Elaine Pagels

“gnostics celebrated as proof of spiritual maturity, the orthodox denounced as “deviation”

— Elaine Pagels

It is the winners who write history - their way.

— Elaine Pagels

The Book of Revelation is such a dream landscape that you can plug any major conflict in it.

— Elaine Pagels

I realize that I cannot live without a spiritual dimension in my life.

— Elaine Pagels

The Gospel of Judas is a kind of protest literature. It's challenging leaders of the church.

— Elaine Pagels

“thus the story of Eden was made to reinforce the patriarchal structure”

— Elaine Pagels

These ancient stories in religion speak to our desire. But they move us toward hope.

— Elaine Pagels

He's an intimate betrayer. That's what's so troubling. Judas turned in his own teacher.

— Elaine Pagels

There is a light within each person, and it lights up the whole universe. If it does not shine, there is darkness.

— Elaine Pagels

Christianity becomes just a set of things you believe in. It's almost an intellectual kind of abstract issue.

— Elaine Pagels

Jesus Christ rose from the grave.' With this proclamation, the Christian church began. This may be the fundamental element of Christian faith;…

— Elaine Pagels

We don't actually know if the person who wrote the Gospel of John had a written copy of Thomas because we don't…

— Elaine Pagels

Really, I don't like to do any household chores. There was a time when I loved to cook, but that was when…

— Elaine Pagels

Unlike many deities of the ancient Near East, the God of Israel shared his power with no female divinity, nor was he…

— Elaine Pagels

There's practically no religion that I know of that sees other people in a way that affirms the others' choices. But in…

— Elaine Pagels

Although the gospels of the New Testament-- like those discovered at Nag Hammadi-- are attributed to Jesus' followers, no one knows who…

— Elaine Pagels

“In the beginning, God created humanity. But now humanity creates God. This is the way it is in the world—human beings invent…

— Elaine Pagels

There are some kinds of Christianity that insist you have to believe literally in doctrine. The Gnostic gospels open out the complexity…

— Elaine Pagels

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

The Gospel of Thomas claims to be the secret sayings of Jesus. There are 114 of them, so it says many things,…

— Elaine Pagels

“Ptolemy’s disciples told the story, before the beginning of time there existed in the primal aeon only the primordial Source of all…

— Elaine Pagels

“Jesus—for example, his categorical rejection of divorce, or his statement that “if anyone does not hate his own father and mother and…

— Elaine Pagels

“Christians who remain faithful to their baptismal vows can expect the same heavenly reward: heaven is not arranged in first-class, second-class, and…

— Elaine Pagels

I got to thinking about the Book of Revelation that was written by a Jewish prophet who was also a follower of…

— Elaine Pagels

Contemporary Christianity, diverse and complex as we find it, actually may show more unanimity than the Christian churches of the first and…

— Elaine Pagels

Why did the consensus of Christian churches not only accept these astonishing views but establish them as the only true form of…

— Elaine Pagels

“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

“Many pagans who had been brought up to regard marriage essentially as a social and economic arrangement, homosexual relationships as an expected…

— Elaine Pagels

The idea that each individual has intrinsic, God-given value and is of infinite worth quite apart from any social contribution - an…

— Elaine Pagels

Christians have ... identified their opponents, whether Jews, pagans, or heretics, with forces of evil, and so with Satan... Nor have things…

— Elaine Pagels

“The Gospel of Philip takes up the same theme: Jesus took them all by stealth, for he did not reveal himself in…

— Elaine Pagels

“What interested these gnostics far more than past events attributed to the “historical Jesus” was the possibility of encountering the risen Christ…

— Elaine Pagels

“The gnostic understands Christ’s message not as offering a set of answers, but as encouragement to engage in a process of searching:…

— Elaine Pagels

“The controversy over resurrection, then, proved critical in shaping the Christian movement into an institutional religion. All Christians agreed in principle that…

— Elaine Pagels

I am enormously susceptible to religious environments - the music, the liturgy and the prayers.

— Elaine Pagels

“This debate over Genesis revealed a major disagreement among second-century Christians, a disagreement whose outcome would shape church doctrine ever after.”

— Elaine Pagels

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

The Antichrist is often identified with the second beast in the Book of Revelation that arises from the land, the beast that…

— Elaine Pagels

“Are we to believe that Adam and Eve actually heard God’s footsteps rustling in the garden of Eden, as the text suggests,…

— Elaine Pagels

“But what made Christians especially dangerous to the Roman order was their refusal to pay what Romans regarded as ordinary respect to…

— Elaine Pagels