Beyond Belief : The Secret Gospel of Thomas

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Summary: Beyond Belief: A Book About Elaine Pagels by Elaine Pagels
Review: In this book, Elaine Pagels once again attempts to debunk traditional Christianity by selectively using Gnostic texts - in this case the Gospel of Thomas (hereafter, "GThom")- as her ammunition. Rather than presenting a new, scholarly engagement of the Gospel of John and the Gospel of Thomas, Pagels scatters heavy doses of her own personal beliefs between her rehashing of previously developed theses. Simply put, she has nothing new to say on a scholarly level, but plenty to say autobiographically.

Dr. Pagels seems to be someone who is thoroughly disenchanted with Christianity, particularly of the evangelical persuasion. In this book proposes that if GThom had been included in the canon of the New Testament, then Christianity would have been "nicer": it would have allowed for more individuality, promoted women more, and been less "oppressive". Such an argument reads like an exercise in creative writing; it is, indeed, imaginative. However, such an argument is nothing more than speculation - how could such an argument be proven? It can't be. But, this semi-scholarly work by Pagels doesn't rely on the concreteness of its thought or the use of its sources.

In fact, it is downright bizarre that GThom and Gnosticism are used as sources for her own personal vendetta against Christianity when GThom says that women cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven unless they make themselves male. Having heard her speak on this particular saying several months ago at the University of Florida, it is clear to me that her selective use of Gnostic texts to support a de-centered, feminist Christianity cannot really stand on its own when left to face its Gnostic sources.

If you are interested in learning about Dr. Pagels' personal life, personal gripes, tragedies, and spiritual path, this is a great book to start out with. However, if you are looking to really learn about the Gospel of Thomas, look elsewhere. Reading Richard Valantasis' translation of the Gospel of Thomas would be a good place to start.

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Summary: A Brilliant Collection of Essays: Subtitle a Bit Misleading
Review: This new volume by Princeton's Elaine Pagels, who did much to both legitimize and popularize Gnostic religious studies with her groundbreaking The Gnostic Gospels (1979), has been for many the most hotly anticipated book in its area this decade--and it doesn't disappoint.  While essentially a long essay (it's actually five seperate ones, previously published but revised for accessability), weighing in at just 183 double-spaced pages (sans the copious and as-always expertly researched notes section), the book manages to cover the essentials of canonical Christian history, elucidate the importance of the (in)famous Gospel of Thomas and its relation to the canonical Gospel According to John (and other New Testament works) in a lucid and readable presentation that includes the author's own personal experience and reasons for going beyond the traditional "canon" for study. 
These are, in fact, separate essays which can be read exclusive of each other: the first two deal explicitly with Thomas and the others with other Nag Hammadi sources as well (The Gospel of Truth, The Gospel of Phillip, The Gospel of Mary (Magdeline), The Acts of John, The Round Dance of the Cross), etc. Pagels provides an excellent overview of the early history of Christianity and the formation of its canon, though a less comprehensive, but even more "readable" one than *Hidden Gospels*. Pagels sees the primacy of the "orthodox" in essentially political terms, centering the second-century Gallic bishop Irenaeus (fl. 190) as its most influentual figure. The drawback with the collected essays-as-book method is that the subtitle is somewhat deceptive and she repeats herself, as it were, some seventeen times, often word-for-word: too frequently for a two-sitting read that is presented as a new book. In her transitions, added for book publication, the seams show.
Still, the volume is a brilliant and engaging addition to the work that has made Pagels one of, if not the most important and accessable religious historian of her generation; and if you just read one book on religion published this year, for the sake of God, let it be this one. 

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Summary: The title is very accurate, it's beyond belief.
Review: This is just another attempt of man falling,(again), for the same original lie that Satan promised to Eve in the garden of Eden. (That promise being that man can become a god. See Genesis 3: 4,5) My advice is avoid this book and read the Gospel of John in the Authorized (King James) Version in order to receive eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Gospel of John does not contradict the other 65 books of the Bible, but "Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas" surely does contradict all 66 books of the Bible, and that is why it never was a part of the canon of Scripture and never will be.

