Dog Ear Publishing today announced a new book by John Winslow Gibson, The Shroud of Turin and the Origins of Christianity: What is Behind the Secrecy and the Masks? by John Winslow Gibson. It is available from Amazon in paperback for $13.46 and in Kindle for $9.99.
Here is the publisher description from Dog Ear:
The author critiques Christianity’s worldview and doctrines, concluding that a holy person didn’t teach these things. Yet if the New Testament shows us a Jesus who couldn’t have lived, the Shroud of Turin seems to show us a Jesus who must have died. To understand what went on, the author looks for the hidden writings in the Bible that Origen wrote of, locating some of them in the Adam and Eve story, the tales of Paul’s conversion, the “rapture” narratives, and the parable of the Good Samaritan. Recognizing “Iscariot” as an esoteric disguise of a name from mythology, he pieces together how Christianity may in fact have begun and discusses what we should think about it now.
John Winslow Gibson has a longtime interest in philosophical, spiritual, and esoteric topics. The thinking and researching of many years culminate in this book.
I took a sneak peek with Amazon’s Look Inside feature. The author writes:
But, for reasons I will give in this chapter and chapter three, I agree with those who do not find it believable that there was an historic Jesus of Nazareth (though I do not concur that he was only a literary creation). So it is up to me to offer an alternative account of what it is that we behold on this relic. If I cannot prove that I am correct about it, I may be able at least to keep the question open.
Onto the summer reading pile left over from last summer.
John Winslow Wilson has bumped into the mysterium Christi. He wrote about the New York City judge Joseph Force Crater, who vanished without a trace, and now authors a book about Jesus, whom he cannot find. “I agree with those who find it unbelievable that there was an historic Jesus of Nazareth though I do not concur that he was only a literary creation,” he writes. There is a solution. He should read the NT slowly and carefully again, then Rudolf Schnackenburg, and lastly Norman Mailer. That would be just the first step, 0.01% of what he would need to know.
“Onto the summer reading pile left over from last summer.”
Not for me, I won’t spend a single penny on this garbage. Even if someone drops off a free copy at my doorstep it’s going to end up in the blue bin with the rest of the flyers.
John Winslow Gibson is researched and brilliant! He offers a distinct possibility of the Shroud’s Image being formed by an occult group from one of the many mystery religions thriving and competing for supremacy in first century Judaism. Human engineering did something rash by forming a Jewish Messiah from that which had heretofore been formless esoteric information from Scripture. His book is not “garbage”, but plausible thought.
“concluding that a holy person didn’t teach these things”
This is Garbage to me. No one in history comes even close to the holiness taught and lived by Jesus. He has taken the holiness standard to a whole new level (e.g. committing adultery starts with the heart and eye without physically doing it)
” Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them”
What holiness is he talking about?
Shroud image being formed by a first century occult group…more Garbage, we have talked about this in great detail earlier in this blog.
All this so-called “holiness” you refer to, Mike, is deep within human nature, and also elucidated by Scripture, wither it be the Talmud, NT, Qu’ran, Upanishads, Mahayana texts, but something here with the Shroud sparks a bridge between supernatural/mythical heroes and the idea of the holy in the captured in 3-D. Gibson: “All in all, we have a quandary. How can we receive from the Shroud of Turin a Jesus who must have died and from the Bible a Jesus who could not have lived?”
“All this so-called “holiness” you refer to, Mike, is deep within human nature”
No it’s not… Human nature says
“hate your enemies, do bad for those who hate you, curse those who curse you, wish bad for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, break their nose. If someone takes your coat, take away their coat and their shirt also”
No one comes close to Jesus, not even in other scripture (Judaism and Islam both call for “an Eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”)
Sorry if you were offended by me calling this book Garbage but any book that doubts the physical existence or holiness of my Saviour is Garbage to me.
Hi clublu22014, which Gibson are you talking about?
Hi Louis, are we not on the same page/book here… the above: John Winslow Gibson, author of The Shroud of Turin and the Origins of Christianity, (typo above/delete second in; in 3-D… just captured in 3-D.
Thanks clublu. You know something? I wouldn’t bother about John Winslow Gibson said, it would only be important if it came from a known Biblical scholar.
Oh, Louis, this is so not true! People can be out of the loop of academic “Biblical scholarship” and be in the right stream of exegesis. Many of todays biblical scholars are just putting out more slop about Jesus and Mary Magdalene to appease their classroom attendance and book publication. I prefer a person who has no attachments to an agenda other than spending time to objectively speak truth to power. However, I appreciate your concern for my elucidation.
Clublu, are you sure Gibson has no agenda? He may not be attached to any particular group, but, remember, total objectivity is impossible. Not even Freud was totally objective and left writings that show that he could be biased — and how! When it comes to deeply housed biases even the greatest scholars are vulnerable, how much more when it comes to unknown authors.
More slop about Jesus and Mary Magdalene? Come on, you told me my paper on the tomb demonstrated “brilliant research”. We have clues to what Jesus taught about celibacy when he referred to “eunuchs”. It is a concept that can apply to anyone, any people, any culture, we see it in Hinduism, even among people who are not monks. Have you read Mahatma Gandhi, strongly influenced by Jesus? Of course, the other end of the spectrum says the very opposite, but then look at the consequences.
But his point of view, Louis, deserves respect and some honest review… not to simply brush it off as “garbage”.
I agree, clubllu, and I for one did not call it “garbage”, always willing to listen to the other points of view as long as they carry good arguments. My doubts are about whether he knows enough.
Who really can fathom the occult practices of any of the ancient mystery religions, except to say that they had some very strange and perverse practices.
“Who really can fathom the occult practices of any of the ancient mystery religions, except to say that they had some very strange and perverse practices.” This is just a little too superficial and simplistic.
For some years I studied several religions, “Ancient Religions”, Ancient mythologies”, Primal Religions” (Aboriginal, Polynesian, Micronesian, Maori, African”, Oriental Religions etc towards part of a Religious Studies major acquired extra-murally through Massey University in NZ.
A recurring theme in most of these always seemed to me to be part of the quest for the numinous, sometimes through animism, or totemism, sometimes through ancestor worship, sometimes through a heightening of spiritual awareness (occasionally by various intoxicants), the assigning of various gods as the guardians of nature. To early agricultural humanity, fertility of the soil was extremely important if the groups were to avoid famine, and hence the various fertility cults. Later religions often had scriptures which aspired to a higher philosophy, Religion in these societies often had other functions as well, the proper ordering of the community and good governance. No matter that much of this was imperfect, inadequate, and even occasionally perverted and astray. I view much of this as part of God’s plan towards humanity’s spiritual awakening to bring about an awareness of Himself. I believe that not only did Man search for God, but God also searched for Man to bring Man unto Himself. In the fulness of time, when the time was eventually right, He sent His Son into the world so that Man could be brought closer to God. But the task remains as yet unfinished, which is the duty of mission,
The Vatican II document “Lumen Gentium”, the Constitution of the Church, is all-embracing and all-inclusive on just who comprise the “People of God”! It even includes these early animists, and those who see God in the shadows, and those who in good conscience are unable to accept what has now been revealed.
Beautiful Dave.