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Summary: Is ¿Jesus' God or simply "one of us" pointing us to God?
Review: Is 'Jesus' God or simply "one of us" pointing us to God? This question is the crux of Pagels' book: the Gospel of John (Jesus is divine) or the Gospel of Thomas (Jesus comes forth from the divine light, but so do we all). The Nicene council cemented the Christian statement of faith, but according to Pagels' history, could have, or should have, pushed another gospel.'Beyond Belief' is more than a discussion about why John got in the Bible; 'Beyond Belief' is also a book about the skeptic, for skeptics. This is a book that affirms the questioning Christian and historically supports the doubting 'Thomas'. With Pagels you will have a friend and advocate; one who states that it is not only dutiful, but historically correct for Christians to question the divinity of Jesus. This book is, in actuality, about accepting your place, in the Christian world, as a heretic. Heresy originally meant - the act of choice. And if you 'choose' which elements of Christianity to accept and practice, and which to reject, then you fit Pagels' definition of heretic. For Pagels the choice not to unquestioningly accept religious authority is good, right and what those seeking both truth and God, must ultimately do. Elaine Pagels so states: "Most of us, sooner or later, find that, at critical points in our lives, we must strike out on our own to make a path where none exists." Highly recommended for those who think outside the big box.
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Summary: "Gnostic Gospels" twenty years later
Review: Other reviewers much more knowledgable than I can debate the fine points of biblical scholarship--but for the lay person Pagels work brings home a few basic points. Building on her own work and that of others in the last twenty years, Pagels once again demonstrates that while the birth and death of Jesus are historical facts, who he was and what his life meant will mystify forever. That any one interpretation can lay claim to being "the truth" seems more unlikely than ever after reading this book. Pagels meticulously details the process by which men came together around a set of common beliefs embodied in the Creed of the 4th century. Certain writings of the early church became the Gospels and others were supressed as the church grew, certain factions gained power, and finally Christianity became the state religion. It was only in the 4th century that the earliest list of books that became the "New Testament" appears.
Pagels raises a lot of tough questions. The modern church--particularly the Roman catholic church--teaches that we know God through faith, not the mind. But early Christian writings suggest another approach. We are taught that a certian set of beliefs is required for salvation--but why? Is not God essentially unknowable? Why is it so dangerous to interpret events like the Last Supper in different ways? Did God truly intend for us to abandon our powers of reason and judgment? Are we not all responsible, as difficult as it is, to engage in the hard work of distinguishing right from wrong, truth from lies?
Some reviewers fault Pagels for being too objective--but isn't that the point? She no more has the answer than anyone else. But she poses the questions.
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Summary: Sort of about the Gospel of Thomas
Review: A pretty good, but light and unfocused introduction to the Gospel of Thomas (which hardly achieves the right to the book's subtitle). Pagels never seems to commit to her declared topic, and comes off "too unbiased" in my opinion. Her research contributes to gnostic studies in almost revolutionary ways, but she never seems to realize the magnitude of her subject matter, and takes an irritatingly bland middle-ground throughout. Is she a modern gnostic or not? I liked Pagel's earlier book on "The Gnostic Gospels" better, and was expecting a more detailed, in-depth discussion of the Thomas gospel in this brief tome. For the lay-reader and simply curious, this is a decent starting point. If you're looking for more details about gnosticism, she has contemporary recommendations of more recent publications in her bibliography. Personally, I'd highly recommend the following: "Gnosis", by Kurt Rudolph; "The Gnostic Religion," by Hans Jonas, & the older, more obscure "Fragments of a Faith Forgotten," by GRS Mead. And, of course, the actual Nag Hammadi Library printed & edited by James Robinson is "the source" (along with the syntopic Bible). As for "Beyond Belief", I have to agree with the reviewer responding to "Peculiar Reviewers" in that there are a handful of seemingly offended people out there who just don't get it when it comes to what gnosticism represents. It's very much alive and growing world-wide, and many would argue that it's never really disappeared, only taken on new forms. Pagels illustrates more specifically where and how Catholicism as we know it today came to be, and on what foundations (by ignoring discrepencies between many so-called "gnostic" texts in favor of the gospel of John, Matthew, Mark and Luke). She focuses more on John and its similarities and differences with the discarded Thomas gospel, which didn't jibe with the political direction the early church fathers such as Irenaeus were pushing so hard for. "Beyond Belief" seems to really be a blend of biblical history, and Pagel's personal philosophy of "practicing" faith instead of simply "believing"; or reading about it. Jesus would be proud.
