Tony Sunderland

I get the impression that it’s mostly non-Christians who read stuff about the origins of Christianity and the Gnostic texts; which is a bit odd really, because if you want to know more about your beloved Christ, reading the gospels of Judas and Mary etc. will give you a much better idea of what Jesus’ teachings actually were. It’s like saying you’re a massive fan of the Rolling Stones, but you’ve only ever listened to the Greatest Hits and have never heard albums like Sticky Fingers. But I guess most Christians don’t read things like the Nag Hammadi texts and the Dead Sea Scrolls simply because they weren’t included in the Bible (and they bizarrely think the Bible is the actual word of God) which is pretty crazy when we know it was the Council of Nicea and the later Church who decided how to edit the Bible – and from the vast amount of contradictions included in the text, they really could have done with a better proofreader.
Anyway, I digress. I’m not a Christian man myself, but I am spiritual and I’ve always been fascinated by religions/their origins, and more importantly: the gods and spiritual beliefs that came long before the more popular ones like ol’ J.C, such as Osiris and Mithras (both of whom most certainly inspired many of the things we attribute to Christ, but I digress even further).

So, I very much enjoyed reading Tony Sunderland’s book which focuses on the Gnostic beliefs. To be honest, I knew much of what was on offer, but it was still enjoyable to go over such things again; and if you’re new to reading about Gnosticism and the origins of Christianity and the Holy Bible, then you could do much worse than reading this very informative and extremely well written book.

Sunderland has a way of writing that makes possibly complicated things easy to understand, whilst still keeping it within the realms of well-researched academia, where it’s clear that Sunderland has studied this stuff long and hard and knows what he’s talking about. So if you want to learn about Gnosticism, then you should definitely check out this great read.… (mere)

It's not an easy feat to condense thousands of years of religious history into a short book, and Tony Sunderland does it exceptionally well. Too often, books like this can be too heavy going and wrapped up in academia, but Sunderland’s writing is accessible and easy to read, whilst still maintaining an academic approach.

We travel through religions and spiritual practices from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, through Judaism, the Roman Empire, the Gnostics and Christianity to the Renaissance and beyond, and each step of the way, Tony Sunderland illustrates how past spiritual beliefs and practices merged into the next. Along the way, three questions are asked with regards to what each religion believes: Where did we come from? Why are we here? And: What happens when we die? Using these questions as the three main facets which underlie any religion, the author manages to summarise each one in a handy soundbite for readers to simply understand the driving forces behind each one.

Having read quite a lot of stuff about these subjects before, I didn’t see the book as quite as alternative as it sets out to be, but if you’re new to how religious practices blended into one another, then this is the ideal book to start with.
I would have liked to have heard more about the specific uses and meanings of the cross and obelisk, as what is touched upon at the beginning and end of the book, I felt, could have been written about in much more detail – especially such things as the Freemasonic use of obelisk placements, such as the one in Washington. But nit-picking to one side, this was a superbly written and enjoyable read.… (mere)