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


From Publishers Weekly
In this majestic new book, Pagels (The Gnostic Gospels) ranges panoramically over the history of early Christianity, demonstrating the religion's initial tremendous diversity and its narrowing to include only certain texts supporting certain beliefs. At the center of her book is the conflict between the gospels of John and Thomas. Reading these gospels closely, she shows that Thomas offered readers a message of spiritual enlightenment. Rather than promoting Jesus as the only light of the world, Thomas taught individuals that "there is a light within each person, and it lights up the whole universe. If it does not shine, there is darkness." As she eloquently and provocatively argues, the author of John wrote his gospel as a refutation of Thomas, portraying the disciple Thomas as a fool when he doubts Jesus, and Jesus as the only true light of the world. Pagels goes on to demonstrate that the early Christian writer Irenaeus promoted John as the true gospel while he excluded Thomas, and a host of other early gospels, from the list of those texts that he considered authoritative. His list became the basis for the New Testament canon when it was fixed in 357. Pagels suggests that we recover Thomas as a way of embracing the glorious diversity of religious tradition. As she elegantly contends, religion is not merely an assent to a set of beliefs, but a rich, multifaceted fabric of teachings and experiences that connect us with the divine. Exhilarating reading, Pagels's book offers a model of careful and thoughtful scholarship in the lively and exciting prose of a good mystery writer. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
A Princeton religion professor and author of scholarly books on the Bible brings the story of Thomas's gospel to bear on the historical issues that were contested during the early centuries of Christianity. Discover-ed in a cave 60 years ago, Thomas's Gospel contradicted the gospel of John and portrayed a Christianity that was too ambiguous about Jesus's divinity and too populist for the doctrinaire Catholic hierarchy. Lyrical writing and fascinating historical details make this an enchanting and compelling look at early church politics. A must hear for listeners wanting uncensored history and more flexibility in their own discernment of what Jesus can teach us about the spiritual life. T.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
*Starred Review* In 1979, Pagels explored the Nag Hammadi scrolls in The Gnostic Gospels, a book she calls a "rough, charcoal sketch of the history of Christianity." The scrolls reveal a startling diversity in early Christian thought, and more than 20 years after her earlier book, Pagels remains captivated by them. This time, though, they have prompted her most personal book. She begins with the news that her son has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. She links this shocking revelation to a reexamination of the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, which she contrasts with the gospel of John. Both gospels center their themes on a higher knowledge available in Jesus' words and message, but John wants readers to understand that the light of God is in Jesus alone. Thomas is equally insistent the light is in everyone. Pagels also focuses on how some Christian leaders, especially Irenaeus, despising the esoteric gospels, made sure that the New Testament canon was limited to the four gospels and other approved writings. Pagels' writing, spare, elegant and provocative, leads readers step-by-step down a spiritual path to one's inner self. Even those who possess only a nodding acquaintance with Gnostic writings will find themselves stimulated by her arguments and perhaps transformed by her conclusions. A fresh and exciting work of theology and spirituality. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
“Pagels has accomplished a very rare thing, an examination of early religious writings that is a good read, accessible, and at times even dramatic and poignant.” —The Columbus Dispatch

“This remarkable book will stir and provoke thought. It offers rewards to any reader concerned with the promise and power of faith, and the hunger for spiritual discovery.” —The Christian Science Monitor

“Lucid . . . a spiritual as well as an intellectual exercise. . . . [Pagels] seems to rejoice that in the earliest years of Christianity there existed these strange, dissident doctrines.” —Frank Kermode, The New York Times Book Review

"With the winning combination of sound scholarship, deep insight and a crystal clear prose style . . . [Beyond Belief] portrays the rich and beautiful heritage that was lost when champions of religious orthodoxy turned on many of their fellow Christians and declared them 'heretics'." —Los Angeles Times

“Brilliantly lucid, elegantly written . . . [Pagels’] book is so readable you can’t put it down.” — Providence Journal-Bulletin

“Just as topical today as it was nearly two thousand years ago. . . . Pagels is great at pulling together the details that allow us to understand not only what people were arguing about but why.” –San Jose Mercury News

“Majestic. . . . Exhilarating reading, Pagel’s book offers a model of careful and thoughtful scholarship in the lively and exciting prose of a mystery writer.” –Publishers Weekly

“This luminous and accessible history of early Christian thought offers profound and crucial insights on the nature of God, revelation, and what we mean by religious truth.” –Karen Armstong

“As relevant as today's front page.” –The Washington Post Book World


Review
Praise for Beyond Belief

?This packed, lucid little book belongs to that admirable kind of scholarship in which . . . the exhausting study of ancient fragments of text against the background of an intimate knowledge of religious history can be represented as a spiritual as well as an intellectual exercise.?
?The New York Times Book Review

?With the winning combination of sound scholarship, deep insight and crystal-clear prose style that distinguishes all her work, Pagels portrays the great variety of beliefs, teachings and practices that were found among the earliest Christians.?
?Los Angeles Times

?[An] explosive and, some say, heretical look at the evolution of Christianity.?
?The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

?Elaine Pagels has a gift for bringing ancient Christian texts alive, and for displaying their profound, sometimes startling import for contemporary experience.?
?The Christian Science Monitor

?This luminous and accessible history of early Christian thought offers profound and crucial insights on the nature of God, revelation, and what we mean by religious truth. . . . A source of inspiration and hope.?
?Karen Armstrong, author of A History of God

?A book many readers will treasure for its healing, its good sense, and its permission to think, imagine, and yet believe.?
?Karen King, author of What Is Gnosticism?

