Heretic

"A brilliant book...illuminates a forgotten world." —The Times, Best of the Year

"Heretic tells a moreish intellectual story and shakes up your understanding of Western history. At the same time, somewhat improbably, it supplies at least one good joke per paragraph; you have to keep turning back to enjoy them again." ―The Economist, Best of the Year

From a celebrated classicist and author of The Darkening Age (“[a] ballista-bolt of a book”—New York Times Book Review), a landmark work of religious history about the many, diverse variations of Jesus who thrived in early Christian traditions—and how they were lost until just one “true” Christ survived.

Contrary to the teachings of the church today, in the first several centuries of Christianity’s existence, there was no consensus as to who Jesus was or why he had mattered. Instead, as a wealth of apocryphal gospels and forgotten texts reveal, there were many different Christs. One had a twin brother and traveled to India; another consorted with dragons. One particularly terrifying Christ scorned his parents and killed those who opposed him.

Moreover, in the early years of the first millennium there were many other saviors, many sons of gods who healed the sick and cured the lame. But as Christianity spread, they were pronounced unacceptable – even heretical – and they faded from view.

Heretic unearths the different versions of Christ who existed in the minds of early Christians, and the process of evolution—and elimination—by which Jesus became the singular figure we know today. 

“Heretic has the mother lode of tales too hot for Christendom. Nixey has carefully wrung out a number of apocryphal texts for scandal.” —Harper's Magazine

Catherine Nixey’s electrifying account of early Christian history reveals the fascinating, shocking, and often hilarious stories that were deliberately buried:

• Lost Gospels: Explore the texts that were left out of the Bible, from a gospel featuring a murderous child Jesus to another where he sells his own twin brother into slavery.
• The Birth of Heresy: Discover how the concept of “heresy” was forged as a weapon to create a single orthodoxy, eliminating competing saviors, including one who consorted with dragons.
• Gnosticism and Rival Faiths: Delve into the rich world of Gnosticism and other Roman Empire beliefs, where many gods, goddesses, and saviors competed for followers.
• A New History of Early Christianity: A meticulously researched and shockingly entertaining account that overturns traditional narratives about the origins of the faith.