The Brazilian journalist Ricardo Kotscho was merciless when analyzing Bento's XVI new book
http://colunistas.ig.com.br/ricardokotscho/2011/03/11/bento-16-inventa-novo-cristo-em-livro/ , but he didn't look at some relevant subjects.
Christ is the Latin form of the Greek word Kristos that seems to be directly related to the word Krishna.
"The wise orientalist approximates first kristos of anointed, of Indian Agni and of Persian Athra. And it is necessary to notice to this respect that the kristos etymology, anointed, it is close of the one of Krishna, that wants to say 'essence, perfume, oil', deriving an and another of krio 'anoint, scrub... ' ". Gilberto Durand, The Anthropological Structures of the Imaginary, Martins Fontes, 2001
It is evident that the character Jesus Cristo was built starting from several gods and pagan semi-gods. On this subject I send the interested reader for a study of more breath than I did in the past
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:OUmO_ARK8r8J:www.midiaindependente.org/pt/red/2005/12/340365.shtml+%22notas+sobre+o+mito+do+crucificado%22&cd=1&hl=pt-BR&ct=clnk&gl=br&source=www.google.com.br.
I admit that for me is very difficult to believe in this god-synthesis of other Indian/Greek/Jewish /Persian/Romans gods interlaced with a rabbi's history that it was little known in the Tibério Roman emperor's times. Now the versions that it has been created of him are more and more deformed.
In the book THE NAME OF THE ROSE, Umberto Eco, narrates a medieval theological debate fictitious on if Jesus Crsito had or no a bag and if it considered the bag as being yours. Whenever I discuss on Jesus with Americans, I mention this passage of Umberto Eco book and I say, in mocking tone, that in the USA this debate would not be made. There nobody doubts that Jesus has a bag, he considers it his property and it carries inside of it some grenades, 2 pistols and ammunition for 3 or 4 days of combats. In Brasil Kristos/Krista/Krishna it can be the famous bag that produces comfort, peacefulness and good life for indolent or indecent shepherds, but he can also be a protector of workers oppressed for the job or earth lack.
Bento XVI, as a good conservative, created a new Jesus to his image and similarity. His Jesus, therefore, it is deeply conservative. And my buttons, always so mockers, ask me:
- But if the such era conservative why he inconvenienced Jews and Romans so much to the point of to be crucified?