It is Christmas still, officially at least, so a few words on Christianity may be appropriate now. Since I am the one writing this, my own view of it will have to do.

Which proposition would you prefer?:

1. The Ineffable (name it as you will) enters every person at birth and is directly available to each, especially if the individual focuses upon it and requests access, or
2. The Ineffable entered one man 2000 years ago and his representatives on Earth today will negotiate your place in the afterlife, as long as you comply with a set of unbending principles and practices.

The first proposition is the “perennial wisdom of mankind”. The second is the view of the Christian church that arose within the last days of the Roman Empire.

In the 4th century AD the Emperor Constantine had an ulterior motive for his religious masterplan — the retention of political power at the centre. His church was therefore materialistic and authoritarian.

This is not to disparage the present-day Roman Catholic Church, or even the lacklustre Anglican version, into which I was baptized as an infant. On an individual level, many immensely spiritual people have made great contributions to human understanding from within the cupolas of their Catholic beliefs. I’ll cite just a few who appeal to me: Thomas Merton, Teresa of Avila, Meister Eckhart and John of the Cross.

They do, though, have one thing in common. Each got into trouble with the ecclesiastical authorities because they were perceived as “mystics”. Even the saintly Francis of Assisi’s Franciscans fell foul of the stern central authority.

What is a mystic? Someone who believes … no, “knows” … that the Ineffable is available to everyone. These are “Gnostics” — knowers rather than believers. Mysticism is really the universal religion of mankind, because when a person scales its heights there is no longer any need for the simplistic stories and precepts of evangelistic religion.

As Dr Johnson put it: “Example is more efficacious than precept.”

Let’s go back then to the early Roman church, which we now know took the uncomplicated Jewish version of the many Mystery schools around the Mediterranean and as far afield as Persia, and created the Western world as we know it. It’s useful to examine what Christianity was like before Emperor Constantine made it the prevailing faith of the Empire.

Christianity — and it was certainly not called that then — began a long time before the suggested birth of Jesus around 7BC. We know this from the Dead Sea Scrolls and other recently discovered sources.

It seems to have had Egyptian origins and arose among Jews in Alexandria from a Gnostic soup of practical teachings on how to have a direct, personal relationship with the Source of all things. It’s believed to have spread into the Hebrew lands through groups like the Essenes at Qumran — a sect that had at its centre a “Teacher of Righteousness”.

The Mystery schools of the Mediterranean region, including Greece, were mystical programmes of initiation, leading up to the all-encompassing Great Death Contemplation, in which a neophyte underwent a transformation of consciousness, directly experiencing the after-death state and stripping away the tyranny of the body (the cross we all bear in life).

In our terms, Near Death Experiences, reported in many hospitals, are quite close. They are, however, essentially different from the controlled, fully-alive, glimpse of what it’s like to be totally out of the body, while conscious of everything.

The early Gnostic Gospels, such as The Gospel of Thomas give a very different version from the later compilations bolted together by bishops into the New Testament. For example, the female has an equal part to play — there is a Gospel of Mary Magdalene and links to Sophia, or wisdom. The chapter in Luke which covers the visit of Jesus to Mary of Bethany is strangely cut off, and the passage where Jesus says she has a higher calling than Martha — contemplative rather than “active” — doesn’t read like the Christianity that comes down to us via Rome at all.

What began as a Jewish allegory depicting the life of Everyman (Jesus), was turned by a French bishop into an ersatz historical record of a real person. Anyone who has studied spiritual literature around the world will immediately recognize the allegorical intent of the Gospels, despite the extensive editing job.

The main aim was to attract a large, popular audience and wipe out the Gnostics, the early Christians. That suppression continued well into the medieval period. The massacre of possibly millions of Cathars in southern France, simply because they were different and were descended from an earlier version of Christianity, still resonates blackly in Church history to this day. St Bernard of Clairveaux, founder of the Catholic Cistercian movement, commented on the Cathars, “They are better Christians than we are.”

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, in his deeply religious book The Brothers Karamazov, has a chapter called The Grand Inquisitor in which he depicts Catholicism as the very opposite of the church Jesus would have created.

