In The Christ Myth, Nicholas Carter solves the great mystery of how the Semitic Christ became the savior god of much of the non-Jewish world. Tracing the origins of the myth step by step, Mr. Carter delves deeply into the racial and religious chaos of the first-century Middle East, eventually leading us to a group of Hellenized, reformist Jews known as the New Letzim. Their cult sought to merge Greek philosophical tenets with Jewish traditions, spawning numerous sects, some exclusively Jewish, some welcoming non-Jews in varying degrees. One faction which broke away from exclusive Jewish leadership, according to the author, was the sect which eventually became the Catholic Church, which, when creating its sacred texts, borrowed extensively not only from Judaism and the New Letzim, but also from the widespread non-Jewish mystery religions of that era.