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Summary: Are you kidding?
Review: To the reviewer who was surprised that there are more than four gospels in the new testament, there aren't. There are more than four texts going by the name "the gospel of" but only Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are canonical.With that said, how does anyone manage to take Elaine Pagels seriously??
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Summary: another gem
Review: Intelligent, wisely researched and highly illuminating journey through the history of beliefs. Pagels consistently satisfies with fresh insights and a probing, but readable, analysis of the seminal issues. I recommend reading all of her books. This one goes well with "The Book Your Church Doesn't Want You To Read," edited by Tim Leedom. If you're into Billy Graham and Benny Hinn, then run very quickly into the other direction! You must protect your preconceptions at all costs!
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Summary: Not enough information about Thomas
Review: Disappointing....
The book is only 1/5th about the Gospel of Thomas, 3/5ths about the history of the early church; and, 1/5 was about the life events which led her to look at Church history differently.
If you want a short introduction of the history of the early church and its evolution then this may be a book for that.
The cover was beautiful, the book was not.
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Summary: A wonderful history of the early Christian Church
Review: While one might argue that the title of this book, "Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas" is a bit misleading, the historical story told about the early church is fascinating. How did orthodoxy come to be? Why are we just finding out about the lost gospels discovered at Nag Hammadi? What is in these lost texts that makes us ponder current Christian dogma? Pagels answers these questions with a wonderful mixture of her own spiritual journey mixed with copious and scholarly historical facts. If these questions are interest to you, buy this book! If, however, you expect to read a scholar's point-by-point explanation of the puzzling manuscript, The Gospel of Thomas, look elsewhere. She makes her point clearly that Thomas' text lies in sharp contrast to the Gospel of John canonized into the New Testament, but she does not deal with the cynic-like character and terse sayings of Thomas that puzzle the lay reader. For me, this was OK. The gestalt treatment of Thomas was more than sufficient to give me an understanding of its huge implications for current orthodoxy. I loved this book. If you want to understand the early Christian movement (50-350 CE), you must have this book. If you are interested in a scholarly and focused treatment of the Thomas text, look elsewhere.
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Summary: Not a lot about Thomas
Review: After reading Ms. Pagels' earlier work "Gnostic Gospels", I was interested in reading this new one, hoping for more information about these manuscripts. The author did not disappoint in that respect, although there was not as much information about the Thomas gospel as I had expected. Instead the reader is given a history of how the New Testament we use today came into being, and I was grateful for that, because it filled in a lot of gaps about my knowledge of this particular aspect of church history. The book is well-written and quite informative on many levels, even if the reader does not always agree with the author's conclusions, particularly about the motivation of the church leaders of the time. Ms. Pagels is an excellent writer, and has gotten me quite interested in this subject, and that is always paramount.
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Summary: Wasn't what I expected
Review: I was all kinda excited because the title beyond belief wmeans well it is beyond belief right ? So I bought it. But it was really her beliefs her being the writer. And to be honest, don't you want buy a book like this because it is EXCITING? Well, this one ain't. She's like blah bah blah about I hink this and I think that bla blah.
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Summary: Beyond Dogma: The Creation of Christ, Inc.
Review: Probably no one has been the cause of more bloodshed than Christ--not Christ the rabbi and, for some, the savior, but Christ the Idea. From the Crusades through the enslavement of the Jews, the proselytization of Hindus, Muslims, etc. the Christians have thrust their understanding of their cult down the world's collective throat. And it stands to reason. As the Bible explains, Esau would create a nation that would be the eternal enemy of the Jews. The nation was Rome, and the method of bequeathing the anti-semitism to future generations long after the fall of the Empire was Catholicism as distorted by the Vatican. This form of Christianity was and is an effort by the descendants of Esau to reclaim the birthright he sold to his brother. Pagels excavates Christianity from political and economic agendas. She strips away the dogma intended to divide and conquer and shows that the message of Christ is enduring, true, and inspiring, irrespective of one's religion. This is an important book. While no one will ever adduce conclusive and irrefutable proof of Christ's life and teachings, Pagels gets darn close with arguments and supporting documentation that are durable, persuasive, and sound. A mind opener.
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Summary: Not a lot about Thomas
Review: Let me begin by saying that I enjoyed reading this book, and I learned a lot from it about the Gnostic Gospels. That being said, however, I must confess that, the subtitle of this book notwithstanding, there is not a lot in it about the Secret Gospel of Thomas. The wide-ranging discussions in the book do make up for that, because the author covers in some detail the Gnostic Gospels found near Nag Hammadi, and that, I think, is the real point of the book. I think the subtitle should be removed, and that might end some of the controversy about this work. I alweays read non-fiction works to learn something new, and this work, to some extent, expands Ms. Pagels earlier work on the Gnostic Gospels, which I finished a week or so ago. That book gave me an interest in this subject, and I was curious to see how she explained the codification of the New Testament. I feel that was done very well, without leaning in any particular direction in her conclusions. There are other works about this turbulent period of Church history, and I intend to seek them out. That is a tribute to Ms. Pagels and her ability to stimulate intellectual interest in her readers.
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Summary: Convincing and balanced
Review: This book is an excellent follow-on to Pagels' earlier work, "The Gnostic Gospels"; it's based on many of the same texts, but incorporates insights from the extensive scholarly work done on the Nag Hammadi texts since the first book was written. To me, the points that stood out were: (1) The earlier 3 Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) tell essentially the same story; the inclusion of John as the fourth canonical Gospel put a different spin on "Who was Jesus?", and caused later commentators and readers to view the other 3 Gospels through that lens. (2) The Gospels of John and Thomas are contemporaneous and express two differing views of Christian thought and behavior; for various reasons (many of them political), John was chosen as the "official" view and Thomas was suppressed. (3) The idea that Christianity should have a single, "orthodox" set of beliefs and practices was a defensive response to persecution; in the beginning, Christianity was far more loosely organized and diverse than the "official" history makes it out to be. I felt that Pagels argued her points well, supported them with ample scholarly evidence, and aired differing views as well as her own, so I found the book an impressive piece of work. (It's a pity that it has become a sort of Rorschach test for reviewers -- many of the reviews I've read seem to be about the book that the reviewer THINKS that Pagels wrote, rather than the one she actually wrote!)
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Summary: A personal testimony with some historical explanation
Review: This book is OK; it depends on what you're looking for. It's mostly a testimony of Pagels' life history and relationship to Christianity. In that regard it is somewhat interesting, but not as scholarly as one might think. In it, she examines the Gospel of Thomas and relates how much of its content is personally satisfying and could be used to reinvigorate traditional Christian faith. This is more about her personal journey of spiritual enlightenment gained from examining this gospel. One of the most interesting parts of the book is where she defends her position that the Gospel of John was written specifically to refute the Gospel of Thomas. This is a pretty strong argument and I found myself giving it considerable thought. This motive could very well be responsible for our knowing Thomas as the doubting apostle who is portrayed as not having the same authority the other apostles had. It's becoming pretty clear to me that all the gospels were written for similar reasons and thus can't be trusted as reliable historical documents. She briefly describes the history of the selection of the New Testament canon and explains the process whereby some documents were accepted while others were not. She also includes a chapter containing a cursory history of the Church up to the time of Constantine. This is useful but very high level and not extremely informative. As a personal testimony this book is interesting; as a work of scholarship it's weak.
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