Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas
by Elaine Pagels
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Book Summary Information
Author: Elaine PagelsEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2004-05-04
ISBN: 0375703160
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: Vintage
Book Reviews of Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas
Book Review: Saint Thomas?
Summary: 4 Stars
I had hoped to read more about the gospel of Thomas, but enjoyed the book for what it was. Truly Elaine Pagels is a literary scholar/historian, made obvious in her writing about early Christian and church history. I have known for many years that my Christian upbringing did not give me a full and honest picture of Jesus and his times. Over the years I have uncovered many misconceptions about the history behind religion and Jesus'life that my religion taught me. When new knowledge surfaced (not only from Pagels book) that did not harmonize with what I was taught, or that fit my personal beliefs better, it caused me to question and be wary of any dogma.
Ghandi said, "There are as many religions as there are people on earth." I believe that.
Summary of Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas
In Beyond Belief, renowned religion scholar Elaine Pagels continues her groundbreaking examination of the earliest Christian texts, arguing for an ongoing assessment of faith and a questioning of religious orthodoxy.Spurred on by personal tragedy and new scholarship from an international group of researchers, Pagels returns to her investigation of the "secret" Gospel of Thomas, and breathes new life into writings once thought heretical. As she arrives at an ever-deeper conviction in her own faith, Pagels reveals how faith allows for a diversity of interpretations, and that the "rogue" voices of Christianity encourage and sustain "the recognition of the light within us all."
Shortly after Elaine Pagels' two-and-half-year-old son was diagnosed with a rare lung disease, the religion professor found herself drawn to a Christian church again for the first time in many years. In Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas Pagels, best know for her National Book Award-winning The Gnostic Gospels, wrestles with her own faith as she struggles to understand when--and why--Christianity became associated almost exclusively with the ideas codified in the fourth-century Nicene Creed and in the canonical texts of the New Testament. In her exploration, she uncovers the richness and diversity of Christian philosophy that has only become available since the discovery of the Nag Hammadi texts.
At the center of Beyond Belief is what Pagels identifies as a textual battle between The Gospel of Thomas (rediscovered in Egypt in 1945) and The Gospel of John. While these gospels have many superficial similarities, Pagels demonstrates that John, unlike Thomas, declares that Jesus is equivalent to "God the Father" as identified in the Old Testament. Thomas, in contrast, shares with other supposed secret teachings a belief that Jesus is not God but, rather, is a teacher who seeks to uncover the divine light in all human beings. Pagels then shows how the Gospel of John was used by Bishop Irenaeus of Lyon and others to define orthodoxy during the second and third centuries. The secret teachings were literally driven underground, disappearing until the Twentieth Century. As Pagels argues this process "not only impoverished the churches that remained but also impoverished those [Irenaeus] expelled."
Beyond Belief offers a profound framework with which to examine Christian history and contemporary Christian faith, and Pagels renders her scholarship in a highly readable narrative. The one deficiency in Pagels' examination of Thomas, if there is one, is that she never fully returns in the end to her own struggles with religion that so poignantly open the book. How has the mysticism of the Gnostic Gospels affected her? While she hints that she and others have found new pathways to faith through Thomas, the impact of Pagels' work on contemporary Christianity may not be understood for years to come. --Patrick O'Kelley
Pagels, Elaine Books
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