The Beginnings of Christianity: Essene Mystery, Gnostic Revelation and the Christian Vision

A strong 5 stars. I read this cover to cover and have found about a dozen similar books on original mystery-initiation experiential Christianity;...One interesting proposal in this book is that the figure of Lazarus is the author, fictionally speaking, of the Gospel of John. As is standard for almost all late 20th Century scholars, Welburn uncritically assumes that Jesus existed, even as he presents a totally non-orthodox paradigm of what Christianity was really all about and where it came from. He wonders why the canon doesn't tell about Jesus' initiation practices, even though he explains Steiner's portrayal of Jesus' betrayal, arrest, trial, judgement, humiliation, crucifixion, burial, and ascension as themselves the experiential content of such Christian-style initiation.Actually I hope Steiner's theory here is a little more complete than Welburn's explanation, which omits the trial and judgment phase of experiential mystic Christianity. The trial and judgment phase of the mystery drama is experientially crucial -- it is here where the mind questions the concept of the sovereign egoic moral agent and judges the idea to be monstrously incoherent, suitable only for animals and children. I don't know if Steiner covers this phase; Welburn doesn't.At this point in recent history-oriented studies, in such theories as mystery-religion Christianity, the Historical Jesus assumption is just a clumsy and superfluous complication getting in the way, adding complexity without enabling theories to be simplified. Welburn should at least ask whether the hypothesis of the existence of a single Historical Jesus is helpful for a coherent theory of the true origins of the Christian mystery religion. The *idea* of a historical figure is great and profound, but shouldn't be confused with the *actuality* of a historical figure who undergoes literal biographical events of betrayal, trial, and crucifixion. Welburn, of all scholars, should realize this. Nevertheless, this is an excellent book deserving a strong 5 stars.As in any study of Christianity compared to mystery religions, this has enough mentions of sacred eating and drinking to hook into the entheogen theory of the origin of religions, and enough mentions of fate, determinism, necessity, or heimarmene to hook into a block-universe determinism theory.Top-quality scholarship. Strongly recommended for those interested in original Christianity as essentially a mystic experiential mystery-religion. The endnotes contain pointers to related interesting books.The author often mentions Rudolph Steiner's book Christianity as Mystical Fact.