BOOK REVIEW
Jesus: Mything in Action, Vol. I (The Complete Heretic’s Guide to Western Religion Book 2)
David Fitzgerald 2017
About the Author
David Fitzgerald is a writer and historical researcher who has been actively investigating the Historical Jesus question for over fifteen years. He has a degree in history and was an associate member of CSER (the former Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion). He lectures around the world at universities and national secular events. He is the author of Nailed and The Complete Heretic’s Guide to Western Religion series. He has also been called “one of the busiest atheist activists in the Bay Area.” In addition to serving on the board of San Francisco Atheists, Center For Inquiry-SF and The Garrison-Martineau Project, he was also the Director/Co-Founder of both the world’s first Atheist Film Festival and Evolutionpalooza!, San Francisco’s annual Darwin Day celebration. He has also been honored to work with the Secular Student Alliance. He lives in San Francisco with writer, producer and film actress (also his wife) Dana Fredsti.
He is best known as the author of “NAILED: Ten Christian Myths That Show Jesus Never Existed At All,” which critically examines the historical evidence of Christ, and “The Complete Heretic’s Guide to Western Religion” series.
The CHG series includes “The Mormons” and the 3 -part follow-up book to Nailed, “Jesus: Mything in Action”, tackles the secular arguments for the Historic Jesus, examines all our historical sources, and finally, takes the reader on a time travel expedition through the real origins and evolution of early Christianity.
About the Book:
David Fitzgerald’s award-winning 2010 book Nailed: Ten Christian Myths That Show Jesus Never Existed At All pointed out the top ten fatal flaws of Christianity’s origin story. Now, Jesus: Mything in Action presents the most compelling new findings in Jesus Myth theory and critically examines its controversial reception by biblical scholars, the extent and reliability of our sources for Jesus, and reveals the surprising history behind Jesus’ evolution.
Mything in Action, vol. I (chapters 1 – 12) looks at the myths of Jesus Mythicism: what it is and isn’t; what biblical scholars are saying about it (and why); and examines our oldest “biographical” source for Jesus – the allegorical story we know as the Gospel of Mark.
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Endorsements
“A thorough and entertaining survey of what’s wrong with secular scholarship on Jesus, why most scholarship on Jesus isn’t really secular, and why the possibility that Jesus was mythical needs to be taken seriously. Every Jesus-myth enthusiast will want to read and reference this one. His demonstration that an alarming number of Jesus scholars are actually contractually required to deny mythicism is alone worth the price of admission. His also revealing the embarrassing truth of how historicist scholars contrive even more flawed or ridiculous theories than mythicists is just gravy.
—Richard C. Carrier, Ph.D., author of On the Historicity of Jesus
“Jesus: Mything in Action, David Fitzgerald’s follow-up to Nailed, asks piercing questions that won’t go away. If Christianity began with a historical Jesus, then where is he? Why is he a no-show in every written work outside of the gospels? And if we can trace the literary and theological antecedents of every gospel story, is the historical Jesus even necessary? David takes us on a gripping journey through time to show where the myths of the heavenly Christ as well as the legends of the historical Jesus came from. But no matter where or when we look, Jesus of Nazareth himself is the man who wasn’t there. Don’t myth it!
—Tim Widowfield of Vridar.org
“Take your book off the shelf, Tom Aquinas, your Summa Theologica is being replaced by David Fitzgerald’s Summa Mythologica! Jesus: Mything in Action is the most nearly exhaustive synthesis of evidence indicating the non-historicity of Jesus of Nazareth ever written. Best of all, it’s written in breezy English prose—not the labyrinthine Latinate crime so often committed when discussing “sacred subjects.” The organizational logic of the book is impressive; it reminds me of Euclid’s Elements. Historical Jesus scholars should not be fooled by the ease with which this book can be read by the educated layperson: this book is a must-read for Jesus specialists also Mything in Action is a milestone along the long path to progress in Mythicist studies.
—Frank R. Zindler, American Atheist Press
“Brilliant, very readable and comprehensive. A wideranging discussion of the evidence for Jesus demonstrating that it is exactly what we should expect if Jesus began not as a historical figure but as a theological and literary invention. David Fitzgerald’s opening chapters are especially noteworthy as a wonderful breath of fresh air for anyone who has read the diatribes of scholars hostile to the Christ Myth hypothesis. Partly with the assistance of some original research Fitzgerald exposes just how self-interested, strained and nonsensical those attacks have been.
—Neil Godfrey of Vridar.org
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