The End of a Road

by John M Allegro

Overview

In 1970, John M. Allegro published The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, arguing that the early Christians belonged to a drug cult, their sacrament consisting of hallucinogenic mushrooms. The book contained a large amount of linguistic data to support Allegro’s speculations. In his follow-up book, The End of a Road, Allegro considered the philosophical ramifications of having undermined Christianity and hence, for many people, religion altogether. He argued that abandoning religion is not tantamount to abandoning morality; rather, it should enable a more honest and straightforward approach to morality. This new edition includes a new foreword by Judith Anne Brown, author of John Marco Allegro: The Maverick of the Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as two new essays. These are an essay by Franco Fabbro discussing a mushroom mosaic in an early Christian church in Aquileia; and an essay by John Bolender discussing the vagueness of the concept of religion, which raises questions about the precise target of Allegro’s polemic and challenges attempts to defend religion as a biological adaptation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780615792095
Publisher:	Andrews UK
Publication date:	05/13/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

John Marco Allegro (1923-88) was the first British representative on the international team responsible for collating, editing and translating the Dead Sea Scrolls following their discovery in 1947. Through his books and broadcasts, he did much to bring the scrolls to public attention. He campaigned throughout his career for open access to the scrolls, so that scholars everywhere should be able to explore their significance for the development of western religions.

Following service in the Royal Navy during World War II, John Allegro started to train for the Methodist ministry, but found his interests lay in studying biblical languages rather than theology. He gained an honours degree and MA at Manchester University and had just transferred to Oxford for a doctorate in 1953 when he was invited to join the Dead Sea Scrolls team in Jordan.

John Allegro held that the attitudes and beliefs of the sect that wrote the Scrolls had a direct influence on the development of Christianity. The questions he raised about Christian origins disturbed his more conservative colleagues and earned him a reputation as a maverick – brilliant at times but outspoken and provocative.

The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, published in 1970, disturbed nearly everyone. On linguistic grounds, it placed the origins of most western religions, including Christianity, in the fertility cults of ancient Sumer. The book was meant to present a grand unifying theory of religion, but the hostility it aroused ruined Allegro’s career.

Nonetheless, he continued to research and write about religion, and had returned to philology, studying the intertwined origins of language, myth and religion, when he died. He had been married and had two children.