For Christ's Sake

I've just returned to Christianity after many years away, yet could not reconcile myself to the notion of an angry god demanding part of Himself to die on a cross for people's sins. I remembered reading For Christ's Sake years ago and enjoying it, so I read it again. What a revelation! With compassion and intelligence, Harpur shows, repeatedly and through investigating the New Testament, why Christ is not and never was God in the flesh. After much reading of other Christian writers -- and through his own training and education (he's an Oxford-trained, Anglican minister) -- Harpur suggests a loving, positive reason for Christ's death and resurrection. It's a reason I can easily understand and joyfully accept. And that brings me fully back into the fold of Christianity. If you have questions, if there are things that you don't understand or things that you find repugnant about aspects of Christianity, READ THIS BOOK. It won't take long, but you might finish it the way I did...with tears in my eyes and saying a prayer of thanks to God.

I have read the book twice. It is hard to put down. Mr Harpur makes you think - even if you dont agree with all of his points you will have gained a tremendous insight into the gospels. My faith has been kicked into overdrive after reading this book and his other book "Thinking persons guide to God". Thank you Mr Harpur for putting into words what I have been tring to express.

I read this book after reading "The Thinking Person's Guide to God" by the same author. There were so many references to "For Christ's Sake" in it, that I was intrigued. I was already familiar with Harpur's smooth and lucid style, so I didn't wait too long to buy this book. Again, it was a good choice.In "For Christ's Sake" Harpur tries to peel off all the cliches and dogmas about Jesus Christ and goes into the very text of the New (and Old) Testament to make out what he really taught us. There he shares with us very interesting insight on what and who Jesus was and what he wanted to convey to his disciples. I like Harpur's clarity on these issues: he plainly says that he does not believe that Jesus Christ was/is the Second Person of the Trinity, because, first of all, there is no such thing as the triunity of God. He still does not deny the divinity of Christ, but he defines it through his humanity. In other words, Christ's divinity lies in his being a fully realized human being, who has fully revealed his unity with his Creator. Having taken that as the main premise, we can see the role of this unique man in an entirely different light. As Tom Harpur rightly says, the teaching of the Church had too much focus on the person of Jesus and not on his teaching; on the Messenger and not on the Message itself. And what did the real message bring to us? The dogma of the Trinity? The Sacraments? The hierarchical church, "a special caste of people", vested with some special powers? The necessity to believe in the divinity of Christ in order to be saved? No. This is not what Christ came to tell us. It is simply that God is always with and within us if we want to open ourselves to His love. Jesus wanted all of us to be "sons of God". And this is exactly what we need to follow in Christ: strive for unity with our Creator. Tom Harpur used Bucke's term "cosmic consciousness" and I think it is a very good approach to understanding the relationship of man and God.After reading this great book, I now have more sympathy, compassion and understanding towards the man called Jesus Christ than ever before. If I had to compare two simple, easy-to-read works on the essence of Christianity from the two Orthodox and Unorthodox camps, I would take and read this book, "for Christ's Sake", and "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis and then see where the truth lies.Also recommended: "The Kingdom of God is Within You" by Leo Tolstoy (Some of Tom Harpur's ideas are strikingly similar to those of Leo Tolstoy on Christianity and that is why I would recommend this book).

As the Churches pound their own idea's into our heads, Tom pushes us into discovering what the Bible really has to say, in which, when read with an open mind we find contradictions between what the Church says and what the Bible says. One of the most honestly translated Bibles is the "Revised English Bible".