyone, the Roman Catholic Church developed "a structure of governance that owes more to emperors than to apostles". Kudos to Valliant and Fahy for having now proven this still influential link!
I think this importance (numbers, jobs, spread) could have been described more, because to me 'the Jewish war' does not sound very different from the many other wars the Romans fought, aside from the well known ones like the Punic, Gallic and German wars.
In general the line of argument was not difficult to follow, technical aspects and relationships are explained clearly, but at maybe at times there is too much repetition of previous arguments during later chapters. I understand it helps integrating, but I think I would prefer such an integration at the end of a chapter. The logic and engagement of the authors is clear from reading the book, and it reads a bit like a mystery novel. This works, but also made me pay attention, because it has a bit of Dan Brownian feeling to it, one has to get used to the main claim of the book, even if one is an atheist whom considers ideology including religion a great tool for ruling over people. Aside from the initial conspiracy, it seems to me quite likely that this was never known widely and hence was basically lost throughout the dark ages.
I am not 100% convinced, simply because this is the sole book I read on the topic, and the data-constraints make knowing the full historical reality difficult. However, I do think this book does offer a lot of proof that makes me accept the theory for now, until other scholars address the evidence and conclusions of this book. The recommendation by Eisenman looks interesting in this regard, although I am unfamiliar with his work.
Top reviews from other countries
However, Ralph Ellis goes several steps further, saying that the Gospels were a sugar-coated history and version of the Jewish Revolt of AD70, with the biblical Jesus as its leader. And of course Josephus says that the leader of the Jewish Revolt was Jesus — Jesus of Gamala. See Ralph’s revolutionary ‘Gospel of King Jesus Trilogy’, and especially the volume called ‘Jesus, King of Edessa’.
This argument that the Gospels were Roman-inspired is patently true, but the research needs more exposure.
?
Citando fatti storici, prendendo a piene mani dalle opere di San Paolo e da quelle di Giuseppe Flavio, citando libri di storici e di teologi, i due autori riescono a dimostrare un'origine romana dei Vangeli e della religione ispirata alla figura di Gesù.
Senza confermare o meno la storicità della sua figura, spiegano le somiglianze della vità di Gesù con quella degli imperatori della dinastia Flavia e del loro storico, ebreo romanizzato, Giuseppe Flavio.
Gli scritti di San Paolo, la difficile relazione con San Pietro e Giuseppe il Giusto, e della progressiva separazione del culto Cristiano pacifista con quelli più guerrafondai, responsabili dell'attrito con i Romani.
La tesi è che Vespasiano e Tito, per convincere gli ebrei ad entrare nel multiculturale Impero Romano, abbiano studiato un nuovo culto che abolisse le restrizioni della religione giudaica e professasse amore e pace nei confronti dei "gentili".
Nonostante le molte ripetizioni di concetti, dati e citazioni, la tesi è interessante e credibile. Risolverebbe, stando agli autori, le molte incongruenze presenti nel Vangeli e spiegherebbe la loro tollerenza nei confronti dei non ebrei e dell'Impero Romano.
Non essendo esperta dell'argomento non sono in grado di dire se hanno ragione o meno, ma la tesi è suggestiva e credibile.
Urgono altre letture a riguardo.















