RE: Caesar's Messiah by Joseph Atwill - what do people think
July 29, 2019 at 8:29 am
(This post was last modified: July 29, 2019 at 8:47 am by The Grand Nudger.)
The creation of the character was almost certainly the product of disaffection, but the explicit romanization of canon happened centuries later as a selection effect. Had they gone with any of the mountains of apocrypha, a different narrative would have emerged...and there were political, cultural, and religious considerations involved in what became “the gospels”.
There’s something very silly in positing that the romans intentionally created a religion to pacify any mass, but took centuries to do so and wouldn’t get around to sealing the deal until they, too, had become christianized.
It was taken advantage of, without a doubt. A dynasty was toppled by the clever manipulation of the growing Christian pop. Bit like fire, in that regard. No man invented it, but those who discovered it quickly found its use.
Early bishops, for example, did use the religion to control their own mobs, consolidating political influence while building something very much like a mob empire, complete with mob land conflict between them.
That said, conflating it’s use centuries after the fact with its origin is a pointless endeavor. One would have to ignore the many proto christianities that popped up organically and remained in conflict with each other until such time as the apparatus of the state was seized by a particular blend and used to eradicate the others. Even if the romans had explicitly invented a Christianity it would be just one voice in that cacaphony and no single voice prevailed in the centuries of revision that followed until such a time as a single recognizable “Christianity” presented itself.
There’s something very silly in positing that the romans intentionally created a religion to pacify any mass, but took centuries to do so and wouldn’t get around to sealing the deal until they, too, had become christianized.
It was taken advantage of, without a doubt. A dynasty was toppled by the clever manipulation of the growing Christian pop. Bit like fire, in that regard. No man invented it, but those who discovered it quickly found its use.
Early bishops, for example, did use the religion to control their own mobs, consolidating political influence while building something very much like a mob empire, complete with mob land conflict between them.
That said, conflating it’s use centuries after the fact with its origin is a pointless endeavor. One would have to ignore the many proto christianities that popped up organically and remained in conflict with each other until such time as the apparatus of the state was seized by a particular blend and used to eradicate the others. Even if the romans had explicitly invented a Christianity it would be just one voice in that cacaphony and no single voice prevailed in the centuries of revision that followed until such a time as a single recognizable “Christianity” presented itself.
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