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Summary: As Good As Her Book "Gnostic Gospels"
Review: I got this book after having read her 1979 published work, "The Gnostic Gospels", which was and still is a best seller and an extraordinary book. You know, the critique of Page's "personal interpretations" in other reviews kind of astounds me. Unless you plan to write the book as a literal translation, and even then personal interpretation seeps through, it's impossible not to have it happen. That's what books are; an author's words and personal thoughts. She's considered by countless reader's and scholars to be the country's foremost authoritarian on religion, being a Professor of Religion at Princeton. So I think her credentials to interpret are all reliable frankly. Now obviously this book tackles one of the most profound of all the ancient texts found in Egypt in 1945: The Gospel of Thomas. Pagels contours the struggles here between Irenaeus, the prime draftsman of the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and those who found value and legitimacy in the "secret" Gospel of Thomas. John's Jesus and Thomas's Jesus appear to be from two completely different worlds, though some of the same storyline exists in both. John's was more an arrow pointing outward, and Thomas's was more of an arrow pointing inward. The numinous style in the Gospel of Thomas respects the image of God that's within one and all. This struggle of dogma is ongoing, between orthodox Christians and Gnostic Christians (the latter appears to be somewhat more open to a very wide range of diversity). Today, as in all the ages, Gnostics are considered by in large to be heretics, a name which for too many denotes the devil. That being said, I can understand why many reviewers are reluctant to give this a listen I suppose. It's difficult for Christians to embrace so called "pluralism" or the religion of others. Elaine is successful in her critique of the superior role BELIEF persists to play in Christianity, which at first isn't entirely bad. But maybe in the coming years, more "believers" will see and treasure the multiplicity within their own institution and start benefiting from The Gospel of Thomas and the other early Christian Gnostic texts. It's a great book, so please enjoy it.
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Summary: Enigmatic!
Review: BEYOND BELIEF compares the Gospel of John with the Gospel of St. Thomas found among a cache of texts near Nag Hammadi in upper Egypt in 1945. Pagels suggests that both were written about the same time, about sixty years after Jesus's death. John emphasizes belief in Jesus Christ as god (something that is not implicit in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke); Jesus is a supreme being, separate from man and if we are to be saved we must believe in him. Thomas, on the other hand, argues that God's light shines within and that we should seek to know God through our own, divinely given capacity.
Parts of BEYOND BELIEF are quite compelling, such as Pagel's portrayal of early Christians living by the Golden Rule, even during the plague when they stayed with their fellow Christians while everyone else ran away to save themselves. Non-believers saw this and wanted to be part of this compassionate religion. Most of the book, however, deals with how the New Testament came about. Pagel gives most of the credit to early church father Irenaeus who emphasized the Gospel of John and put it above Matthew, Mark, and Luke although it was written later. Pagels argues that the Gospel of John may have been a response to the Gospel of Thomas, since it is the only one that shows St. Thomas doubting Christ when he appeared to the Apostles after rising from the dead.
A later chapter deals with Christianity after Constantine's conversion when he called together catholic bishops to form the Nicene Creed, during which time many of Irenaeus ideas were given an official stamp. A later bishop, Athanasius, called for the destruction of "apocryphal" texts and it was most likely then that St. Thomas's gospel was hidden at Nag Hammadi. Athanasius wanted right thinking among his subjects and warned against something called "epinoia," or spiritual intuition, "a deceptive, all-too human capacity to think subjectively, according to one's preconceptions."
If you're expecting a thorough analysis of the Gospel of St. Thomas, you won't find it here (although Pagels does refer the reader to other scholars who discuss it extensively). You will, however, find the entire text in an appendix. Some of it is quite enigmatic, especially saying 114 in which Peter asks Jesus to make Mary Magdalen leave since "females are not worthy of life." Jesus promises to make her male "for every female who makes herself male will enter the Kingdom of Heaven." Much of St. Thomas's Gospel is every bit as enigmatic.
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Summary: Scholarly and beautifully written...
