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Rating: 
Summary: A book for biblical scholars, not casual readers
Review: If you are new to the search for the historical Jesus, this is not the book for you. This work is a somewhat dense polemic about the nature of good and evil, or rather, how and why the Catholic Church developed these two opposing, but married, concepts. The author suggests that he is advancing new and dramatic theories about the identity of Jesus and how the early Church corrupted his message to the world. Being new to the subject, I cannot judge the merits of his fascinating claims. It did not appear to me that he was uncovering new evidence for this theories, but instead interpreting the new evidence found by others in a new light. He has a running and somewhat irritating tiff throughout the book with Catholic scholar Malachi Martin. This book is the latest in a series on related subjects from the author and it is clear that his audience is mostly other Jesus scholars -- those armed with the full depth and breadth of biblical expertise. If you don't know much about bicameral minds, the theories surrounding the identity of the Nazarenes, Essenes, and Ebonites, Gnostics, and other cultures surrounding early Christianity, do not buy this book. A working knowledge of Jungian psychology would also help. However, if you've read books of this kind before and want to argue about the finer points about scholastic interpretation, it may serve your needs. What I will remember most from the book and found the most useful is the following: "Jesus was not God reaching down to man, but man reaching up to God." (p. 257). Perhaps I missed it, but somehow I wish the author had more clearly, or at least more plainly, described how Jesus achieved this and how the rest of us can follow.
Rating: 
Summary: Humanity's Self Discovery
Review: Lockhart follows up his first book, Jesus the Heretic, with another masterful display. What a refreshing thing it is to see modern scholars beginning to shed light on the origin, nature and development of Christianity from a responible, scientific, and balanced viewpoint. Christianity, and religion itself, is a complex topic. Any proper analysis of Christianity must attempt to explain the good, the bad and the ugly of its history. It must attempt to explain why groups of sectarians in a small, oppressed nation had such a profound effect on subsequent western history. It must attempt to explain the why, when and how variation and departures occurred in its development, and why there is such a spectrum of behaviour in its expression. Lockharts' analysis is a good overview of modern argument and discoveries concerning these matters, far better and more insightful than most. He intergrates a range of ideas on the subject, from ancient "heretics", to modern interpretations of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Don't expect an biased appraisal of Christianity, Lockhart traces many of the evils that the "herd" simply refuses to see, and why. The Dark Side of God is very much the journey of western society itself, and very much a reflection of what is within all of us. His book is an attempt to find the lost and distorted virtues that exist in the "original heart" of Christian experience. I'm not sure if he achieves what he sets out to find, but he does awaken the heart and mind to what we are all capable of achieving. For the courageous and the hopeful.
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