Alvin Boyd Kuhn (September 22, 1880 – September 14, 1963) was an American

Theosophist Theosophy is a religion established in the United States during the late 19th century. It was founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and draws its teachings predominantly from Blavatsky's writings. Categorized by scholars of religion ...

, lecturer, and self-published author. He was a proponent of the

Christ myth theory The Christ myth theory, also known as the Jesus myth theory, Jesus mythicism, or the Jesus ahistoricity theory, is the view that "the story of Jesus is a piece of mythology", possessing no "substantial claims to historical fact". Alternatively ...

. Harpur, Tom. (2004). '' The Pagan Christ: Recovering the Lost Light''. Toronto: Thomas Allen Publishers.

Biography

Born in

Franklin County, Pennsylvania Franklin County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 155,932 Its county seat is Chambersburg. Franklin County comprises the Chambersburg–Waynesboro, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area, whi ...

, Kuhn studied the

Ancient Greek language Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...

at university. He obtained his B.A. in 1903 and started his career working as a language teacher in high schools. He enrolled in summer sessions at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1926 and 1927, and then quit teaching to devote to full-time studies in 1927. His thesis, ''Theosophy: A Modern Revival of the Ancient Wisdom'' was, according to Kuhn, the first instance in which an individual has been "permitted" by any modern American or European university to obtain his doctorate with a thesis on

Theosophy Theosophy is a religion established in the United States during the late 19th century. It was founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and draws its teachings predominantly from Blavatsky's writings. Categorized by scholars of religion a ...

.Alvin Boyd Kuhn, Ph.D. A Biographical Sketch of his life and work
by Richard Alvin Sattelberg, B.A., M.S.., 2005 Kuhn later expanded his thesis into his first book of the same name in 1930. After obtaining his Ph.D. in 1931, he returned to teaching for one year, but then spent the next 30 years writing, lecturing, and running his own publishing house, Academy Press in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Highly influenced by the work of

Gerald Massey Gerald Massey (; 29 May 1828 – 29 October 1907) was an English poet and writer on Spiritualism and Ancient Egypt. Early life Massey was born near Tring, Hertfordshire in England to poor parents. When little more than a child, he was made to ...

and Godfrey Higgins, Kuhn contended that the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus ...

derived its origins from other

Pagan Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. I ...

religions and much of Christian history was pre-extant as

Egyptian mythology Egyptian mythology is the collection of myths from ancient Egypt, which describe the actions of the Egyptian gods as a means of understanding the world around them. The beliefs that these myths express are an important part of ancient Egyp ...

. He also proposed that the Bible was symbolic and did not depict real events, and argued that the leaders of the church started to misinterpret the bible at the end of the third century. The author of over 150 books, essays and published papers, Kuhn completed his final book, ''A Rebirth for Christianity'', shortly before his death on September 14, 1963, in Morristown, New Jersey. At the time of his death, he left two unfinished hand-written manuscripts. Several of his works have been published or reprinted posthumously, and many are available electronically.

Reception

Some mythicist authors including

Tom Harpur Thomas William Harpur (1929–2017), known as Tom Harpur, was a Canadian biblical scholar, columnist, and broadcaster. An ordained Anglican priest, he was a proponent of the Christ myth theory, the idea that Jesus did not exist but is a fictiona ...

were influenced by Kuhn. Harpur dedicated his 2004 book, '' The Pagan Christ'' to Kuhn, calling him "a man of immense learning and even greater courage" and “one of the single greatest geniuses of the twentieth century” ho“towers above all others of recent memory in intellect and his understanding of the world’s religions.” Harpur notes that Kuhn gave nearly 2,000 public lectures which were lengthy, detailed and well-attended, but claims that Kuhn's self-publishing may have resulted in a lack of attention to his work. Kuhn's works have been dismissed by mainstream academia for their lack of sources and documentation, misrepresentation of linguistics, misplacement of quotations, and so forth. New Testament scholar Craig A. Evans has noted that the views of Harpur and Kuhn have been "thoroughly refuted and is not followed by any reputable historian or Egyptologist." Evans, Craig A. (2012). ''Jesus and His World: The Archaeological Evidence''. Westminster John Knox Press. p. 5.

Selected publications

''Esoteric Structure of the Alphabet''
(1900)

(1922, 2009)

(1922, 2014)

(1930, 2009)

(1936, 2013)

(1936)

(1940)

(1944) * ttps://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007833449 ''Sex as Symbol: The Ancient Light in Modern Psychology''(1945)
''The Tree of Knowledge''
(1947, 2012)

(1949)
''India's True Voice: A Critique of Oriental Philosophy''
(1955)

(1960)

(1960)

(1963, 1971, 2005)

(1963, 2011) *''Hark! Messiah Speaks: A Philosophical Review of the Krishnamurti Teachings'' (1985)

(1990) * ttps://web.archive.org/web/20171028171412/http://pc93.tripod.com/missnmes.htm ''Case of the Missing Messiah''(1990)

References

External links

*
Archive of many of Kuhn's works
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kuhn, Alvin Boyd 1880 births 1963 deaths American Theosophists Christ myth theory proponents Critics of Christianity Pseudohistorians People from Franklin County, Pennsylvania

Biography

Reception

Selected publications

See also

References

External links