Rating: 
Summary: Reads like a suspense story
Review: The nice thing about this book is that it is written like a suspense story. I couldnt stop it till I finished it. Very talented scholar/writer
Rating:
Summary: Courageous!
Review: This book goes a long way toward explaining from an historical viewpoint how Christianity moved from the creation-is-good view of the Hebrew Bible to the humans-are-bad, body-is-bad view of Augustine. Pagels is a scholar who knows how to make this material accessible and isn't afraid of possible "heresy."
Rating:
Summary: Accessible and fascinating...
Review: This scholarly though very accessible text explores the early Christian interpretations of the Book of Genesis, particularly Adam and Eve's exile from paradise, due to disobeying God, and partaking of the forbidden fruit. The Fall of Man continues to be debated as to its significance, in terms of its influence on modern civilization: sexual, religious, cultural, political and sociological affect on our general attitudes and beliefs about human nature, the nature of the Divine, and our place in existence, as Pagels convincingly points out, is truly pervasive and profound. It can be argued that the subject of theology is or has become a disciplined subject like any other 'social science', because it employs similar methods of analysis and interpretation to present its perspective arguments. The arguments on this particular point continue to rage, too, in academic circles. Because religion and the 'reading' of scripture can be tainted with prior beliefs and literal interpretations, some would argue that exegesis does not belong in the 'rigorous' systems of the secular humanities. But here we are touching upon another subject of the humanities known as hermeneutics: the interpretation of texts. In the realm of theology, the term 'exegesis' (interpretation of scripture or what one reads out of the text) and 'eisegesis': an analysis or meaning one projects into scripture, or reading into the text, as a way to justify the readers pre-conceived beliefs, is another subject of contention. (It can also be argued that all reading is subjective, and what the individual reader brings to the text is what gives the text meaning.) However, Pagels presents her method of interpretation of scripture and the historical perspectives she intends to use clearly in her introduction: "I am interested in a process of intellectual history...in the hermeneutical process - how Christians read the story of Adam and Eve, and often projected themselves into it, as a way of reflecting upon such matters as sexuality, human freedom, and human nature." (xxi) Pagels' text is an historical analysis of the various interpretations of The Fall, and how these interpretations were affected by cultural and historical conditions, beginning with the early Christian writers in the New Testament, including the radical interpretations of certain early Gnostic writers, ending with the highly influential interpretations of St. Augustine and the writings of John Chrysostom and the Pelagians. St. Augustine and the Pelagians hold entirely opposite views on the meaning of The Fall, where only one, interestingly, has managed to hold significance, down through the ages, for modern Christians. On the surface, this text appears complex and written purely for an academic audience. But what makes this book brilliant is its accessibility to all intelligent readers interested in the history of Western religion and how its ideas has shaped our modern world.
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