The Gnostic Gospels

by Elaine Pagels

Overview

A provocative study of the gnostic gospels and the world of early Christianity as revealed through the Nag Hammadi texts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780394502786
Publisher:	Random House Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/12/1979
Series:	Modern Library 100 Best Nonfiction Books
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.81(d)

About the Author

Elaine Pagels is the Harrington Spear Paine Foundation Professor of Religion at Princeton University. She is the author of several books, including Reading Judas: The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity, the New York Times bestseller Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas, and The Gnostic Gospels, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the National Book Award. Professor Pagels lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. The Controversy over Christ's Resurrection: Historical Event or Symbol?
2. "One God, One Bishop": The Politics of Monotheism
3. God the Father/God the Mother
4. The Passion of Christ and the Persecution of Christians
5. Whose Church Is the "True Church"?
6. Gnosis: Self-Knowledge as Knowledge of God

Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

"The first major and eminently readable book on gnosticism benefiting from the discovery in 1945 of a collection of Gnostic Christian texts at Nag Hammadi in Egypt." —The New York Times Book Review

From the Publisher