Insights from the Secret Teachings of Jesus: The Gospel of Thomas

Rating:
Summary: Great Toe Wetter!!
Review: As a novice of Gnosticism, I have found this book to be structured in a very easy to read format and at the same time challenge the reader to look within and discover how these secret teachings touch their perception of reality.

I have always been a fan of writers who can write like they would address a crowd and roll my eyes at authors who must show off their capacity for writing in an ultra-intellectualized manner. Get to the point, I say!!

Despite one reviewers "rant" about spelling and credit errors, this book can help answer questions a person may be asking themselves about life in this world as well as inspire a seeker to explore deeper, the messages of our greatest spiritual teachers. This book would make for a terrific discussion group!

Rating:
Summary: Pedantic Rant
Review: I really wanted to like this book because Elaine Pagels seems to endorse it and reading the Gospel of Thomas myself didn't do much for me. The book contains so many glaring spelling and grammatical errors that I can't read more than a page or two without getting frustrated. I think it seriously challenges the credibility of the author and the publisher if they can't find a decent editor, or spell-check program, to correct the manuscript. The author mistakenly attributes the saying "To thine own self be true" to Emerson instead of Shakespeare (Polonius says it in "Hamlet"), he spells consensual as "consentual", uses advise when he means advice, uses apostrophes willy-nilly by adding them where they are not needed and forgetting them where they are and various other mistakes that detract from the otherwise not-so-bad message. I was hoping for a book with more scholarly heft but I respect the author's desire to share. I'm sorry I can't recommend it more highly.

Rating:
Summary: Pedantic Rant
Review: I really wanted to like this book because Elaine Pagels seems to endorse it and reading the Gospel of Thomas myself didn't do much for me. The book contains so many glaring spelling and grammatical errors that I can't read more than a page or two without getting frustrated. I think it seriously challenges the credibility of the author and the publisher if they can't find a decent editor, or spell-check program, to correct the manuscript. The author mistakenly attributes the saying "To thine own self be true" to Emerson instead of Shakespeare (Polonius says it in "Hamlet"), he spells consensual as "consentual", uses advise when he means advice, uses apostrophes willy-nilly by adding them where they are not needed and forgetting them where they are and various other mistakes that detract from the otherwise not-so-bad message. I was hoping for a book with more scholarly heft but I respect the author's desire to share. I'm sorry I can't recommend it more highly.

Rating:
Summary: A New Breath into Reality
Review: Many books have been written about Jesus,each giving the author's point of view into things. I am happy that this book allows the reader's to keep a healthy frame of mind while exploring the origins of Jesus. Even though the events in the book could still be in question, it still shines hope into the true nature of our Creator.

Rating:
Summary: Spiritual Freedom without orthodox religion
Review: This book is a commentary about the writings of Jesus as recorded by the disciple St. Thomas. The Thomas Gospel was found near Nag Hammidi, close to where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. This Gospel, when translated, revealed 114 private and personal teachings of Jesus. These teachings were intended to instruct the people toward finding personal Spirituality and Light through individual spiritual inquiry.

Mr. Amundsen interprets these teachings in a way that makes them easy for one to understand and incorporate into their own life. In following these teachings, one can become free of orthodox religion, free from the rules and practices that have been dictated to us through the leaders of these religions for centuries.

In freeing yourself from the clutches of these religions, you will become enlightened, empowered, and will understand the way to self-knowledge. Self-knowledge leads to spirituality, which leads us to our own "God-Spark" or "Light". With this knowledge, we no longer need the power and politics that go with organized religion. We can use the teachings recorded in the Thomas Gospel to become our own selves, freed from the material, political, and physical retstraints of this world.

Though many experts believe this Gospel to be authentic, and to have been written sometime between the first and fourth century, the Catholic church, along with many other christian churches, call it heresy. It is not hard to understand why. This Gospel leads us to individuality, something these churches don't want to happen. They need the masses under their control to maintain their powerful and political strength. They want people to robotically follow their leadership, without questioning the rituals or rules of the church. They want us to NEED them be our path to God. They do not want us to realize that we have the power to find God ourselves, without needing a church to be our spokesperson.

If one studies the history of the early christian churches, especially the Catholic church, one can see how important it was for them to obtain the support of many people, thus gaining them a stronghold in the social and political structure of the era. The church set laws, controlled people, and eventually gained power over the actions of monarchies and governments. It was therefore very important for the "Church" to sift through all of the early christian writings and Gospels and to choose only those that fit into their formula for an organized church. These approved writings would eventually become the New Testament as we know it today. All other christian writings that threatened their structure became "heresy". The Thomas Gospel was one of those deemed to be heresy and those that followed it's teachings were condemed as heretics.

Mr. Amundsen says in his introduction, "...the Gospel of Thomas...certainly speaks of a different kind of Christianity than [the one that] has been passed down from the "Church Fathers" who seemed to have a great deal more invested in the creation and sustaining of an organized church body than in imparting a liberating message of spirituality".

It is refreshing to finally have access to these teachings of Jesus. Through the work of Mr. Amundsen, we can now read the insights, and study his evaluations and interpretations. This then gives us the power to incorporate what we have read into our own lives, however we may choose. We are freed from the structured religions who would have us follow blindly like sheep.

Where the Thomas Gospel has been available mostly only to the scholars who study them, Mr. Amundsen's work has now made them available (and understandable)to the rest of us. And this empowers us to decide how we want to pursue our own spirituality; find our own Light or "God Spark"; and communicate with God.

Reading this book will lift your spirit, lighten your heart, and give you hope. It will give you the power to find your own path in life and help you to follow it.

An interesting note: The movie "Stigmata" is about the finding of this Thomas Gospel, and the Catholic church's efforts to destroy or hide it because it is such a threat to the church. The reviewers of this movie do not seem to "get it" and thus have misinterpreted the whole point of the movie. While not the best movie in the world, if you are studying the Thomas Gospels, it is an interesting perspective on the subject.