E-Book Overview
The Story of Christian Origins is a completely revised and updated edition of the Author's previous book, The Religion of the Occident (1959)
"Upon this rock, I shall build my church," said St. Peter, as he established Christianity in Europe. In the Hellenistic tradition Martin Larson traces this “rock” back to the earliest Mediterranean civilizations. This single volume presents a masterful synthesis of the facts involved in the genesis of the Christian Epic and its sustaining organization. The compound doctrine of Christianity fused age-old religious concepts introduced by the Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Persians, Buddhists. Greeks, Jews, Phrygians and Syrians This exploration of Christian beginnings considers pagan origins, Palestinian primary and secondary sources, the inner meaning of the Gospels and their redevelopment in the pagan world. Particular attention is given to the Essenes, a remarkable group of Jewish communist celibates from whom the Christian Gospel emerged. This study reveals that Jesus Christ was probably an Essene who left the Order to create his own movement. This book examines the soteriology, eschatology, ethics and Messianic concept which make up Christianity as well as the sources of the dominant religion of the Western World.
Customer Review
Wow. An insightful volume that is ABSOLUTELY worth obtaining and reading. It explains the HOW and WHY of religious development in and around the fertile crescent region to as far out as Europe and the outer reaches of India. This sheds new light on the relations between belief systems from just about as far back as we can know to the modern age.
In these 711 pages author Martin A. Larson shows us how the early Egyptian religion of Osiris, Babylonian-Assyrian religion, Greek & Semitic beliefs influenced one another and altered the course of the history of belief. He does a terrific job of outlining each religion, from its claimed origins, myths, theology, ceremonies, prayers, historic events, etc. What Larson's overview style does is allow the reader to consider not only the context, but the impact one religion or school of though may have had upon those that developed later.
There is also what I consider vital information on earlier religions which many people today have little or no knowledge of (they aren't exactly common!), such as the cults of Osiris and Dionysius, Ishtar and Zorastrianism, and possible influences from Hindu and Buddhist belief. Larson offers a stimulating if not convincing theory for the development of later Semitic beliefs, Essene religion, Hellenistic and other Paganism and the advent of Christianity. He explains how early Christianity developed and rose to power, recounting important councils that dictated the future and passed rulings deciding what was Official Christianity(TM) and what was heresy (a veritable encyclopedia on verious early herasies, indeed!). We learn how canonical law was displaced by civil law, and how Islam came to displace Paganism and seriously threaten Christianity, spread like wildfire across Africa and the East. I found Larson's work to be written from more of a humanistic perspective, and not biased from a personal religious perspective. He isn't trying to "sell" any one belief.
Larson includes a bibliography of all cited religious material, a glossary and an index. An excellent overview of a wide varity of beliefs in their historical contexts. Also published under the title, "The Religion of the Occident: The Origin and Development of the Essene-Chrisyian Faith". This is NOT the same book as Larson's "The Essene-Christian Faith".
Dr. Martin A. Larson was born in Whitehall, Michigan, in 1897. Following service in the US Navy, he attended and graduated from Kalamazoo College, where he distinguished himself in track, forensics and scholarship. With a state fellowship, he went on to study at