"What could be expressed through a human being could never be absolute divinity; the human order can only express that degree and quality, that aspect of the Divine Being."
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The Mythical Life of Jesus by Reverend Larry Marshall Trafford Publishing
book review by Omar Figueras
Reverend Larry Marshall's book is a tribute to Dr. Alvin Boyd Kuhn, PhD, and a compilation of information taken from Dr. Kuhn's lectures, books, essays and articles. The book's fifteen chapters examine the life of Christ as presented in the New Testament through topics and biblical vignettes. Kuhn dissects these stories and reviews them, separating Jesus the man from the popularly promulgated myth of Christ. Marshall details the many similarities, if not blatant mimicking, of pre-Christian pagan religions and draws correlations between those belief systems and Christianity. Marshall demystifies the once considered unquestionable, literal interpretations of the Bible and employs an allegorical approach, envisioning the stories as a work of artistry. Kuhn's teachings juxtapose stories in the New Testament with their pagan counterparts, and show where Christianity borrowed them from Hellenic and/or Egyptian paganism.
This text also examines the key figures who are in and who wrote the New Testament and how they molded themselves to fit into the carefully constructed puzzle that is the polished "Christos" figure, which is, according to Dr. Kuhn, far older than Christianity itself. Of the many figures examined in this book one of the most interesting, aside from the titled Jesus is that of Paul. Presented in a rich and a three-dimensional way, Paul's motives behind, and explanations of his writings are re-envisioned, and the first century man and his writings become more accessible to a contemporary audience.
Informative and entertaining, Dr. Kuhn's lectures, as presented by Reverend Marshall, are worth one's time and attention if one desires a different perspective to the commonly accepted writings in the Bible. Kuhn considers the layering of history, culture, and allegory into the interpretations of those texts, making the experience of returning to those stories all the more rewarding.