"In the beginning was the Word," reads the Gospel of John. This sentence and the words of all four gospels are central to the teachings of the Christian church and have shaped Western art, literature, and language, and the Western mind. Yet in the years after the death of Christ, there was not merely one word, nor any consensus as to who Jesus was or why he had mattered. There were many different Jesuses: the Jesus who scorned his parents and harmed those who opposed him; the Jesus who sold his twin into slavery; the Jesus who had someone crucified in his stead. Moreover, in the early years of the millennium, there were many other saviors, many sons of gods who healed the wounded and cured the sick. But as Christianity spread, they were pronounced unacceptable--even heretical--and they faded from view. Now, in Heretic, Cathering Nixey tells their extraordinary and thrilling story, one of plurality, power, and chance. It is a story about what might have been.--Jacket flap