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Title: Pagans and Christians by Robin Lane Fox ISBN: 0-394-55495-7 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 12 January, 1987 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $39.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Interesting, rare portrait of a mystery
Comment: The Christian Church does not talk much about how it obtained dominance in the European world. One reads of BIble stories and martyrs and popes but nothing on the events that led to the overthrow of the gods of a religious people. In this book, one discovers that early Christians were the "Atheists" since they did not worship a pagan god.
Pagan gods were wondrously easygoing. Each town or family had their own god. Acceptance or rejection was entirely personal. Gods could be adopted, created, borrowed or discarded depending on the social circumstance. Christianity demands that only "God" (Jesus) receive adoration, thus setting up a conflict that resulted in one side winning and outlawing the former gods.
What is particularly interesting is the daily life of the people and how their religion affected them. Pagans were generous with their money, held services, performed rituals and prayed for success or money. Even more interesting is the manner in which Christianity adapted and adopted from pagans - both in theology and ritual. The mystical union of god and man was a uniquely pagan thought as was the "Mind of God". We read about the ferocious fights concerning divinity ("Was Jesus one or separate with God?"), scripture (books were "voted" holy at synods) and ceremony. Christianity owes at least as much to paganism as it does Judaism. Get this book and The Unauthorized Version, Fox's other masterpiece.
Rating: 5
Summary: Pagans and Christians - How the Christian Church Learned
Comment: I came away from reading this wonderful book with a feeling of "those sly dogs" refering to the Christians. After reading this book your eyes will be opened to how everything we accept as truth today has a very spotted past. The book describes how the Christian Church learned from their Pagan past how to manipulate its flock. A practice that goes on to this day. The exegete, Mr. Fox digs up the dirt so to speak on the most pius of institutions. The book is vast and very detailed. Not one to pick up for mindless Christian entertainment. You might just learn the flawed truth about our most hallowed institutions and be set free. This is not a book for fundamentalist and will be damned by them.
It was interesting to find out that the early church was not prosectuted for it faith...A lession the church has learned to use today on those they consider "unsavory". I came away with the impression that the Christian church today is and was no better than the pagans it drew most of their traditions from.
Rating: 3
Summary: A mass of meandering verbiage
Comment: Doubtless, the author knows his subject. But, like many contemporary academics, he is unable to clearly and concisely state a thesis, marshal the facts and arguments and to then move on. I suspect this type of thing results from a fear of making oneself an easy taget for some carping, caviling "scholar".
The author, with his undisciplined, meandering style, managed to turn a fascinating subject and his own deep knowledge into an insufferably long (799 pages) and tedious mass of mush. It is hardly surprising that this book is out of print.
Yes, there are some fine nuggets to be mined herein. However, they are easy to miss when your eyes are glazed over. This book is not recommended for the general reader looking for an interesting, informative book of manageable length.
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Title: Unauthorized Version, The : Truth and Fiction in the Bible by Robin Lane Fox ISBN: 0394573986 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 07 April, 1992 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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Title: Alexander the Great by Robin Lane Fox ISBN: 0140088784 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: September, 1994 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The Early Church (Penguin History of the Church, 1) by Henry Chadwick ISBN: 0140231994 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: October, 1993 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Doctrine and Practice in the Early Church by Stuart G. Hall ISBN: 0802806295 Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Pub. Date: January, 1992 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: The Cults of the Roman Empire (Ancient World (Oxford, England).) by Robert Turcan, Antonia Nevill ISBN: 0631200479 Publisher: Blackwell Publishers Pub. Date: December, 1996 List Price(USD): $30.95 |
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