Quick Take
- Narration: David Fitzgerald narrates his own work, and his academic enthusiasm comes through clearly, he treats the material as fascinating rather than merely polemical, which keeps seven hours from feeling like a lecture.
- Themes: the construction and deconstruction of the gospel accounts, the evolution of Jesus across early Christian texts, historical methodology applied to religious origin stories
- Mood: Intellectually energized and deliberately irreverent, though never contemptuous, Fitzgerald is having fun with this and wants you to as well
- Verdict: A rigorous and surprisingly entertaining deep dive into the mythicist position on the historical Jesus, best approached as the continuation of a sustained argument that began with Volume I.
I came to David Fitzgerald’s work through a circuitous route that involved a long drive, a depleted podcast queue, and a willingness to spend seven hours with someone making the case that the most influential figure in Western history may not have existed as a historical individual. I was not a committed position-holder going in. I came out considerably more informed about why this question is harder to settle than it appears, which is, I suspect, the appropriate response to an argument this carefully assembled.
Jesus: Mything in Action, Vol. II is the second installment in what Fitzgerald calls The Complete Heretic’s Guide to Western Religion. This volume covers chapters 13 through 18 of the larger Mything in Action project: the changing Jesus across early Christian literature, the construction and deconstruction of the gospel accounts, how Jesus appears in the non-Gospel New Testament texts, and an examination of the historical sources for Jesus that exist outside the Bible. It functions as both a continuation and an intensification of the earlier volumes’ argument.
Our Take on Jesus: Mything in Action Vol. II
The central contribution of this volume is its sustained attention to how Jesus changes across the texts in which he appears. Fitzgerald traces the evolving presentation of Jesus from the earliest Christians he can identify, through Paul, through Hebrews, through the Gospels and into the broader New Testament, and the picture that emerges is of a figure being actively constructed and reconstructed by communities with different needs and different theological agendas. This is not a new argument in biblical scholarship, but Fitzgerald marshals it with unusual clarity and presents it for a general audience without condescending to them or losing the complexity.
One reviewer who had read Richard Carrier’s more academically pitched On the Historicity of Jesus alongside Fitzgerald’s work found Mything covered much of the same material with superior readability. That is an accurate assessment of Fitzgerald’s distinctive contribution. He writes with wit and engagement rather than the careful, qualifier-laden prose that academic audiences require, and the result is significantly more accessible without being intellectually dishonest. He does not pretend the question is settled when it is not, and he makes the distinction between his own stronger mythicist position and the more modest claims that the broader scholarship supports.
Why Listen to Jesus: Mything in Action Vol. II
Fitzgerald narrates himself throughout the series, and the choice pays dividends in a work this dependent on tone. Academic content about religious history sits at a particular intersection of gravity and potential tedium, and Fitzgerald avoids the latter by treating the material as genuinely interesting, puzzling, surprising, even funny in places. The milk carton on the cover, referenced in one reviewer’s title, is indicative of his approach: missing person reporting applied to a figure whose historicity he is systematically undermining. The humor is dry and never contemptuous, which means it does not alienate listeners who are curious about the argument without being hostile to religious belief.
One reviewer specifically noted the fair treatment of both believers and questioners, observing that each side receives similar consideration and that Fitzgerald finds strongly for the mythicist position without requiring bad faith from anyone who disagrees. That balance is not common in this genre, and it makes the audiobook listenable for people who arrive skeptical of its conclusions as well as those who arrive already sympathetic.
What to Watch For in Jesus: Mything in Action Vol. II
This is emphatically the middle of a continuing argument. Volume II assumes familiarity with Volume I’s framing and the broader mythicist methodology Fitzgerald established in Nailed. Listeners who begin here will understand the individual arguments but miss the cumulative weight that makes the project persuasive. The series is designed to be read in sequence, and Volume II is not the place to arrive cold.
Fitzgerald is also making a specific, contested claim that sits outside the mainstream of biblical scholarship, and he knows it. He engages with the scholarly reception of his work and the objections to the mythicist position, which is intellectually honest and makes for more interesting listening than a work that simply ignores its critics. Listeners should be aware that his conclusions are debated within the relevant academic disciplines, and he himself acknowledges the distinction between strong mythicism and the more cautious positions that most critical scholars maintain.
Who Should Listen to Jesus: Mything in Action Vol. II
This volume is well-suited to listeners who have worked through Fitzgerald’s earlier volumes and want the fuller argument developed across the gospel texts and the non-biblical sources. It is also appropriate for listeners with a background in religious history or biblical criticism who want an accessible but substantive treatment of the mythicist position from its most readable current advocate. Atheists and agnostics who find the question of Christian origins genuinely interesting, as a historical and textual puzzle rather than purely as a polemical target, will find Fitzgerald satisfying company for seven hours.
Listeners who are committed believers for whom the question of Jesus’s historical existence is settled should know that Fitzgerald’s project is designed to unsettle it. He is not gratuitously hostile to religious faith, but the argument is persistent and the evidence it marshals is presented as pointing in one direction. Listeners looking for a balanced presentation of multiple scholarly positions rather than an argument for a specific conclusion will find this less useful than a more survey-oriented introduction to New Testament scholarship.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Jesus: Mything in Action Vol. II be listened to without the earlier volumes?
Technically yes, but the argument builds cumulatively across Fitzgerald’s series, beginning with Nailed and continuing through Volume I. Volume II assumes you understand the methodology and central claims established earlier and does not re-introduce them. Starting here is possible but means missing the argumentative foundation that makes the specific evidence in this volume most persuasive.
Is David Fitzgerald a biblical scholar, and how seriously is his work taken within academic circles?
Fitzgerald is not an academic biblical scholar by professional training. He is a historian and popular writer whose work has been engaged with by scholars on both sides of the Jesus historicity debate. He acknowledges his position as an outsider to mainstream New Testament scholarship and engages directly with the academic reception of mythicism, including its critics, throughout the series.
How does this compare to Richard Carrier’s On the Historicity of Jesus for someone interested in the mythicist position?
Carrier’s work is pitched at academic audiences and is significantly more technically rigorous and densely argued. Fitzgerald covers substantial overlapping territory but is considerably more readable and accessible for non-specialists. One reviewer who had read both recommended starting with Fitzgerald and following up with Carrier for the full scholarly treatment. They are complementary rather than redundant.
Does the audiobook edition add anything to the print version, or is it simply a reading of the text?
Fitzgerald’s self-narration brings his conversational style to life in a way that suits the material. He writes with wit and enthusiasm, and his voice carries those qualities naturally. The audio format suits his approach better than it might suit a drier academic text, the humor lands better heard than read, and the rhetorical structure of each chapter is easier to follow when paced by a speaker who knows where the argument is going.
