Katherine Villyard reviewed ChristoPaganism by Joyce Higginbotham
Review of 'ChristoPaganism' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
This book is really uneven. Parts of it are AWESOME and parts are meh. It also needs better proofreading.
To my surprise, the parts I liked the best were the parts on Christianity. Let's face it, the Higginbothams aren't historians and I didn't buy a couple of their conclusions, but the information on which books of the Bible were written when, the historicity (or not) of Jesus, comparing Christianity to Mystery Cults of the classical era, and the rise of monotheism were the parts of the book that were the most AWESOME. I had never been exposed to this material before despite being raised Christian, and found it fascinating. I will say, however, that the chapter on Mystery Religions opens with some really annoying over-hyping. Not shocked to my bones over here, really, especially since I have a lot more sympathy for syncretic Christianity (or, as I've jokingly put it, …
This book is really uneven. Parts of it are AWESOME and parts are meh. It also needs better proofreading.
To my surprise, the parts I liked the best were the parts on Christianity. Let's face it, the Higginbothams aren't historians and I didn't buy a couple of their conclusions, but the information on which books of the Bible were written when, the historicity (or not) of Jesus, comparing Christianity to Mystery Cults of the classical era, and the rise of monotheism were the parts of the book that were the most AWESOME. I had never been exposed to this material before despite being raised Christian, and found it fascinating. I will say, however, that the chapter on Mystery Religions opens with some really annoying over-hyping. Not shocked to my bones over here, really, especially since I have a lot more sympathy for syncretic Christianity (or, as I've jokingly put it, "Christianity: The religion that hangs out in dark alleys and mugs other religions for their spare bits of dogma") than for modern fundamentalism.
All of which said, I continue to think that I'm not going to find a spirituality that fits in an off-the-shelf box. But this book makes me want to read more about the history of Christianity, especially the authorship of the Bible. Not the reaction I expected to have.