?It is as generous as it is rare that a first-rate scholar invites the reader to see and sense how her scholarship and her religious quest became intertwined. Elaine Pagels calls for a generosity of mind as she takes us into the world of those early Christian texts that were left behind but now are with us. Her very tone breathes intellectual and spiritual generosity too rare in academe.? ?Krister Stendahl

?A thoughtful and rewarding essay, as we?ve come to expect from Pagels.? ?Kirkus Reviews


From the Hardcover edition.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Attention, Da Vinci Code fans! This marvelous book, by noted religious scholar Elaine Pagels, shows thriller writer Dan Brown wasn't imagining things when he wrote about the "pick and choose" history of the early Christian Church. Here, Pagels uses the gospel of Thomas to show how Church leaders culled from early Christian writings those texts that supported certain beliefs and rejected the rest as "heretical." An eloquent blend of personal narrative and historical research, this majestic treatise celebrates the glorious diversity of religious tradition. Pagels has followed up her National Book Award–winning Gnostic Gospels with another thought-provoking work.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"This book explores how Christianity began by tracing its earliest texts, including the secret Gospel of Thomas, rediscovered in Egypt in 1945." "When her infant son was diagnosed with fatal pulmonary hypertension, Elaine Pagels's spiritual and intellectual quest took on a new urgency, leading her to explore historical and archeological sources and to investigate what Jesus and his teachings meant to his followers before the invention of doctrine - and before the invention of Christianity as we know it." "The astonishing discovery of the Gospel of Thomas, along with more than fifty other early Christian texts unknown since antiquity, offers startling clues. Pagels compares such sources as Thomas's gospel (which claims to give Jesus' secret teaching, and find its closest affinities with kabbalah) with the canonic texts to show how Christian leaders chose to include some gospels and exclude others from the collection we have come to know as the New Testament. To stabilize the emerging Christian church in times of devastating persecution, the church fathers constructed the canon, creed, and hierarchy - and, in the process, suppressed many of its spiritual resources." Drawing on new scholarship - her own, and that of an international group of scholars - Pagels shows that what matters about Christianity involves much more than any one set of beliefs. Traditions embodied in Judaism and Christianity can powerfully affect us in heart, mind, and spirit, inspire visions of a new society based on practicing justice and love, even heal and transform us.

SYNOPSIS

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

“[A] winning combination of sound scholarship, deep insight and a crystal clear prose style.” —Los Angeles Times

The introduction, discussion questions, suggestions for further reading, and author biography that follow are designed to enhance your group’s discussion of Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas, Elaine Pagels’s fascinating exploration of how and why the New Testament acquired its present form.

FROM THE CRITICS

The New York Times

This packed, lucid little book belongs to that admirable kind of scholarship in which the labor of acquiring Greek and Coptic, Hebrew and Aramaic, the exhausting study of ancient fragments of text against the background of an intimate knowledge of religious history, can be represented as a spiritual as well as an intellectual exercise. — Frank Kermode

The Los Angeles Times

With the winning combination of sound scholarship, deep insight and a crystal-clear prose style that distinguishes all her work, Pagels portrays the great variety of beliefs, teachings and practices that were found among the earliest Christians. — Merle Rubin

Publishers Weekly

In this majestic new book, Pagels (The Gnostic Gospels) ranges panoramically over the history of early Christianity, demonstrating the religion's initial tremendous diversity and its narrowing to include only certain texts supporting certain beliefs. At the center of her book is the conflict between the gospels of John and Thomas. Reading these gospels closely, she shows that Thomas offered readers a message of spiritual enlightenment. Rather than promoting Jesus as the only light of the world, Thomas taught individuals that "there is a light within each person, and it lights up the whole universe. If it does not shine, there is darkness." As she eloquently and provocatively argues, the author of John wrote his gospel as a refutation of Thomas, portraying the disciple Thomas as a fool when he doubts Jesus, and Jesus as the only true light of the world. Pagels goes on to demonstrate that the early Christian writer Irenaeus promoted John as the true gospel while he excluded Thomas, and a host of other early gospels, from the list of those texts that he considered authoritative. His list became the basis for the New Testament canon when it was fixed in 357. Pagels suggests that we recover Thomas as a way of embracing the glorious diversity of religious tradition. As she elegantly contends, religion is not merely an assent to a set of beliefs, but a rich, multifaceted fabric of teachings and experiences that connect us with the divine. Exhilarating reading, Pagels's book offers a model of careful and thoughtful scholarship in the lively and exciting prose of a good mystery writer. (May) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

In this wonderful little book, Pagels (religion, Princeton; The Gnostic Gospels) provides a historical reinterpretation of John's gospel in light of the more mystical Gnostic gospels, such as Thomas and Philip. She finds in John arguments for Christ's primacy-John locates the actual logos or divinity of God in the person of Jesus. Thomas, by contrast, finds in Christ a case for divinity that lies within each believer: "God's light shines not only in Jesus but, potentially at least, in everyone." Her conclusions support her historical survey of competing gospel messages up to the closing of the canon in the fourth century: that orthodoxy is something imposed upon the early church, that rival messages and ideas about Christ proliferated, and that heresy is as much a matter of interpretation as it is "truth." Her personal investment in this message is clear, and she finds a certain reconnection with the church through these contending approaches to faith and belief. A small book with a fair amount of scholarly apparatus and tone but without overly academic language, it is highly recommended for all religion and Bible collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 1/03.]-Sandra Collins, Duquesne Univ. Lib., Pittsburgh Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

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