Review: This provocative and informative little book explores the historical beginnings of Christianity. As has been pointed out by other critics, the text is, for the most part, a personal though scholarly exploration into what the Christian religion offers, in terms of its doctrines, orthodox and heretical, and that our faith or belief in what has been handed down to us from the original church fathers, can be questioned, though in the end, what we find to be true is a personal affair between us and the Divine. Personally, gaining knowledge about the history of Christianity, its early writings, and the profound political influences that shaped 'orthodoxy', in the first centuries of the first millennia, reveals aspects about Christianity that not only informs belief, but also provides deeper meaning and understanding. Pagels' examines the differences between the Gospel of John in the New Testament and The Secret Gospel of Thomas, found in Nag Hammadi in 1947. Scholars believe these two texts to be written at the same time, around the first century. The central difference between the two Gospels is the interpretation of what actually constitutes Christ's nature, i.e., who he was and what he was, in terms of either being a prophet, a 'man' endowed with the Divine spark, to then begin his ministry, spreading his word of love, or actually the Son of God, come down from heaven in human form to save us from our sins. In the Gospel of John, there is no question that Jesus is represented as the Divine, who has been born by Immaculate Conception, sacrificing himself on the cross to save us from our sins, and who rose from the dead three days later. In the Gospel of Thomas, however, Christ can be interpreted as human, who asks us to look within ourselves in order to understand God. He tells us to seek, and to not stop seeking, until we find the truth. This point of interpretation, as to Christ's true nature, was argued by the church fathers in the third century which set Christian doctrine in stone ever since. Certain gospels were deemed heretical based on certain interpretations, and thrown out of the canon. The Secret Gospel of Thomas was one of them. The reasons for throwing out some scripture over others is examined in some detail in this book, however, the main reason was to ensure the church had a unifying doctrine that would bring the many Christian sects at the time under one authority, creating the Catholic or Universal church. As history has shown, they were successful. The reasons for their success, though, are not limited to 'correct' interpretation of scripture, but extend to political, historical and cultural influences at the time. I found this book to be beautifully written and informative, but it mostly inspired me to investigate the history of Christianity and how that history has shaped what it has become today.
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Summary: Hidden Good News from Long Ago
Review: According to Publishers Weekly, Beyond Belief was the fifth best selling religious book in 2003. In it, Elaine Pagels discusses insights from the first Century AD that were well known to the Early Church but have been lost over time. Pagels introduces twenty-first century Christians to a work that has gone unnoticed for most of the intervening centuries, the secret Gospel of Thomas. We already have four Gospels in the New Testament, so why might Christians want to know what is in this non-canonical book? Dr. Pagels, who is the Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University, says that this is a distinctive voice about the history of early Christianity. It is original source material. It would be like discovering a heretofore unknown history of the Revolutionary War era written by one of the Signers, only more so; since it has to do with the history of the Church of Jesus Christ. Dr. Pagels describes the world of the Early Church in vibrant and exciting ways, in an initial chapter called "From the Feast of Agape to the Nicene Creed." Her account of the growth and development of the Christian faith demonstrates that it happened amid varying views and diverse ideas of how to put faith into practice. Pagels' contention is that there was at that time an internal debate within the Church that can be drawn along the lines of the views that are familiar to us from the Gospel of John and views in the Gospel of Thomas. The debate centered upon what is most important about spiritual and religious expression-and what following Jesus meant, long before the books to be included in the New Testament were agreed upon. While John's Gospel famously speaks of Christ as Light dwelling within all beings and the source of all creation, the Gospel of Thomas speaks of Christ as "hidden good news" in much the same way that Jesus told of the treasure hidden in the field, the tiny mustard seed and the pearl of great price. The Gospel of Thomas is unfamiliar to us because it is one of about fifty early Christian texts that went missing in ancient days and have only recently come to light. So, like other information that antique its unfamiliarity may strike us as both unusual and incorrect. But it also helps us understand the decisions in the Early Church that led to the theology of John's Gospel to come to the fore and the information in this other work to recede into the background. Beyond the historical information, what else might we glean from this book? Perhaps Dr. Pagels says it best. The book offers "insights or intimations of the divine that validate themselves in experience-what we might call hits and glimpses..." (page 183). If you would like to peer into the First and Second Century world of the Church, try this one.