If you need a Bible, Amazon has a good selection of Authorized (King James) Bibles published by Cambridge University Press.

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Summary: Not exactly what it claims to be
Review: First, a disclaimer: Elaine Pagels ranks very close to the top of my list of favorite authors. I have always found her work enlightening, interesting, well-researched, and readable.

Now, the squawk: The title of "Beyond Belief" leads the reader to expect an exegesis of the Gospel of Thomas. Although the Gospel of Thomas is mentioned from time to time, this book is about something else entirely. To the extent that it interprets any Gospel at all, the book interprets the Gospeal of John. The thrust of the book, particularly in its second half, concerns the ascendancy of the Gospel of John, as supported by church fathers such as Iraneaus and Athanasius. At the same time, it talks about the suppression of alternative or non-canonical writings, including but hardly limited to the Gospel of Thomas. Moreover, Dr. Pagels discusses at some length, the doctrinal squabbles between the orthodox movement chracterized by Iraneaus and the more liberal gnostic movement, characterized by Valentinus.

The book is interesting and provides a sketchy introduction to the panoply of gospels extant in the early church. It is well worth reading. Like any quality scholarly work, it invites the reader to further research. With voluminous footnotes and a seemingly comprehensive bibliography it points the reader to library shelves and, most likely, to interlibrary loans for further essential reading.

The book, however, talks a whole lot less about the Gospel of Thomas than the title would have us believe. I advise the reader first to read the Gospel of Thomas itself. Then read the Gospel of John. Then, and only then, read this book to find out about the Ascendancy of John, and look elsewhere for a full interpretation of Thomas.

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Summary: John and Thomas
Review: Elaine Pagels has written another provocative and interesting book with this book, her latest of four I have read. It's about the well known gospel of John vs the little known gospel of Thomas. Thomas' gospel speaks to a form of belief that is much more personal than the traditional New Testament that is mainly based on the gospel of John. The book also refers back to the author's prior book on Gnosticism. Gnosticism gave a higher place in theology to knowledge, and held that it should at least share the same pew with belief. I not only recommend "Beyond Belief", I recommend all of Elaine Pagels' books. And, if you are interested in the unending contest between knowledge and belief --- reason vs revelation --- that has been going on almost forever, I also recommend the easy-to-understand book by Remick called "West Point: Character Leadership Education...Thomas Jefferson" which deals with that subject for the purpose of understanding America in an outside world that has really little understanding of America other than what they see from TV, movies, and multi-national corporations.

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Summary: Bogus
Review: It's not a secret. The "Gospel of Thomas" has been searched and researched for years.

It's not a gospel. The writing was excluded from the canon by the early church as bogus.

It's not by Thomas. At least, not the disciple.

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Summary: Elegant and timely
Review: Elaine Pagels is one of my favorite authors on early Christianity, and her books are always concise, elegant, and strangely moving in ways that others sometimes aren't. This book is no exception. For the academic, she has copious footnotes, and her original translations of the gnostic texts she quotes are revelatory. But most importantly, whether she meant to or not, this book sheds light on the fact that people 1800 years ago struggled with issues that the so-called modern church is struggling with too, such as gender inclusive language, the equality of men and women in all positions of church leadership, the reading of scriptural texts in light of the circumstances that caused them to be written, and other seemingly 21st century concerns. Thank you Ms. Pagels for giving an historical perspective to those of us who are seeking a more expansive way to speak of the Divine. Unlike our ancestors in the struggle and their writings, maybe we won't be so easily snuffed out...

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Summary: Religion: the New Yorker version
Review: Elaine Pagels started out as a scholar of early Christianity who gained considerable public notice by looking at problems of the early Church and summarizing recent scholarship into long New Yorker style essays. Her first such book was the prize-winning 'The Gnostic Gospels,' which she followed up with a book on asceticism and free will, followed by a book on the origin of Satan. Now we have her fourth such book, entitled 'Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas.' Pagels' main virtue as a writer has been the way that she can inform us, in readable and informative language, of the complexities and paradoxes of the development of Christianity. This virtue is present in 'Beyond Belief' as well, but we also have snatches of Pagels' autobiography. We learn about her spiritual distress when she learned of the disease that would kill her first child before he was seven. We learn about her experience as a teenager with an evangelical youth group that ended when her teachers told her that a recently deceased Jewish friend was damned. These memories segue into the theme of the book. Oddly enough the subtitle is less informative and relevant than the main title. This is not really a book about the Gospel of Thomas, but about the alternative, 'beyond belief', that it suggests.

