Alternative Christs

Few, if any, individuals have had such a profound influence on Western culture as Jesus, even though not a single detail of his life or teaching can be confirmed with certainty. This lack of reliable biographical data has left his life open to broad interpretation. Jesus, gnostic and apocryphal sources insist, never truly died on the cross since he was a divine being, whose human frame was an illusion. Muslim sources affirm that Jesus was a prophet of God and will return at the end of time. J rg Lanz von Liebenfels formulated racial theories in which Jesus was a redeemer for Aryans only, while the Renaissance polymath Guillaume Postel was convinced that Christ had returned as a Venetian woman. This book explores these and other views without taking sides in any theological arguments and presents research on a variety of alternative Christologies.

Author: Olav Hammer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 06/08/2009
Pages: 316
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.40lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.10w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9780521889025

About the Author
Hammer, Olav: - Olav Hammer is Professor, History of Religions at the University of Southern Denmark. He is co-editor with James R. Lewis of The Invention of Sacred Tradition (2007).