Canadian biblical scholar and journalist (1929?2017)
Thomas William Harpur
(April 14, 1929 ? January 2, 2017) was a Canadian
biblical scholar
, columnist, and broadcaster. An ordained
Anglican
priest, he was a proponent of the
Christ myth theory
, the idea that
Jesus
did not exist but is a fictional or mythological figure.
[1]
He was the author of a number of books, including
For Christ's Sake
(1986),
Life after Death
(1996),
The Pagan Christ
(2004), and
Born Again
(2011 and 2017).
[2]
Background and education
[
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]
Born in the east end of
Toronto
,
Ontario
, to an
evangelical
family, on April 14, 1929,
[3]
Harpur earned a
Bachelor of Arts
(BA) degree with honours in 1951 at
University College
at the
University of Toronto
, where he won the Jarvis Scholarship in Greek and Latin, the Maurice Hutton Scholarship in Classics, the Sir William Mulock Scholarship in Classics, and the Gold Medal in Classics. He went on to study
literae humaniores
("greats" or classics) at
Oriel College
at the
University of Oxford
as a
Rhodes Scholar
from 1951 to 1954 where he read the ancient historians (
Herodotus
,
Thucydides
, and
Tacitus
) completely in their original texts. He graduated in 1954 with a BA degree and was conferred a
Master of Arts
degree two years later. Between 1954 and 1956 he studied theology at
Wycliffe College
, University of Toronto, where he was a tutor in Greek. At Wycliffe he won prizes in
homiletics
and Greek and was the senior student and valedictorian in his graduating year. He returned to Oxford in 1962 and 1963 for his postgraduate studies where he read the
Church Fathers
.
Career
[
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]
Priesthood
[
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]
Harpur was ordained a priest in the
Anglican Church of Canada
in 1956. He served as a
curate
at St. John's York Mills, North York from 1956 to 1957. From 1957 to 1964 he served the parish of St. Margaret's-in-the-Pines in
Scarborough
, Ontario. During this time he lectured on ancient philosophy part-time at Wycliffe College. From 1962 to 1963 he spent a further year at
Oriel College, Oxford
, doing postgraduate research in
Patristics
and
New Testament
studies.
Academia
[
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]
From 1964 to 1971, Harpur was an assistant professor and then a full professor of New Testament and New Testament Greek at Wycliffe, and from 1984 to 1987 he was part-time lecturer on the Theology and Praxis of Mass Media course at the
Toronto School of Theology
in the
University of Toronto
.
Journalism
[
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]
Harpur worked as a journalist at the
Toronto Star
for thirty years, twelve of which were as the newspaper's
religion
editor
. He met his wife Susan at the
Star
, where she worked in the legal department, and married her in 1980.
[3]
After leaving the position of religion editor in 1984 he continued to contribute a regular column on religious and ethical issues. Harpur also wrote a number of books on religion and theology, ten of which became Canadian bestsellers and two of which were made into TV series for
VisionTV
. For a time he had his own radio show,
Harpur's Heaven and Hell
, and has hosted a variety of radio and television programs on the topic of religion, particularly on VisionTV. He was, over the years, a frequent commentator on religious news events for most of the Canadian networks, especially
CBC
. In his later years, Harpur also wrote occasional opinion pieces
Postmedia Network
and a column for
Sun Media
.
[4]
In 1996, his bestseller
Life After Death
about
near-death experiences
was turned into a ten-episode TV series hosted by Harpur himself. Harpur's 2004 book
The Pagan Christ
was named the Canadian non-fiction bestseller of the year by the
Toronto Star
and
The Globe and Mail
.
Fellowships and awards
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]
Harpur was a Fellow of the American Religious Public Relations Council, and in 1976 won a
State of Israel
Silver Medal for Outstanding Journalism. His biography is included in the American
Who's Who in Religion
,
Canadian Who's Who
, and
Men of Achievement
. In 2008 the CBC documentary
The Pagan Christ
, based upon Harpur's book, won the Platinum Remi Award at the Houston International Film Festival and the Gold Camera Award at the US International Film and Video Festival in
Redondo Beach, California
. He belonged to the Canadian Association of Rhodes Scholars and the Writers' Union.
The Pagan Christ
[
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]
Harpur's 2004 book
The Pagan Christ
presents the case that the gospels rework ancient pagan myths. Harpur builds on
Alvin Boyd Kuhn
when listing similarities among the stories of Jesus, Horus, Mithras, Buddha and others. According to Harpur, in the second or third centuries, the early church created the fictional impression of a literal and historic Jesus and then used forgery and violence to cover up the evidence. Having come to see the scriptures as symbolic allegory of a cosmic truth rather than as inconsistent history, Harpur concludes he has a greater internal connection with the spirit of Christ.
