Jesus from Outer Space

The earliest Christians believed Jesus was an ancient celestial being who put on a bodysuit of flesh, died at the hands of dark forces, and then rose from the dead and ascended back into the heavens. But the writing we have today from that first generation of Christians never says where they thought he landed, where he lived, or where he died. The idea that Jesus toured Galilee and visited Jerusalem arose only a lifetime later, in unsourced legends written in a foreign land and language. Many sources repeat those legends, but none corroborate them. Why? What exactly was the original belief about Jesus, and how did this belief change over time? In Jesus from Outer Space, noted philosopher and historian Richard Carrier summarizes for a popular audience the scholarly research on these and related questions, revealing in turn how modern attempts to conceal, misrepresent, or avoid the actual evidence calls into question the entire field of Jesus studies--and present-day beliefs about how Christianity began.

“"Carrier's best, most engaging, and readable work yet. Don't let the hilarious title fool you; this book is all business. Putting all the historical evidence for Jesus in the crucible, he burns away every apologetic argument and cuts through centuries of special pleading and pious fraud to demonstrate that the 'Real Jesus' is an unreal one." --David Fitzgerald, author of Nailed and Jesus: Mything in Action”

"It helps if you are omniscient, and Richard Carrier appears to be! The arguments and data supplied on behalf of Jesus Mythicism in his new book are astonishing--even if you thought you knew the debate pretty well!" —Robert M. Price, New Testament scholar and editor of the Journal of Higher Criticism
"Carrier’s best, most engaging, and readable work yet. Don’t let the hilarious title fool you; this book is all business. Putting all the historical evidence for Jesus in the crucible, he burns away every apologetic argument and cuts through centuries of special pleading and pious fraud to demonstrate that the ‘Real Jesus’ is an unreal one." —David Fitzgerald, author of Nailed and Jesus: Mything in Action

Richard Carrier, PhD, is a philosopher and historian of antiquity. He is the author of numerous books, including On the Historicity of Jesus.

The earliest Christians believed Jesus was an ancient celestial being who put on a bodysuit of flesh, died at the hands of dark forces, and then rose from the dead and ascended back into the heavens. But the writing we have today from that first generation of Christians never says where they thought he landed, where he lived, or where he died. The idea that Jesus toured Galilee and visited Jerusalem arose only a lifetime later, in unsourced legends written in a foreign land and language. Many sources repeat those legends, but none corroborate them. Why? What exactly was the original belief about Jesus, and how did this belief change over time? In Jesus from Outer Space, noted philosopher and historian Richard Carrier summarizes for a popular audience the scholarly research on these and related questions, revealing in turn how modern attempts to conceal, misrepresent, or avoid the actual evidence calls into question the entire field of Jesus studies--and present-day beliefs about how Christianity began.

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