In 2004, former Anglican priest and New Testament professor Tom Harpur wrote a book called The Pagan Christ, in which he argued that there was no historical Jesus but that the Gospels are Jewish versions of ancient myths, especially those found in Egypt, on which a which an inclusive spirituality focused on a Cosmic Christ rather than a literal Jesus might be built.
In 2006, Stanley Porter, New Testament professor and president of McMaster Divinity College, and myself wrote a response book called Unmasking the Pagan Christ, in which we argued that there is evidence for a historical Jesus and that the Gospels differ greatly from the pagan myths.
In 2007, a documentary based on the Pagan Christ was aired on CBC, repeating many of the same arguments of Tom Harpur but also including responses by Stan Porter and Ward Gasque. It was a very highly rated documentary and it created some great discussion.
Last year, Stan and I were approached by David Brady Productions, the people who produced the Pagan Christ documentary, offering to do a documentary on our book. Much of the work was done over the summer and around Christmas time, I received a copy of the completed documentary. I must say that I am very pleased with it. It is not an attack on Tom Harpur, as we strived in our book to confront the content and not the man. It gives Tom and fellow Jesus myth proponent Peter Gandy an opportunity to share their side. One of the things that I like about it is that the support for the historical Jesus in this documentary is not just from evangelical scholars. There are people from a wide range of backgrounds, including one scholar that people might be surprised at as being on our side. It is a very interesting documentary that people will want to check out even if they are not familiar with Tom Harpur’s version of the Jesus myth. If you have come across the radical ideas of Peter Gandy, Timothy Freke, Robert Price, G.A. Wells or the movie Zeitgeist, you will want to see this documentary. The documentary will be aired April 2 at 9:00 pm on VisionTV. The press release can be found here.
If you are interested in purchasing the DVD, they are approximately $20. Email me at steve@stephenjbedard.com.
Good on you, Stephen. May it do some good.
Ward
Thanks Ward. That is our prayer as well.
I missed this documentary. Is there anywhere I can watch it?
Where do you live? In Canada, Vision TV has rights for a year and I am sure they will replay it. If you are in the US, check the listings for HDNet. If I hear of any additional showings, I will post the info. Thanks for your interest.
I would be interested to know when the Video is available outside the US and Canada I am in new Zealand and have an Atheist colleague at work who has been ranting on about the Pagan Christ video (and others similar), mainly about how it must be true as its written in stone etc etc.
I know that Unmasking the Pagan Christ recently aired on the history channel in Australia but I am not sure when it is on again. Perhaps, it would be helpful to get the book (which has much more detail) which is available at amazon.com. Hopefully it will help your friend.
I found a web-site in Australia that sells the DVDs. You can find it here. https://www.enhancetv.com.au/shop/product.php?productid=145495&cat=329&page=12
Cool. thanks I will look it up. I will get the book as well, but the DVD will be a good resource for those like my colleague with a short attention span.