Thoughts on the Passing of Tom Harpur
My introduction to the world of publishing and a major step in my involvement in apologetics is due to Tom Harpur. I was sad to hear that Tom Harpur passed away on January 2, 2017.
For nine years I pastored in Meaford, Ontario. Early on, a fellow pastor mentioned that Tom Harpur also lived in our town. I was familiar with Tom. Over a decade before, one of my pastors gave me a book by Tom because he was concerned about my slide toward evangelicalism. That was the first book on religion that I ever read.
While pastoring in Meaford, Tom published one of his most popular books: The Pagan Christ. In this book, Tom argued that Jesus never existed and that the Gospels are based on pagan myths, especially Egyptian ones. This was quite the step for Tom because he was a former Anglican priest and before this had a liberal but fairly orthodox theology (including a belief in the bodily resurrection of Jesus). Tom was heavily influenced by Gerald Massey and Alvin Boyd Kuhn to embrace the Jesus Myth Theory.
I read his book and my first response was a letter to the editor in our local newspaper (this was before blogging). However, people in my congregation wanted more of a response. I planned a presentation on Tom’s book at our church on a Saturday morning. There was a blizzard that morning and so I showed up at the church to tell the one or two people who braved the weather that it was off. To my surprise, over fifty people showed up and the presentation went on as scheduled.
At the time, I was taking my MA in Christian Studies at McMaster Divinity College. I was studying 1 Corinthians with Stanley Porter. I talked to Stan about Tom but he had never heard of him. But between that meeting and our next, Stan had been invited to debate Tom on a Christian radio station. After some more conversations, Stan agreed to write a book with me called Unmasking the Pagan Christ.
I remember as I was writing this book, that I went out for dinner with my wife and saw Tom in the next booth. It was a strange feeling, as Tom had no idea that we were writing a response. Before the book was released, I contacted Tom to let him know what was coming. I wanted it to be clear that this was not an attack on him personally but an attempt to offer the other side of the story.
Eventually I had the opportunity to have coffee with Tom. We agreed not to debate the Jesus Myth, knowing that neither of us would change our minds. It was a pleasant conversation and I enjoyed it very much. Tom had witnessed a lot of religious history in Canada over the years. He did admit why he embraced the Jesus Myth. He had seen numerous renewal movements and new ideas but none of them seemed to breathe life into the church. He felt that only the adopting of a Cosmic Christ spirituality would do what needed to done.
I must make it clear that Tom was very different from other mythicists like Richard Carrier. Tom was no atheist. He believed both in God and an afterlife. What he believed was that Christ was a spiritual consciousness within every person. All people, Christians, Muslims, atheists, all had a Christ within them, whether they knew it or not. I disagreed but that was what he believed.
Read my article What We Can Learn From Tom Harpur published by Faith Today.
There was a positive response to Unmasking the Pagan Christ. A production company had made a documentary on The Pagan Christ and they offered to make a sequel based on our book. That was an amazing experience and I still find it hard to believe that it happened.
So many opportunities came my way, all because of Tom Harpur. I never disliked Tom. I thought he was very wrong (and he thought I was just as wrong). But I believe that he was sincerely seeking the truth. My prayers are with his friends and family.
