My take, and far as I know it's unique to me, is that Jesus existed, probably did some preaching, and was crucified. There were a lot of streetcorner ranters back then and the Romans did crucify a lot of people. And they were halfway decent about keeping records.
The Jesus we know is a fiction created by the Romans to pacify the Jews. The Jews made shitty slaves but were awaiting a messiah so the Romans gave them one, but made him a wimp. A slave god. Be a good slave and you'll get a nice reward for it after you die. It would have worked, too, except the Romans didn't understand Jungian psychology. They didn't realize what a shadow self they were creating by insisting people emulate an archetype of pure empathy.
Basically, I see Christianity as the result of social engineering from a couple millennia ago, and its worldwide dominance is due to its accidentally militaristic nature.
