Publisher's Synopsis
While much has been offered to "demystify" or deconstruct" Christianity - The Ba'al Theory of Christianity takes this evaluation into a field that has not been truly explored - the origins of one of the cornerstones of Christianity - God sacrificed his only begotten son. This work projects this concept comes from the long forgotten or ignored impact of the Phoenician religion and their ancient valuing of human sacrifice (specifically child sacrifice.) To present the argument - this work looks at the origins of human sacrifice; the extensive expansion of its use through the highly influential religion of Phoenicia and its colonies (such as Carthage); and later - the extensive struggle over the valuing of human sacrifice as societies tended to move away from the act. As part of a new evaluation of the history this work offers the theory, that the key political events of the times were in part a struggle between those who practiced and valued human sacrifice - and those who had moved away from the overt ritual. The work looks at the religious impacts of such political events as the destruction of the ancient states of Judea and Israel; the destruction of the Phoenician empire by the Greeks and Romans; and the impact of the re-establishment of the state of Judah. At its core, the Ba'al Theory speculates that after their destruction, the Ba'alist had religion reforms somewhat similar to the well known religious reforms among the followers of Yahweh which happened during the "Babylonian exile" - where "worshipers of Yahweh" became "Jews." The difference in the reform efforts was that the Yahweh worshipers came to blame their destruction on the practice of human sacrifice; and completely rejected it. After their destruction, the followers of Ba'al, also reformed their religion - not by abandoning the value of child sacrifice but by transforming the actual child sacrifice into a "virtual act" - one great on-going human sacrifice that ended the need for any more overt acts. (or the function of the Catholic Mass) This work speculates that the repressed follower of Ba'al, in this time of political crisis, transformed or morphed their well known ancient foundation story about the god El, taking his only begotten son, and after making him a king, sacrificed him - a tale that goes back some 8,000 years. This updated version was placed in their current time with different names - but the same story. This transformation became the story of Jesus. But the work does not stop with the impact of child sacrifice on the development of Christianity - it also looks at other influences of the religion of Phoenicia- including how Greek and Roman religions morphed out of Ba'alism - with Zeus and Jupiter being a morphed version of Ba'al. And how 150 years before Constantine, Rome had a emperor who declared Ba'al the one true god, and who performed human sacrifices. The work also looks at how Ba'alims influenced so many other cultures, including the Celts. (worshiped the god Bel; burned people as part of their rituals ) And how Judaism was created mainly based on complete rejection of values of Ba'alism. As a part of this process this work speculates how it is likely the original story Abraham sacrificed Isaac because it would have been standard for their time. - Only later with the anti-sacrifice movement did the story "morphed". The work goes on to look at how this valuing of human sacrifice was morphed under Christian rule - to create the Auto de Fe's of Spain and the witch burning craze in Europe. The work projects that these events were morphed versions of the ancient rites of burning people to appease a god. The Ba'al Theory covers all these points and more in an effort to bring to light a repressed history of a very important religion of ancient times - and the impact of this religion in the most unexpected places - including the very foundation of the Christian religion - that being God sacrificed his only begotten son.
