Vastly extensive research into the origin of belief. I think it proves many points that it does not intend. ( )

A scholarly study worth reading, although its radical claims have not been well received. ( )

When the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, the Vatican tasked 12 Biblical scholars with the translation. The Church was still suffering from the conviction that its Beliefs were perduring and based on facts. The scrolls were imagined to include firsthand accounts of Jesus and/or his disciples walking the Earth. In spite of the Scrolls, no one has yet found any primary-source evidence, long sought, for an accurate historical record of that time.

The Dead Sea Scrolls were needed to fill in some gaps in the Earthly understanding of the (allegedly) Divine Word. Those gaps remain.

The scholars were each assigned portions of the text to expedite the translation. However, only one of them completed the task. The one academic scholar did his job, and of the others, who were priests, not one completed their text translations in a timely manner. Not one.

The scholar who did his job, was John Marco Allegro, the author of this book. He presented his work when he was finished with it. The other 11 priestly scholars, despite their vociferous denunciations of Allegro's translations, interpretations, and his "minimalist approach," kept their own translations under wraps for 30+ years, until they were finally shamed into releasing their translations by a journal that published high-res images of the original texts, encouraging other scholars to attempt translations.

The Scrolls are invaluable, but not because they justify or support Abrahamic belief systems. Judaism, Christianity and Islam all fall down with the Scrolls.

Allegro reveals the evidence found in the scrolls, in this "The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross: A Study of the Nature and Origins of Christianity within the Fertility Cults of the Ancient Near East" as well as "The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Christian Myth" in which he posited his understandings of the scrolls. Ieusus, or "Jesus" was essentially code for the amanita muscaria mushroom and that later "Christians" confused the code for the content. Christianity was, and is, a popular movement which grew faster than the priesthood could control it.

Christianity is a fertility cult drawn from Egypt into the Mediterranean.

this is a controversial book, with Mr. allegro looking for, and finding evidence of a sacred hallucinogenic mushroom cult involved with both the Hebrew Prophets and the story of the gospels. The resulting fuss was illuminating to me about how some people constructed their personal vision of Christianity, and attempted to enforce it upon others. I'm not sure that some prophets did not use drugs to heighten their religious perceptions, nor do i believe it to be the sole cause of the visions and resultant writings. ( )

I will admit that I did not quite finish this book. Close to the end, I decided I'd gotten Allegro's point as well as I could expect to, and any further reading would merely confuse me further.

With only an English-department-mandated amount of linguistics background, coming to this book was incredibly difficult. I understood the point he was trying to make, and understood that there were already theories about Christianity rising from ancient pagan fertility religions, but I wasn't entirely convinced about the "Jesus mushroom" part. Due to my inability to understand his complex linguistics, I remain unconvinced.

The book is written as well as one can expect; Allegro does appear to be trying to offer his information as clearly, succinctly, and simply as possible. The serious linguistic work is relegated to the endnotes and not included in the immediate text, which helps readability quite a bit. However, this also leaves gaps in his argument which makes some of his points seem spurious or far-fetched, maybe stretching for the correlations he's making. Again, however, I do not have the linguistic background necessary to make any claims about his scholarship.

As an introduction to this theory, The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross is not an easy book to read. But it tries, and perhaps to someone with more background in the subject or in linguistics it would be easier to follow. ( )