Gnostic Gospels (urspr publ 1979; utgåvan 2006)

Reprinted 1979.

Pagels's scholarship is always interesting, and must have benefited greatly from the publication of the Da Vinci Code. The book is excellent, it is essentially Pagel's academic work reworked for a popular audience, something I appreciate. I generally recommend her work, which is not without controversy.

Pagels writes about the gnostic gospels, of which a collection of writings was discovered in Egypt around the 1940s. Interestingly, the gnostic "heresy" has been historically mentioned by the early church fathers, who criticized the heterodox movement. However, until the discovery at Nag Hammadi, historians read about the gnostics mostly through the lense of orthodox Christian criticism.

Pagels notes that the gnostic movement was widely diverse, which makes questions about its origins and influences somewhat a historical impossibility. Pagels does tantalizingly mention scholars who think the origin of gnostics range from Buddhism, Zoroastrianism to mystic Judaism. Pagels focuses on the Christian gnostics mostly, writing both about their early critics and explaining the beliefs scholars have discovered from the Nag Hammadi texts.

In one word, Pagels looks at the gnostic movement through the perspective of politics. Pagels notes that the gnostics themselves looked at the canonical new testament to provide basis for their beliefs (along with additional secret gospels the gnostics claim to have exclusive access to) and drew on orthodox materials to arrive at their doctrine. However, the implications of their beliefs had incredibly important political ramifications and explains the ultimate failure of the movement despite some appealing aspects of their doctrine. For example, the gnostics challenged the resurrection of the body of Christ, arguing that his spirit or some spiritual form was resurrected. Pagels notes that the implications of this belief was a challenge to the authority of the orthodox church, which rested its authority on apostolic succession from those who witnessed the bodily resurrection. Additionally, some gnostics believed that the creator, was not actually truly God, but the demiurge, a lesser spirit which claimed to be the sole creator to the detriment of the true God. Pagels notes that this had major implications for the authority of the bishops, which rested its authority on an analogy to one master God, one bishop. Somewhat more radically, some gnostic sects believed that God has a feminine in addition to a masculine nature, with some sects believing the Holy Spirit was feminine. This had implications for the participation of women in church services, and some gnostic sects allowed women to perform priestly functions. Some gnostics believed that Christ had not actually died on the cross, but it was some illusion. This had implications about gnostic attitudes towards martyrdom. While early christians celebrated martyrdom as a replication of the passion of Christ, and martyrdom drew together christian communities, the gnostics had a more ambivalent attitude towards martyrs, a fact noted by their critics.

Both the early orthodox church and the various gnostic sects condemned each other as heretics or misguided. This is part of Pagel's broader thesis that early christianity is more heterogeneous and diverse than previously thought. Ultimately, according to Pagels, gnosticism could not survive because of its inherent political limitations. While the orthodox church started to organize politically, and find consistent rituals and doctrine to become a universally appealing church, gnosticism focused inward. Gnostics believed that self-knowledge or gnosis, and turning inward as the only way to reach the divine. The gnostics focused on meditation and visions for the chosen few who would discover on their own way to contemplate the divine spark within. The gnostics rejected objective rites or doctrine that lead automatically to salvation, rejecting the idea that the divine could be taught by anyone. Ultimately Pagels noted, it was not only the ideas of the orthodox that prevailed but because of its superior political and social organization.

This argument is not unlike the view of critical legal studies and the conflict thesis. Critical legal studies claims that doctrinal conflict leads to various acceptable doctrinal answers but it is another extra-legal force that chose the outcome. Similarly, Pagels argues that some of the new testament lent itself to different fair interpretations since sections are contradictory or ambiguous. Pagels notes that it was not just the doctrine that prevailed but the political and social advantages of orthodox christianity.

While Pagels claims that she is simply describing the gnostics without normative elements, the tone of the book suggests that she approves of some of the messages and views of the gnostic movement. In a sense, Pagels portrays them as ascetic individualists, who were spiritually self-aware and critical of hierarchy. It is also interesting that the gnostic-orthodox debates preempt certain theological debates that would occur later and even in the current day. Regardless of one's views on this early heterodox sect, one's understanding of the ancient and awesome institution that is the christian faith will be enriched by Pagel's work. ( )

A startling account of the meaning of Jesus and the origin of Christianity based on Gnostic Gospels and other secret texts, written almost 2000 years ago, and discovered in the 1940s near Nag Hammadi in upper Egypt.

More than I ever learned in CCD classes.
( )

LOS EVANGELIOS GNÓSTICOS

El libro que hoy presentamos en nuestra Biblioteca de Bolsillo
fue distinguido en Estados Unidos con el premio del National
Book Critics Circle y con el National Book Award, y, desde
entonces, se ha convertido en obra de referencia indiscutible
sobre los evangelios gnósticos. En él, la profesora Pagels revela las
numerosas discrepancias que separaban a los cristianos primitivos
en relación con los hechos mismos de la vida de Cristo, el
sentido de sus enseñanzas o la forma que debía adoptar su
Iglesia, y describe las doctrinas gnósticas que niegan la resurrección
de Cristo y rechazan la autoridad sacerdotal, explicando porqué y
cómo la ortodoxia que finalmente se impuso declaró heréticos a los
gnósticos y trató de eliminar todos los textos que contenían sus doctrinas.
Estos evangelios gnósticos, sorprendentes y reveladores, nos obligan a
reconsiderar profundamente la imagen establecida de los orígenes y el
significado del cristianismo.

Formada en historia y estudios clásicos por las universidades
de Stanford y Harvard, ELAINE PAGELS ejerce en la actualidad
come profesora de religión en la Universidad de Princeton,
Además de los evangelios gudsticos, Pagels es autora de Adin,
w y ln serpiente (Critica, 1990), The Origin of Satan (1995)y
Mas alld de la (Critica, 2004)