Much of the book arises from the conflict between the Gospel of John, and the Gospel of Thomas, and how the mid second-century figures Irenaeus used John to help draw the lines that would eventually become Christian orthodoxy. John is the Gospel, more than any other, which asserts the divinity of Jesus. The other three gospels are noticeably more ambiguous on this point. Moreover, it is John that emphasizes that belief in Jesus is necessary to salvation. (Contrast this with the Apocalyptic Discourse that Jesus gives in Matthew before the Last Supper, where belief in Jesus is not mentioned as the key to everlasting life.) By contrast, the Gospel of Thomas is a collection of sayings, which not only does not mention his Crucifixion, but argues that within each person there is a spark of divinity. By proper study and self-knowledge we can reach this divinity and understand God. Such an idea became crucial to the melange of beliefs that we, somewhat unhelpfully, now describe as 'Gnostic.' Pagels notes how we can see this search for self-knowledge in the Gnostic Gospel of Mary, in the Gospel of Philip's assertion that we can all be the beneficiary of virgin birth, and in such ceremonies of the Round Dance of the Cross.

It is Pagels' belief that John specifically criticized Thomas, either the gospel or his school, not only by refuting his ideas specifically, but also by inserting the figure of 'Doubting Thomas.' 'Doubting Thomas' only appears in this role in John. Pagels further goes on to discuss Irenaeus' campaign against 'heresy,' which used John as a keystone. Developing points made in 'The Gnostic Gospels,' Irenaeus had to confront the problem of inspiration. All too easily, anyone can claim to see a vision of Jesus. How therefore does one stop the resulting spiritual chaos? Irenaeus did not wish to ban inspiration altogether. Instead, he wished to channel it into orthodox channels, by the use of the 'fourfold Gospel'. At the same time, he also wished to challenge the elitist aspect of Gnosticism, which suggested that for select followers there would be further revelations after baptism. Pagels is useful in pointing out a number of ironies that arose in these arguments. Gnostic suggestions of a 'second baptism' have good scriptural precedents in the Bible. The first commentator on John, or any other book of the New Testament, comes from a Gnostic named Heracleon. Indeed, Gnostics especially admired John, making Irenaeus' task more difficult. Even worse for Irenaeus, his three key predecessors in Orthodoxy, Ignatius, Polycarp and Justin Martyr, appear to have made no mention of the Gospel of John at all. Although Pagels does not demonize Irenaeus, she argues that his search for orthodoxy not only encouraged intolerance but replaced a fruitful and critical search for divine experience with blind acceptance of dogmatic authority.

This is an interesting argument, but I have some reservations. First off, it is not clear when the Gospel of Thomas was written. Dates range from 50 CE to 200 CE, with strong arguments for an early date made by Pagels' teacher, Helmut Koester, in his 'Ancient Christian Gospels,' and with what appear to me stronger arguments for a later date made by John Meier in the first volume of 'A Marginal Jew.' So any connection between John and Thomas strikes me as rather weak. More important, there is the subtle way that Pagels adapts early Christianity to the needs and prejudices of her middle-class American audience. A more open and tolerant Christianity? A greater sense of experience over dogma? A greater valuation of feminine experience? Who could object to that? Well, it is noteworthy that Pagels does not quote Thomas 114: 'For every woman who will make herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven." And many Christian sects have emphasized ecstatic experience, from Russia to Africa, from Jonathan Edwards to Pentecostals. Do they really tell us more about wisdom, humanity and truth than, say, Spinoza, Freud or Adorno? There is something very American, as Christopher Lasch has pointed out, in this cult of experience. It is all well to search for inner peace. But what do either John or Thomas have to say about living with other people that Jefferson or Dewew, Marx or Gramsci have not already said?

