The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross
John Marco Allegro
Abacus/Sphere (London)
'A distinguished British scholar has written a
sensational book that is certain to cause the
greatest upheaval in orthodox christian thinking
since Charles Darwin said Man was descended from the ape. 
For he not only argues the non-existence of Jesus Christ and the
Apostles, but claims that Christianity itself as
well as Judaism and other religions of the
Near and Middle East- are no more than
hangovers from an ancient fertility cult. Such a
claim, such a challenge to orthodox belief,
coming as it does from one of the country's
leading experts in his field, is something of a
religious H-bomb - threatening a shattering
fall-out. 
- Sunday Mirror

'I knew from the way it was attacked by the
religious Establishment in the Press that this
was a book it was important to read for its
challenge to common assumptions'
- The Daily Telegraph Magazine

'Allegro boldly sketches in the origins of the
primitive fertility cult with an exciting plunge
into the catacombs of antiquity where mythology
and mycology mingle in a poetict hallucinatory
haze of credible speculation. It is a
dazzling foray into the obscure hinterlands of
comparative philology'
- Dennis Potter, The Times

'A remarkable feat of scholarship'
The Glasgow Herald



A Study of the Nature and Origins of Christianity within the Fertility Cults of the Ancient Near East
Professor Allegro (Univ. of Manchester) has hitherto been known for his several excellent books on the Dead Sea Scrolls. In an unusual reversal, he has now produced a book that will make The Passover Plot seem the last refuge of theological ultra-conservatism. The thesis of the book is simple enough: Jesus did not exist, the Gospels were & are a hoax, & Christianity is the atavistic vestige of an ancient fertility cult in which the object of worship was a peculiarly phallic mushroom, Amanita muscaria, capable of producing psychedelic reactions. As farfetched as all this may seem, it cannot be denied that he has brought to this work the same care & scholarly detachment that have characterized his earlier, & more conventional, works; & he has made not one concession to the sensational nature of his thesis. The book is, in fact, a demanding one, which presupposes in the reader at least a working knowledge of the ancient Semitic tongues & of the sciences considered auxiliary to biblical studies. Only the most determined non-professional iconoclast will be willing to wade through his unrelenting jargon. None of which, of course, will affect the demand for what is probably to become a very controversial work.