The Gospel of Thomas claims to be the secret sayings of Jesus. There are 114 of them, so it says many things,… — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
Contemporary Christianity, diverse and complex as we find it, actually may show more unanimity than the Christian churches of the first and… — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
The author of the Gospel of Judas wasn't against martyrdom, and he didn't ever insult the martyrs. He said it's one thing… — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
Startling as the Gospel of Judas sounds, it amplifies hints we have long read in the Gospels of Mark and John that… — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
“This debate over Genesis revealed a major disagreement among second-century Christians, a disagreement whose outcome would shape church doctrine ever after.” — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
What is clear is that the Gospel of Judas has joined the other spectacular discoveries that are exploding the myth of a… — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
So often, religion is identified in terms coined by Christianity as sets of belief. But I had the sense that it not… — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
I study religion because I find it fascinating and problematic. But I struggle with the idea of what religion is, what being… — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
The Gospel of Judas really has been a surprise in many ways. For one thing, there's no other text that suggests that… — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
Why did the consensus of Christian churches not only accept these astonishing views but establish them as the only true form of… — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
Christians have ... identified their opponents, whether Jews, pagans, or heretics, with forces of evil, and so with Satan... Nor have things… — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
Christianity becomes just a set of things you believe in. It's almost an intellectual kind of abstract issue. — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
Throughout the ages, Christians have adapted John of Patmos's visions to changing times, reading their own social, political and religious conflicts into… — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
The Gospel of Judas is a kind of protest literature. It's challenging leaders of the church. — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
Although the gospels of the New Testament-- like those discovered at Nag Hammadi-- are attributed to Jesus' followers, no one knows who… — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
“The controversy over resurrection, then, proved critical in shaping the Christian movement into an institutional religion. All Christians agreed in principle that… — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
Rediscovering the controversies that occupied early Christianity sharpens our awareness of the major issue in the whole debate, then and now: What… — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
There are some kinds of Christianity that insist you have to believe literally in doctrine. The Gnostic gospels open out the complexity… — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
“The Gospel of Philip takes up the same theme: Jesus took them all by stealth, for he did not reveal himself in… — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
I realized that conventional views of Christian faith that I'd heard when I was growing up were simply made up - and… — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
People who are comfortable with very clear boundaries and group definitions don't like the instability and ambiguity of people who say they… — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
“But what made Christians especially dangerous to the Roman order was their refusal to pay what Romans regarded as ordinary respect to… — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
About the gnostic writers themselves and the setting in which they lived we know little, although gnostic Christians were influential enough to… — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
“What Christians see, or claim to see, in Genesis 1-3 changed as the church itself changed from a dissident Jewish sect to… — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
For nearly 2,000 years, most people assumed that the only sources of tradition about Jesus and his disciples were the four gospels… — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
“Only the Jews, of all the nations under Roman rule, had won the right to separate their political obligations from religious ones, to obey… — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
“Even Tacitus admitted that “whatever their origin, [the Jews’] observances are sanctioned by their antiquity,”64 and the Romans respected tradition. Christians, however, had no… — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
There's practically no religion that I know of that sees other people in a way that affirms the others' choices. But in our century… — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
He's an intimate betrayer. That's what's so troubling. Judas turned in his own teacher. — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
The Antichrist is often identified with the second beast in the Book of Revelation that arises from the land, the beast that tries to… — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
“Jesus—for example, his categorical rejection of divorce, or his statement that “if anyone does not hate his own father and mother and wife and… — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
The Gospel of Thomas claims to be the secret sayings of Jesus. There are 114 of them, so it says many things, but the… — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
I just have a sense that, you know, I'm curious about what is religion about, you know? Why do some of us still engage… — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
“Augustine reflects that “what made me a slave to it was the habit [consuetudo] of satisfying an insatiable lust.”31” — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
Contemporary Christianity, diverse and complex as we find it, actually may show more unanimity than the Christian churches of the first and second centuries.… — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
“I beseech you, my lord, why have I been endowed with the power of understanding? For I did not want to ask about heavenly… — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
“thus the story of Eden was made to reinforce the patriarchal structure” — Elaine Pagels Copy Share Image
