Gnostic Gospels

Elaine Pagels, a Princeton professor who specialises in writing accessible books on heterodox movements in early Christianity, has produced a gem of a book. It reads really well and is thorough enough to be interesting to the academically minded but also accessible enough to the interested lay reader.

Pagels holds some views which some might find controversial about the character of early Christian development. Certainly, she is not afraid to advance theories which would surprise Catholic or evangelical readers about the historical and theological value of 'extra-canonical' or 'heretical' sources. But she makes her case well and uses the evidence judiciously. Of course, her own evident fondness for a Gnosticising religious outlook shines through at times and this - for me at least - was a nice personal touch which didn't detract from her attempts to put forward an objective case.

If you're looking to learn more about Christian origins and want to read a sympathetic portrayal of the often maligned 'Gnostic' currents in early Christian thought, then this book is undoubtedly an excellent place to start. If you're looking for something a bit more advanced, I'd recommend 'Gnosis' by Kurt Rudolph.

Packed with information (1/1 people found this helpful)

Elaine Pagels understood her subject so well that she was able to pack into less than 200 pages what another capable author might have taken 500 pages to convey...and yet this book is readable and suitable for a lay reader.

I've read it 3 times recently and still don't have my head wrapped around it. Even though its very clear, its even more thought provoking. Until I take notes of the parts that interest me and review them, I won't feel I've digested this work.

This is not a pro-Gnostic work but it is a work that takes them seriously. Yet Pagels believes orthodox Christianity had to win in order that Christianity survive its early years. Yet she finds some elements of Gnostic Christianity attractive.

Why didn't the Gnostic Christians reach out to the masses? Buddhism has Gnostic-like aspects but was able to contain both monks and lay people. Those Gnostics who understand the Creator not to be the real God would have trouble connecting with those who worshipped a Creator God. A Gnostic sense of superiority would hardly lead to good relationships with those without gnosis. Whereas Buddhist monks and laity had good relationships, Gnostics seemed to depend too much on an otherness from the masses. Exclusivity led to extinction.

But Gnostic-like feelings persisted. The "Hermetica" from Alexandria survived destruction by being taken to Islamic territory, later to be introduced to Italy. The Rosicrucians captured much of the Gnostic temperament: Rosicrucian organizations persist to this day. Pagels describes the kind of person attracted to Gnosticism and if you have an inquiring mind and an inwardness , you may feel she is describing you. Gnosticism may have been influenced by Buddhism, but it has a decidedly Western style that may make Gnosticism and Rosicrucianism more agreeable to those baffled by Buddhism's non-theism.

This book is well footnoted. The historical presentation is tight. As an astute observer, Pagels couldn't miss the peer role woman enjoyed among the Gnostics, a role in the clergy of some churches that is being similarly enjoyed by women today. One key part of this presentation is how large a part politics played in the formative years of Christianity. How Mary Magdalene's role as the first witness of the Resurrection was ignored so that that title could go to Peter remains baffling but highlights the danger of just believing. Pagels has produced an exceptional work which covers far more than I've alluded to here. You may rarely encounter scholarship so thorough yet so accessible.

Gnostic Gospels as it relates to Christianity (2/2 people found this helpful)

Elaine Pagels, a religion professor, discusses the effects the Gnostic gospels have had on Christianity since their discovery in 1945. She explains the gospels view of the life and teachings of Jesus, which differs from that of the New Testament, and deliberates questions raised. Though a well-written book and worth reading, this book does not contain a translation of the Gnostic Gospels.

Essential reading to evolve spiritual understanding (12/16 people found this helpful)

This is a very good, thoroughly researched book that objectively explains how the early Roman Emperors and Bishops, in the third and forth century of the Common Era, basically outlawed and banished certain gospels, now known as the the Gnostic gospels, in favour of those very select few which eventually appear in the New Testament, solely because the latter were more effective in commanding an unquestioning obedience, among the ordinary masses, to the authority of the early Christian church and Roman state in general. What Western civilisation subsequently lost, with the secret burial of these competing Gnostic texts, was no less than the original, authentic message of what Christ's coming, death and ressurection actually represented - something which was always meant to be understood symbolically, as a metaphor for the inner transformation of consciousness that every individual has the potential to experience; i.e. the personal, interior birth of the Christhood, resulting in the death of the ego and the metaphysical ressurection of a person spiritually. Originally based on direct experience, the true Christian path is shown to have started off as the search for God within you, not anywhere outside. As true spiritual seekers continue to come into this knowledge and undergo the liberating experience of "gnosis" - and the horror of ALL institutional religion eventually wanes and dies - it's quite likely this important book could rank among the major sources of reference, from a historical perspective. Discovered initially in a clay jar in Egypt in 1945, and kept from the public by private spats among the religious and academic hierarchy until 1972, the re-emergence and now widely available Gnostic texts cannot be underestimated, and is simply invalauble for anyone on the spiritual path. After this, you'll certainly be ready to read and grasp the Gnostic gospels themselves. Congratulations on making this discovery yourself, here and now!