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Summary: Can you keep a secret?
Review: Elaine Pagels 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 like this? Where does faith go?

Her first chapter talks about the power of the community, and she traces a history of early initiation rites and community-forging events (including the martyrdom of many). Pagels then relates these back to her own experiences, tracing a connection between then and now. The controversies the early church faced - the participation in communal feasts that were misunderstood, the renunciation of the world in dramatic ways, coupled with a care for persons in unique and egalitarian ways - these are not always the issues faced today. However, Pagels shows how these issues served to form what we hold today as normative Christianity. She also sets the stage for a look at the diversity of practice and belief - prior to the formation of the canons and creeds, there were more points of difference in the Christian world - texts such as the Secret Gospel of Thomas is one such.

Pagels identifies a conflict between the gospels of John (one of the canonical four, itself a bit on the fringe, given its greater differences with the synoptics than they have with each other) and Thomas. Pagels asserts that both assumed their communities would be familiar with the basic outline of the gospel story a la Mark (most likely the earliest of the canonical gospels), and that both John and Thomas give similar accounts of the private teachings of Jesus. However, the use of these teachings and emphasis differs between Thomas and John - whereas they might have been complementary, they end up being at odds. For example, John argues strongly for the uniqueness of Jesus, as the light of God for all humanity; Thomas, on the other hand, looks at the light in Jesus as being something that all people have and have access to from within themselves. This gives Thomas a gnostic tint.

Pagels likens the message of Thomas to those developed later by mystics, including most recently the writers Tolstoy and another Thomas, Thomas Merton. The kingdom of God is within us, not something that is meant to have a physical definition, either in the past under a messianic warrior-king, nor in the future in some heavenly city descending like a spaceship, but rather, within us.

Pagels develops an interesting speculative biography of the author of the gospel of John, and looks at the images of Thomas presented in John, including the ideas that he was the 'doubting' one, and that he missed the gathering of the disciples upon with Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit (the account of Matthew indicates that all the disciples were present; John has Thomas missing). These kinds of images, Pagels suggests, might indicate a sort of rivalry for position. John's gospel was itself questioned during the early church, and his community of Christians existed on the fringe of the wider community. However, John's gospel is a clear and powerful one, and Pagels demonstrates that at many crucial points in the Thomas narrative, pieces are cryptic at best, and not at all definable and discernable. This would not have appealed to certain communities in Christianity, searching for a certain faith.

Pagels traces the development of the acceptance of John over Thomas in the wider context of canonical development - she introduces other non-canonical writings of the time, such as the Secret Book of John, the Secret Book of James, the Prayer of the Apostle Paul, and others. She also traces the thought of major figures such as Polycarp, Tertullian, Justin Martyr, and Irenaeus. Much of what we have known historically about the different groups labeled heretical have come from the writings of the 'orthodox' - Ireneaus, for example, is a primary source of certain heresies through his great, five-volume 'Refutation and Overthrow of Falsely So-Called Knowledge'. However, this is a necessarily biased source of information.

One interesting piece is the exploration of the Gospel of Philip, another of the non-canonical gospels - Philip's gospel divides the church into those who have it right and those who don't, but along different lines than the typical orthodox view. For Philip, the virgin birth and the resurrection are not one-time-only events for Jesus, but rather apply to all of humanity in potential. Anyone 'born again' experiences a virgin birth through the power of the spirit; all believers are transformed, and this constitutes a resurrection. Philip makes a distinction between those who pay lip service to being Christian and those who are truly spiritually transformed - this is an idea that will resurface again and again Christian history, too.

Given imperial backing, Pagels argues that it was largely the party with influence at the court and the centre of empire that won the day. Still, even as these documents were no longer copied and held as valid scripture, the ideas they contained would remain undercurrent in Christian thought. Pagels' skillful writing and interesting narrative choice of using her own life as a backdrop to the larger issues of church history make this an interesting and worthwhile text for all.

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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!)