Heretic: Jesus Christ and the Other Sons of God

In the early days of Christianity, there were many different versions of Christ, according to this scintillating history from journalist Nixey (The Darkening Age). Studying texts that emerged in the centuries after Jesus’s death, Nixey dissects ancient Greco-Roman writings that depict Christ as little more than a magician in a world suffused by the supernatural (“Jesus created magical meals almost from thin air?... There were spells in the Greek Magical Papyri that offered a far larger menu”). Also discussed are the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, which portrays Jesus as a borderline-arrogant miracle worker with a temper; and Acts of Thomas, which describes Jesus preaching “abstention from sex lest any ‘lunatic’ children were conceived.” When Rome began banning such accounts in the fourth century, “heretical” depictions of Christ began to fade in favor of something closer to today’s ”familiar Jesus of Sunday school and sunbeams.” (The texts are not entirely forgotten, however—so-called Thomas Christians, who “pride themselves on being some of the first people to be converted to Christianity,” still live in India). The author gives due to the diverse and fascinating yet sometimes invisible threads hidden in the history of Christianity, enriching her study with intriguing arcana and close analysis. The result is an illuminating reassessment of the world’s largest religion. (Dec.)