BEYOND BELIEF: The Secret Gospel of Thomas by Elaine Pagels. Random House Canada: Toronto, ON. 2003.
256 pp. Hardcover. $37.95 Cdn. ISBN #0-375-501-56-8. Reviewed by: Wayne
A. Holst (900 words)
Reviewed for the Edmonton Journal, Edmonton, AB. Marc Horton, Books Editor.The
Toronto Star, Toronto, ON. Libby Stephens, Religon Editor, and the Siclical
Ezine, Vernon Sundmark, Kelowna, BC. May 16th, 2003. |
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Elaine Pagels, a church historian teaching at Yale, was not drawn to the
Christian faith community because of its beliefs. She was, rather, deeply
affected when, in the midst of a family crisis and a Sunday morning jogging
session, she unexpectedly found herself inside a New York City church in
a T-shirt and running shorts. The sounds of a choir and the image of a
woman priest in bright gold and white vestments profoundly spoke to her.
The author and her husband were in the throes of having to accept that
their son Mark, who had just been diagnosed with a rare form of lung disease,
would soon die.
Standing in the back of that church, I recognized, uncomfortably, that
I needed to be there, she writes. Her old defenses, the result of early,
unsatisfying church exposure, fell away. As time went by she continued
having problems describing what her faith meant. Clearly, it was not simply
assent to a set of doctrines.
As a historian of religion, Pagels began to ponder when and how being a
Christian has become, for many, a matter of accepting a certain set of
right beliefs. She knew that long before there were orthodox teachings
- a biblical canon and creeds - followers of Jesus had survived centuries
of brutal persecution because of their faith. Faith, for them, involved
much more than what they believed or did not believe.
For some years prior to her conversion experience at the New York church,
Pagels had been studying and translating a set of strange Christian writings
discovered after 1600 years in 1945, at Nag Hammadi, Egypt. Her initial
interpretations were presented in a groundbreaking book entitled
The Gnostic Gospels (1979).
Now, almost a quarter century later, the author revisits the significance
of some of those texts - the Gospel Thomas in particular - to describe
how beliefs triumphed over experience in the history of the early church.
Thomas was termed heretical by a number of leading church fathers who decided
that it was time to establish a correct set of Christian beliefs influenced
to a large extent by the Gospel of John. Orthodox Christianity - confirming
JesusO divine nature and the meaning of the Holy Trinity - became enshrined
in the Nicene, and other ecumenical creeds.
A major value of Pagels work is that she reveals, in a way that many today
will find attractive, some of the keen diversity that existed in early
understandings of Jesus teachings.
The gnostics were denounced as heretics, she writes, but many of these
Christians saw themselves not as believers but as seekers, people who seek
for God. Modern research into gnosticism reveals that it was not so much
a specific historical religion but rather a term coined by prominent Church
Fathers to denigrate the teachings of know it alls outside orthodox faith
and to prescribe the limits of normative Christianity.
Christianity exploded in the Mediterranean world from the time of Christ
to the era of Constantine because growing numbers turned their heart-felt
convictions into a radical new form of living based on ChristOs message
of love and justice. From that time, the focus would be on right belief
rather than honest seeking.
Since Constantine, most churches required those who would join their communion
to profess a complex set of beliefs about God and Jesus. From that time,
the focus would be on correct belief rather than honest seeking.
Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas describes how certain Christian
leaders from the second to the fourth centuries CE selected the books that
would become the New Testament gospels. Pagels details why they chose John,
along with Matthew, Mark and Luke rather than the gnostic Thomas and others
of that genre such as the Gospel of Mary Magdalene which portrays women
as teachers and the Gospel of Truth that speaks of God as Father and Mother.
The Gospel of John with its clear and objective directives (God = word
= Jesus Christ) helped to create the basis for a unified church (canon
+ orthodoxy = Catholic). The Gospel of Thomas, with its subjective emphasis
on each personOs search for God, did not.
What, then, to make of this? The Nag Hammadi discoveries and sources such
as the Dead Sea Scrolls, combined with the efforts of many modern historians,
are revealing dimensions of early Christianity that differ from what we
have always known and understood as orthodox faith.
How can we tell truth from lies? Traditionally, we have been taught that
the Spirit of God guided the formulators of the New Testament canon to
discern what was true (and therefore admissible) and what was not acceptable.
PagelsO intriguing study helps us to see that the selection process may
not have been such a pristine holy endeavour and that power and control
factors were very much at work.
Following the sound logic and steady hand of a scholar thoroughly versed
in both the orthodox and heretical documents, the reader will be helped
to see that John and Thomas provide alternate approaches to discerning
truth. The former proposes we believe in Jesus. The latter, that we emulate
him.
Does one preclude the other? Is it not possible to do
both?
From her own experience as a scholar and a mother, Pagels challenges Christians
to reconsider what really makes for authentic faith. She concludes by asking,
poignantly, Do we follow, ultimately, the dictates of religious authority,
or do we find that, at critical points in our lives, we must strike out
on our own and make a path where none exists?.
Pagels believes that the truth can be found, not in one position, but somewhere
within the diversity of Christian traditions, orthodox and not, offering
the testimony of a great variety of people to spiritual discovery.
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Reviewer's Bio: Wayne A. Holst is a writer who has taught religion and
culture at the University of Calgary. |
