disease, the religion professor found herself drawn to a Christian church again for the first time in many years. In Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas Pagels, best know for her National Book Award winner The Gnostic Gospels, wrestles with her own faith as she struggles to understand when--and why--Christianity became associated almost exclusively with the ideas codified in the fourth-century Nicene Creed and in the canonical texts of the New Testament. In her exploration, she uncovers the richness and diversity of Christian philosophy that has only become available since the discovery of the Nag Hammadi texts.At the centre of Beyond Belief is what Pagels identifies as a textual battle between the Gospel of Thomas (rediscovered in Egypt in 1945) and the Gospel of John. While these gospels have many superficial similarities, Pagels demonstrates that John, unlike Thomas, declares that Jesus is equivalent to "God the Father" as identified in the Old Testament. Thomas, in contrast, shares with other supposed secret teachings a belief that Jesus is not God but, rather, is a teacher who seeks to uncover the divine light in all human beings. Pagels then shows how the Gospel of John was used by Bishop Irenaeus of Lyon and others to define orthodoxy during the second and third centuries. The secret teachings were literally driven underground, disappearing until the 20th century. As Pagels argues this process "not only impoverished the churches that remained but also impoverished those [Irenaeus] expelled". Beyond Belief offers a profound framework with which to examine Christian history and contemporary Christian faith, and Pagels renders her scholarship in a highly readable narrative. The one deficiency in Pagels' examination of Thomas, if there is one, is that she never fully returns in the end to her own struggles with religion that so poignantly open the book. How has the mysticism of the Gnostic Gospels affected her? While she hints that she and others have found new pathways to faith through Thomas, the impact of Pagels' work on contemporary Christianity may not be understood for years to come. --Patrick O'Kelley, Amazon.com
Advantages: Interesting and controversial Disadvantages: Heavily weighted in gnostic topics in some parts
...ElainePagels is perhaps best known as the author of the popular text, ‘The Gnostic Gospels’, highlighting a lesser known arena in early Christian history. Her reputation is somewhat controversial, as is her writing, but one thing is certain – she is a good writer, interesting to read, and she will make her readers think. This particular book, ‘Adam, Eve and the Serpent’ deals with issues surrounding sexuality and gender, a hot topic in the social and cultural situations of today, but similarly of concern throughout much of Christian history. There is a tug-of-war between ‘traditional values’ (leaving aside that there are various traditions) and ‘revisionist’ or ‘modern’ ideas, and few are in agreement over where the boundaries should be drawn.
‘Abrupt changes in social attitudes have recently become commonplace, especially...
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very helpful 07.10.2004
Can you keep a secret? Review ofBeyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas - ElainePagelsby
frkurt
Advantages: Great style, interesting topic Disadvantages: -
...ElainePagels is perhaps best known for her text, ‘The Gnostic Gospels’ first published in 1979, in which she explores the different alternative gospel and scriptural writings used by (or at least known to) the Gnostic sects of Christians and proto-Christians in the early years of the common era. In this book, ‘Beyond Belief’, she returns to this subject by focusing more intensely upon the Secret Gospel of Thomas, one of the many gospel texts floating around the ancient Christian world, prior to the time the canon of scripture was more-or-less solidified.
She begins with a remarkably personal tale, her idea of faith and the power of God in the face of her own son’s problem – he had been diagnosed with a fatal disease, one that is required painful and risky procedures with little hope of success. Where does faith come from in a time...
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Advantages: Well researched, well written, interesting topic Disadvantages: none
...In her prize-winning book 'The Gnostic Gospels', a book which has remained in the popular eye for the past two decades since its first publication in 1979, ElainePagels has put together a popular treatment of a hitherto (but since more popularly-accessible) academic-only subject. The discoveries of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Library were very much a topic of conversation, but always topics about which things were spoken, rather than of which things were spoken. This book helped change that in common parlance, and also served as a basic primer for those new to the field who would then proceed to more in-depth study and analysis.
In her relatively substantial introduction, Pagels goes through a history of the coming into light of the texts of Nag Hammadi, contrasting it with the more popularly known Dead Sea Scrolls...
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07.10.2004
13.02.2003
