Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ is, in the Christian religion, the Son of God. The Christian belief holds that God the Father sends his son down to earth where he is born of a virgin and after spreading the word and recruiting 12 apostles he is crucified, resurrected, and ascends into heaven. The accounts of his life and his teachings are embodied in the four New Testament gospels, which Campbell describes as being contradictory. A fifth gospel, the gospel of Saint Thomas, is excavated in 1948 and is the basis for Gnostic teachings.

From the point of view of mythology, the life and teachings of Jesus Christ are the ultimate savior hero legend. Campbell declares that Christ on the cross represents a type of father quest and, furthermore, his crucifixion and resurrection are the fundamental elements of the prototypical hunter myth and ritual. Likewise the Catholic ritual of communion corresponds exactly to...