A good illustration of the process of historicizing allegory is to take John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress and imagine Christian as a real man and the story a true one. Nothing else quite explains why the Vatican goes to such lengths to suppress any archeological find that may cast doubt on its version of events. The postwar history of the Dead Sea Scrolls reveals an extraordinary attempt at censorship. The Nag Hammadi Gnostic discoveries in Egypt faced similar interference.

So where is Christianity in the 21st century? The main thrust of the churches seems aimed at keeping people adhered to a faith based on a misreading of an old allegory. The allegory itself, by contrast, offers precisely what it says on the box: “gospel” — good news.

The good news is that everyone can receive proof of their own immortality if they really want it: “The Kingdom of Heaven is within and without … seek and you shall find.” The most enlightening version of that saying appears in The Gospel of Thomas, inexplicably banned by the Church. If people don’t want direct proof, no matter, immortality is theirs anyway.

That mystical interpretation of the familiar Christian message was the original one before Rome politicized it. In reality Constantine was no saint but an early version of Mao Tse Tung.

In our democratic age we are more susceptible to the view that Christianity is available to us directly, not just through the intercession of men in robes.

Today, the Church is faltering, even dying, precisely because it won’t give up the rewriting of history that took place in its early days. Moreover, it should ask itself why so many popular books depict it as a dark, evil institution that will stop at nothing to retain its power, wealth and influence. Surely, self-preservation isn’t everything.

A return to so-called “primitive” Christianity that encouraged personal experience, not conformity, is the only way it can save itself from becoming a minor sect for a few diehards — which would be very sad given the power Christianity has for good.

The world is crying out for genuine expressions of spirituality now. Young people are embracing New Age sects in large numbers. Ominously, Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world.

Christians should stand against the decline of the religion and recognize it is based upon a massive untruth, especially as the original flowering of Christianity is just what the jaded West needs in these times of economic hardship and doubt.

John Evans

Recent Related Stories
Is there a secret history of the world?

As part of an extensive reorganization of the business as we enter our fourth year, we’ve redesigned the logo.

Last year, the old one got rather lost on our company Christmas card, so its demise was on the cards (pun intended).

After trawling through a miserable selection of samples from pro designers, I sat down in exasperation and created it myself. Shock, horror from the designers — self-promoting, naturally.

As the customer, I’m always right.

And it looks great on our newly-printed Christmas cards.

Syntagma is taking a break over the Christmas holiday. We will be back on Wednesday January 2.

Isn’t it telling that almost all Christmas gifts have come from the Far East in recent years? Whatever happened to Lapland?

I have to confess I’m hopeless at buying Christmas presents. So is everyone else, in my experience.

At least I attempt to ensure that gifts derive from a cold, northern country where snow makes an appearance sometime during the festive season. Reindeers are de rigueur.

To escape the usual flood of Christmas gift packs of puddings and pickled onions, I usually treat myself to exactly what I want at this time of year. Early thoughts included an Apple iPhone, but the deals here are not very tempting when you already have a better phone and a superior camera.

So today I ordered up my present to myself. I’d been hoping to find a decent old Leica camera on ebay — say, an M4 — with those never-to-be-repeated optics that the Zeiss perfectionists created back in the 1960s when cameras were truly male jewellery.

Hoping is not the same as finding though.

Then, yesterday, an online ad appearered in my inbox for a Panasonic digital SLR with … a Leica “superzoom” lens. It was too much to resist :

It arrives tomorrow, and I’ll be out immediately road testing it around the town. I’ll even favour you with a few shots to brighten up your weekend.

Where is it manufactured? My guess is China — but I live in hope it may be Lapland.

It’s been a busy old week here at Syntagma Towers.

We’ve been refurbishing the office with new laptops, installing a giant HD screen with digital television, and throwing out a pile of junk.

We’ve also been optimizing our sites for the new PR Crunch era, and working on our latest projects for specialized information products.

It never ends. Blink and the world moves on without you.

But would we have it any other way? Never! Mind you, a good night’s sleep would be very nice.

Friday, and it’s the first cold day of the season. Heavy morning frost on the rooftops and a biting wind. Central heating full on, and winter woollies at the ready. It could be a cold one this year here in our northern latitudes.

