This Element explores a historical epoch characterized by a multitude of emergent religious concepts and practices - the Hellenistic and Roman periods. A precondition for the intense degree of religious innovation was a high level of cultural exchange. The rise of Christianity ultimately changed the religious landscape in profound ways.
Few, if any, individuals have had such a profound influence on Western culture as Jesus, even though not a single detail of his life or teaching can be confirmed with certainty. This lack of reliable biographical data has left his life open to broad interpretation. Jesus, gnostic and apocryphal sources insist, never truly died on the cross since he was a divine being, whose human frame was an illusion. Muslim sources affirm that Jesus was a prophet of God and will return at the end of time. Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels formulated racial theories in which Jesus was a redeemer for Aryans only, while the Renaissance polymath Guillaume Postel was convinced that Christ had returned as a Venetian woman. This book explores these and other views without taking sides in any theological arguments and presents research on a variety of alternative Christologies.
Olav Hammer, religionsvetare knuten till Lunds universitet. låter läsaren i Profeter mot strömmen möta några av tidigare århundradens sökare och profeter i 14 essäer.