Revelations elaine pagels book summary series#

This non-canonical viewpoint is in contradiction with the four New Testament gospels. On Pagels' interpretation, the Gospel of Thomas claims, along with other non-canonical teachings, that Jesus was not God, but rather, a human teacher who sought to uncover the divine light in all human beings. Her New York Times bestseller, Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas (2003), contrasts the Gospel of Thomas with the Gospel of John, and argues that a close reading of the works shows that while the Gospel of Thomas taught its adherents that 'there is a light within each person, and it lights up the whole universe If it does not shine, there is darkness', the Gospel of John emphasizes the revelation that God as Jesus Christ is the 'light of the world'. Nag Hammadi Codex II, showing the beginning of the Gospel of Thomas This book argues that the figure of Satan became a way for Christians to demonize their religious and cultural opponents, namely, pagans, other Christian sects, and Jews. These personal tragedies deepened her spiritual awareness and afterwards Pagels began research leading to The Origin of Satan. In April 1987, Pagels's son Mark died after five years of illness, and in July 1988, her husband Heinz Pagels died in a mountain climbing accident. Her other books include The Origin of Satan (1995), Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas (2003), Reading Judas: The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity (2007), and Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation (2012). In both The Gnostic Gospels and Adam, Eve, and the Serpent, Pagels focuses especially on the way that women have been viewed throughout Jewish and Christian history. Aided by a MacArthur fellowship (1980вЂ“85), she researched and wrote Adam, Eve, and the Serpent, which examines the creation account and its role in the development of sexual attitudes in the Christian West. In 1982, Pagels joined Princeton University as a professor of early Christian history. According to Pagels's interpretation of an era different from ours, Gnosticism 'attracted women because it allowed female participation in sacred rites'. As a movement Gnosticism was not coherent and there were several areas of disagreement among the different factions. The programme triggered a national furore, and marked a significant moment in the changes that religious broadcasting was already undergoing at that time.

Revelations elaine pagels book summary series#

A review of the book in the UK newspaper, The Sunday Times, led to the UK broadcaster, Channel 4, commissioning a major three-part series inspired by it, called Jesus: The Evidence. She follows the well-known thesis that Walter Bauer first put forth in 1934 and argues that the Christian church was founded in a society espousing contradictory viewpoints. Modern Library named it one of the 100 best books of the twentieth century. It was a best seller and won both the National Book Award in one-year category Religion/Inspiration ДЄnd the National Book Critics Circle Award. Pagels' study of the Nag Hammadi manuscripts was the basis for The Gnostic Gospels (1979), a popular introduction to the Nag Hammadi library. In 1975, after studying the Pauline Epistles and comparing them to Gnosticism and the early Church, Pagels wrote the book, The Gnostic Paul which argues that Paul the Apostle was a source for Gnosticism and hypothesizes that Paul's influence on the direction of the early Christian church was great enough to inspire the creation of pseudonymous writings such as the Pastoral Epistles ( First and Second Timothy and Titus), in order to make it appear that Paul was anti-Gnostic. She headed its Department of Religion from 1974 until she moved to Princeton in 1982. in 1970, and joined the faculty at Barnard College. in religion at Harvard University as a student of Helmut Koester and part of a team studying the Nag Hammadi library manuscripts. After briefly studying dance at Martha Graham's studio, she began studying for a Ph.D. She graduated from Stanford University, earning a B.A. She started to learn Greek when she entered college, and read the Gospels in their original language. Pagels remained fascinated by the power of the New Testament. After joining an Evangelical church at the age of 13, she quit when the church announced that a Jewish friend of hers who had been killed in a car crash would go to hell because he had not been ' born again'. She found it to be 'the most spiritual of the four gospels'. According to Pagels, she has been fascinated with the Gospel of John since her youth. She is the daughter of Stanford University botanist William Hiesey. Pagels (pronounced Paygulls) was born February 13, 1943, in California.