Do we care? Not a jot or a tittle! Business is too good for that. Here’s what we’ll be thinking of :

Brigitte Bardot in her prime

The sun, I mean.

Mind how you go.

I want to thank everyone who has responded to our Christmas/Holidays advertising post so far.

To say we were inundated would be a slight exaggeration, but not by much. Read the post here : #

Remember, on average it takes seven sightings of an ad for it to register sufficiently to sell goods or services. So it’s in every business’s interests to begin their Holidays advertising early.

In our local town there are already people on the streets with Santa hats on, handing out flyers. I know that’s boring when it still feels like summer, but it’s a shrewd response to human nature.

Think about it.

Your contact : ads(AT)SyntagmaMedia(DOT)com.

The old adage that potential customers need to see an advert seven times before they buy remains true even in our age of instant gratification. Which is why Syntagma is beginning its Christmas and Holiday advertising season right now.

Advertisers old and new should get in touch with us as soon as possible to grab the prime spots for what promises to be a very competitive last quarter sales environment. Despite everything, we’re holding our rates steady into 2008 so Syntagma is the place to be.

Although we have specialized in text ads this past year, we also have many spots for display ads and any innovative medium our customers fancy. Just let us know.

Basic information :

The Syntagma network operates as a continuously-updated, online, distributed publication, covering many topics of contemporary and commercial interest.

Our weblog-based websites are all family-friendly and work within our ethos of “distinctive, high-end, mature (not Adult), non-divisive content”.

We offer text link ads above the fold at competitive rates. Also leaderboards, skyscrapers, plus mid-sized blocks in the sidebar.

Start planning your campaign now by contacting us with your requirements :

I work hard at not writing about blogging these days, but something always turns up and I’m forced to relent. This one is irresistible for a number of reasons.

Keith Waterhouse is a British National Treasure. He’s incredibly old, being the author of that 1950s smash hit novel and film, Billy Liar. He claimed to be one of the “Angry Young Men” — all the rage in those days — but his sense of humour prevented him ever being angry enough.

He went on to become a very good journalist and playwright, defender of the apostrophe (everyone’s entitled to some eccentricity), and author of a long-running column in the UK’s Daily Mail newspaper.

And it’s to the latter we turn for his views on blogging. Yesterday, he published a piece titled, “Blogging our way to the true story”.

He begins characteristically : “And a happy blogging New Year to bloggers everywhere. I don’t think.” That’s Keith for you. Sharp and to the point.

He continues, “Meaning I cannot be doing with blogging, bloggers or blogs.” He quotes an example of a typical Christmas blog : “Tarquin, as well as being Head Boy, is now First Triangle in the school orchestra, which gives him a place in next year’s Carnegie Hall and Hollywood Bowl all-schools production of Peter and the Wolf.”

But even worse, he says, is the rise of the grandiosely termed Citizen Journalism. “They print hearsay as hard fact. They lift news items from orthodox sources and embellish them in their own wild words. They twist the newspaper writer’s motto, which is Get It First, Get It Right, to read : Get It Second, Get It Wrong.”

Blimey, someone’s rattled his cage. I hope it wasn’t me.

But he has a solution to this morass of unseemly garbage into which he despatches all bloggers : “To all pejorative references to the phrase ‘Citizen Journalist’ please add : ‘– unless they have a camera’. … I make an exception in the case of photographs.”

Here he goes on at length about the Saddam Hussein execution : “The bloggers were there, though, armed with picture-snatching mobile phone cameras. The official photo coverage … was grisly enough. The bloggers’ contribution — grabbed at the gallows … shocked all right thinking people. … the sheer brutality of the scene takes[s] us back to the public hanging of felons at Tyburn in the 18th century.”

In other words, blogging is OK so long as it tells us a truth that mainstream media is locked out from. Bloggers are forever condemned to be bandits and outlaws, stealing banned information and news of private events that the law and other agencies try to conceal from us.

Well, it’s a tidy gap in the market, if a bit hard to live up to on a daily basis. If this is the view of an old-time journalist and general good egg, blogging does suffer from an image problem. But then, we’ve been saying that here for a long time.

I can’t help feeling that if Waterhouse rewrote Billy Liar for our times, Billy would be a blogger.