I know what I know... (86/88 people found this helpful)

In her prize-winning book 'The Gnostic Gospels', a book which has remained in the popular eye for the past two decades since its first publication in 1979, Elaine Pagels has put together a popular treatment of a hitherto (but since more popularly-accessible) academic-only subject. The discoveries of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Library were very much a topic of conversation, but always topics about which things were spoken, rather than of which things were spoken. This book helped change that in common parlance, and also served as a basic primer for those new to the field who would then proceed to more in-depth study and analysis.

In her relatively substantial introduction, Pagels goes through a history of the coming into light of the texts of Nag Hammadi, contrasting it with the more popularly known Dead Sea Scrolls. However, the Nag Hammadi texts also had their fair share of intrigue and cloak-and-dagger kinds of dealings, until finally coming into the relatively safe hands of museums and academics.

Pagels proceeds from this background with a brief history of Christian thought in the first few centuries after Christ. She particularly highlights the contrasts between orthodoxy and catholic trends, and how each relates to a gnostic point of view. What are the issues of the resurrection? Why was this taken literally? What authority is conferred upon those who saw the risen Lord, and why was it not so evenly spread (Mary Magdalene, alas, seems to have gotten the short end of the stick authority-wise, despite being listed numerous times as the first witness of the resurrection, and indeed the apostle to the apostles, proclaiming his resurrection to the unbelieving men).

Pagels then develops a political idea and structure to her analysis of the way church orthodoxy continued away from and in deliberate, direct opposition to gnostic teachings. Were the gnostics abandoning monotheism, in heretical schism from the teachings of the commonly-accepted New Testament. Complicated in this, of course, is the fact that the New Testament did not as yet exist, so many competing documents claimed authority, among them gnostic texts.

Pagels also explores gender ideas, in the imagery of God, which was much more fluid in the gnostic framework (and only beginning to be recovered in protestant and catholic circles) as we recognise that God does not have a gender, and that the image of God as mother (particularly in creative acts) is as valid in many ways as that of God the father.

The Gospel of Thomas sets up both political and gender controversies in short economy, by showing a small take on the authority struggle between Mary Magdalene and Peter for primacy in the community. Indeed, Peter seems to want to cast Mary out 'for women are not worthy of eternal life'--Jesus defends her, saying that he will 'make her male', and that indeed any who do this will be welcomed in the kingdom.

Gnostics were no fans of martyrdom--this sounds a bit strange, except that the 'proper attitude' toward suffering for the faith was important for the orthodox/catholic hierarchy, and many controversies abounded over those who held true and those who waivered. Gnostics were beyond the pale; roundly ignored and despised to the extent that their martyrs for Christianity were not recognised as being true martyrs.

Perhaps the greatest difference between standard gnostic belief and practice and Christianity as it has come down to us today is the idea that, with gnosis, one can have sufficient self-knowledge for salvation; that somehow, salvation and redeeming characteristics can come from within. This is antithetical to the idea that one is saved only by the grace of God, which comes only from God, from without, not from within. The pledge that priests take today in many denominations, that they believe the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to contain all things necessary for salvation, is a left-over from gnostic controversy days, who believed in other forms of knowledge.

Pagels' book is an interesting study, a fairly quick read, not too difficult, just enough for most, and the appetiser for others. Overall it still has integrity and purpose. Read together with Robinson's 'Nag Hammadi Library', it gives a fascinating view into an early Christian world, and food for thought of how different things might be today had reconciliation and dialogue replaced diatribe and exclusion.

Elaine Pagels

Reader Reviews:

Thorough and accessible (0/0 people found this helpful)

Packed with information (1/1 people found this helpful)

Gnostic Gospels as it relates to Christianity (2/2 people found this helpful)

Essential reading to evolve spiritual understanding (12/16 people found this helpful)

I know what I know... (86/88 people found this helpful)

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