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Summary: Good conclusions - poorly presented
Review: In several ways this book reaches further than THE GNOSTIC GOSPELS. It appears that Ms. Pagels ideas have "evolved" on the subject of Gnosticism. She now can venture that perhaps John was a Gnostic Gospel while so-called Gnostic works should be seen as more in line with traditional documents. The author sets out on a task that has eluded many others: The discovery of the origins of Christianity, those first years when it was still a small sect of mainly Jews whose beliefs were totally at odds with those of later generations. And what she found was surprising - this apparently orthodox religion was never pure nor simple not were its followers in agreement on beliefs. Instead, the movement emerged from theological and cultural conflicts and the Jesus we now know is the outcome of that battle. Her vehicles for time travel are the newly discovered Gospel of Thomas and the John, the fourth Gospel. The reason we have four and not five or six or seven Gospels is due to the battles of theology and history. To the victors go the spoils. She points out that John itself veers radically away from the Synoptics.
Jesus becomes God, the Creator of the Universe, his humanity only a veneer for divinity. Jesus the man was of no importance except for fulfilling Old Testament prophecy. The many autobiographical references are cumbersome and get in the way of the story. This is a book for the educated layman who does not want to get too deep, or too wild or too controversial.
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Summary: Gnosis for the ungnosis
Review: I enjoyed contemplating the contrasting scenarios that the author emphasizes. We are still trying to protect our turf today. The evident bias that comes through Pagels is not unlike what an objective observation of churchdom would reveal to one not directly caught up in the social/political ramifications. It is curious that for the first two centuries there was no Christian doctrine, separation of clergy from laity and designated church buildings. At the same time there was complex Judical and pagan ritual and doctrines, separation of priestly orders from the common and temples throughout. Persecution could explain some of this silence but the same is also said to be the seed of expansion.
Ecclesiastical hierarchy and dominance is an ingrediant that has never ceased to try and own and use the freedom of the Spirit. It has too many allegorical or otherwise historical accounts through the pages of the Bible from Gensis through the Gospels and Epistles. The fact that we humans are always trying to build, justify and protect our empires is in itself a testimony to understand why we all should take a good hard look at any institution that claims exclusive rights to God. I agree that there is some speculation and selective resources that would reinforce her personal search for a deeper faith but I too find it hard swallow that the assumptive message of Jesus was to establish another ecclesiastical institution. I would recommend this book for those who seek to clarify their Spiritual heritage. Even if it reinforces there acceptance of orthodoxy.
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Summary: Gets you thinking!
Review: In the early days of the Christian Church there was a small flock of believers who really engaged in their religion. They thought it through and argued over the nature of divinity and what it meant to be a Christian. As one would expect, with such ardent argument going on, there were many diverse views of what belief should be. The Gospel of Thomas is only one of these beliefs. Gnostic Christianity is another. To compound the matter the Christian church was ruled by five prelates, each seeing himself as equal to the other four. Rome, Byzantium, Antioch, Jereusalem and Alexandria each felt entitled to promote their own ideas. Over time, as the church grew larger and larger, there was an increased need for simplification. Argument confused new converts. The church decided to sell one single message. And the Gospel of St John emerged as the winner over the Gospel of St Thomas. There were undoubtedly many other texts discarded along the way to arrive at the Catholic Dogma. Once the Dogma was agreed, all other beliefs and arguments became heresy, and they were rooted out and culled by a church that went from strength to strength. The wisdom of the approach adopted by the Christian church was attested to by it's subsequent success. But in the last century, with increasing educational levels, the faithful are asking hard questions again in a way they have not done since the days of the early Christian church. And the major churches have singularly failed to answer these questions. This has caused a fall off in church attendance, a drift into eastern beliefs and a revival of gnosticism. Elaine Pagels raises many questions in her book, and points to the personal circumstances that led her to ask the hard questions of her church and her belief. She had revived her own faith by revisiting the thinking of the early church. And she hopes that others can do the same. For a Vatican that is horrified by the revival of the "Eastern Heresy" this is bad news, and they do not like it. But then the Vatican has been out of step with society for the last 40 years. It is locked in a medieval timewarp that is a product of feudalism and the "divine right to rule". They seem to have missed events such as the English Civil War, the French Revolution and the arrival of democracy. The idea that wisdom could flow upwards from the "flock" is foreign to the organised church, who are too used to dictating from the top.
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