[5]
The book received a great deal of criticism, including a response book,
Unmasking the Pagan Christ: An Evangelical Response to the Cosmic Christ Idea
.
[6]
Robert M. Price
's negative review of
The Pagan Christ
notes,
Harpur grants that the gospel mythemes descend only indirectly from Egyptian prototypes, through the channels of Greco-Roman Mystery cults and even the Old Testament, most of the time his citation of Egyptian stories and iconography, a la Massey, et. al., implies a direct borrowing from Egypt ... I am friendly to this position up to a point. ... But he appeals to many, many more bits of Egyptian myth and liturgy, and most of these do not strike me with anywhere near the force that they did Harpur.
[7]
Harpur published a more scholarly sequel called
Water into Wine
in 2007.
[8]
Death
[
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]
Harpur died in
Lion's Head
, Ontario, on January 2, 2017, at age 87.
[9]
Bibliography
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]
- Harpur's Heaven and Hell
. Oxford, 1983.
ISBN
0-7710-3941-7
- For Christ's Sake
. Oxford, 1986.
ISBN
0-19-540533-1
- Always on Sunday
. Oxford, OUP. 1988 0195406508
- Prayer Journal
Kelowna. B.C. Northstone.
- Prayer - The Hidden Fire
Kelowna, B. C. Northstone.1997
ISBN
1-896836-32-1
- Would You Believe
McClelland and Stewart. (US title:
The Thinking Person’s Guide to God
, Prima, 1996
- Harpur vs. Hancock
Hantsport, N. S. Lancelot, 1994.
ISBN
0-88999-584-2
- The Divine Lover
(Lancelot)
- The God Question
(Lancelot)
- Life After Death
McClelland and Stewart. 1991.
ISBN
0-7710-3941-7
- God help us Toronto : McClelland & Stewart, 1992
ISBN
0-7710-3943-3
- Communicating the Good News Today
(Lancelot)
- The uncommon touch : an investigation of spiritual healing
. Toronto : McClelland & Stewart, c1994.
ISBN
0-7710-3944-1
- Harpur vs. Hancock
(Tom Harpur, Maxine Hancock). Hantsport, N.S. Lancelot Press, 1994.
ISBN
0-88999-584-2
- The thinking person's guide to God : overcoming the obstacles to belief
. Rocklin, Calif. : Prima Pub., 1996.
ISBN
0-7615-0707-8
- The Spirituality of Wine
(Northstone)2004
- The Pagan Christ
: Recovering the Lost Light
. Toronto.Thomas Allen, 2004.
ISBN
0-88762-145-7
- Finding the Still Point - A Spiritual Response to Stress
Kelowna. B.C. Northstone, 2005 1896836712
- Living Waters
(Thomas Allen, 2006)
ISBN
0-88762-225-9
, 2006
- Water Into Wine: An Empowering Vision of the Gospels
. Thomas Allen, 2007
ISBN
0-88762-277-1
- Born Again: My Journey from Fundamentalism to Freedom. Thomas Allen, 2011
ISBN
9780887627385
- There is Life after Death. (Updated and revised version of Life After Death, 1991) Thomas Allen, 2011
ISBN
9780887627408
- Children's books
- The Terrible Finn MacCoul
Oxford, OUP, 1990. 0195407164.
- The Mouse that Couldn't Squeak
(Oxford)
References
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]
- ^
Maurice Casey
Jesus: Evidence and Argument or Mythicist Myths?
T&T Clark 2014 TOM HARPUR p.19-20
- ^
"The Pagan Christ"
, CBC, December 6, 2007.
- ^
a
b
Siekierska, Alicja (January 6, 2017).
"Former Star Religion Editor and Columnist Tom Harpur Dead at 87"
.
Toronto Star
. Retrieved
December 28,
2018
.
- ^
"Biography - Tom Harpur"
.
- ^
Tom Harpur,
The Pagan Christ
(Toronto: Thomas Allen Publishers, 2004)
- ^
Porter, Stanley E.; Bedard, Stephen J. (2006).
Unmasking the Pagan Christ: An Evangelical Response to the Cosmic Christ Idea
. Clements Publishing Group.
ISBN
9781894667715
.
- ^
Robert M. Price
(2009).
"Review - Tom Harpur, The Pagan Christ: Recovering the Lost Light reviewed by Robert M. Price"
.
www.robertmprice.mindvendor.com
. Retrieved
3 September
2016
.
- ^
Harpur, Tom (2008-11-06).
Water into Wine: An Empowering Vision of the Gospels
. Dundurn.com.
ISBN
9780887628276
.
- ^
"Thomas William Harpur Ontario Obituary"
.
External links
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