This Tragic Gospel
How John Corrupted the Heart of Christianity
Chapter One
In the Beginning ...
The Modern Quest for Christian Origins
Tragedy is the form that promises us a happy ending. It is also the form
that is realistic about the matter.
-Walter Kerr, Tragedy and Comedy (1967)
When the Romans completed their long war
against Mediterranean piracy, every renegade
harbor on Crete lay in ruins. Phalasarna, where
I worked for five years, was likely the pirates' last stand, since
the Romans marched from the east, and when it fell, the war
was effectively over. The destruction is hard to describe; when
Romans intended to put an end to things, they put a period to
their imperial sentences. They put a period to Phalasarna, too,
so effectively that the site was never occupied again-at least
until the impressive archaeological discoveries there created
a tourist industry in its wake, and the pretty olive fields and
grazing hills were handed over to Eurotourism. Tha ... read full excerpt from This Tragic Gospel: How John Corrupted the Heart of Christianity ebook
