Alvin Boyd Kuhn

Alvin Boyd Kuhn (September 22, 1880 – September 14, 1963) was an American Theosophist, lecturer, and self-published author. He was a proponent of the Christ myth theory.

Biography

Born in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, Kuhn studied the Ancient Greek language 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 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. 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. 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."

Selected publications

Esoteric Structure of the Alphabet (1900) Easter: The Birthday of the Gods (1922, 2009) Halloween: A Festival of Lost Meanings (1922, 2014) Theosophy: A Modern Revival of Ancient Wisdom (1930, 2009) Mary Magdalene and Her Seven Devils (1936, 2013) The Root of All Religion (1936) The Lost Light: An Interpretation of Ancient Scriptures (1940) Who is this King of Glory? A Critical Study of the Christos-Messiah Tradition (1944) Sex as Symbol: The Ancient Light in Modern Psychology (1945) The Tree of Knowledge (1947, 2012) The Shadow of the Third Century: A Revaluation of Christianity (1949) India's True Voice: A Critique of Oriental Philosophy (1955) Prayer and Healing (1960) The Lost Key to the Scriptures (1960) A Rebirth for Christianity (1963, 1971, 2005) The Ultimate Canon of Knowledge (1963, 2011) Hark! Messiah Speaks: A Philosophical Review of the Krishnamurti Teachings (1985) Christ's Three Days in Hell: Revelation of an Astounding Christian Fallacy (1990) Case of the Missing Messiah (1990)