What happens to faith when a philosopher questions whether the Jesus of the Gospels ever lived?

In The Christ Myth, Arthur Drews challenges the search for a historical Jesus. He argues that Christ begins as a divine saving figure shaped by older religious ideas, with a human biography added afterward. His investigation moves through non-Christian sources, the letters of Paul and the Gospels, asking what each can tell us about Christianity’s origins.

Drews reads Paul’s Christ as a heavenly figure and the Gospel stories as symbolic drama rather than biography. He places Christianity beside ancient religions of gods who suffer, die and return to life. This is a forceful philosophical case, not a balanced survey: many specialists reject his argument, and his claims provoke public debate.

この本で学べること

• The historical Jesus question Explore why Drews challenges liberal theologians’ attempts to find the man behind the Gospels.
• The silence of outsiders Follow his questions about what non-Christian writers say, and what he thinks their silence means.
• Paul’s heavenly Christ Examine Drews’s reading of letters he sees as saying little about a human life.
• Ancient religious parallels Consider his proposed links between Christ and the suffering, dying gods of ancient religions.
• Faith beyond biography Meet a philosopher who asks whether religious faith needs a historical Jesus at all.

どのような方におすすめですか？

宗教の起源をめぐる大胆な議論が好きな方や、キリスト教の成り立ちについて大きな論争を呼んだ説を、その説に即して理解したい方に向いています。