Have we ever really understood Christianity?This book is about a man (Jesus of Nazareth) born millennia ago into a world in turmoil, his radical response to that world and the challenge he still presents for us today. The presence of Magi, right at the start of Christianity, greatly compounds the mystery surrounding the events initiated by this man's birth. These may be the only people ever to have really understood the deeper context of Christianity. Whatever the 'Star of Bethlehem' was it must have possessed a subtlety that has eluded cursory inspection. This book will reveal that while some astronomers might indeed have knocked at the correct door in this respect, they may not have possessed the keys necessary to enter through it. After revealing the key factors that gave this event its deeper context, the reader is taken through this door and on a journey to follow the Star for themselves -- from the flood plains of Mesopotamia to the remnants of the knowledge retained by the early Arabic astrologers after the period that convulsed the ancient world following the death of Christ. After placing the keys uncovered on a slightly more rational and empirical base, they are put together with truly dramatic results.*The Star emerges not as a fictional fragment but as the barely visible peak of something much more ancient and comprehensive than most people ever imagine in the context of Christianity.

*For the first time, knowledge pertaining to the Star can be revealed as concealed in plain sight within some of the most enigmatic passages in the Gospels themselves.*The Star is shown to be intimately related not only to the temptation and resurrection of Christ but to a great cycle of human cosmic evolution.Finally, the development of Christianity into the modern period is considered in order to examine the surprising significance of the Star for human beings living today.