2020/04/30

알라딘: 믿음을 넘어서

알라딘: 믿음을 넘어서



믿음을 넘어서 - 도마의 비밀 복음서 

일레인 페이절스 (지은이),권영주 (옮긴이)루비박스2006-10-30

원제 : BEYOND BELIEF : THE SECRET GOSPEL OF THOMAS (2003년)



기본정보

반양장본192쪽

152*223mm (A5신)269gISBN : 9788991124493



책소개전미 도서상과 전미 비평가 협회상을 수상한 작가 일레인 페이절스가 저술한 최근작. 일반 대중을 위한 초기 기독교에 관한 입문서이다. 저자는 책을 통해 '믿음이 무엇이냐'고 묻는다. 그녀는 기독교 내에서 암묵적으로 금기시되어온, '교회는 왜 예수를 믿으라고 가르치는가? 과연 믿는다는 것은 무엇을 의미하는가? 믿음이 구원에 이르게 하는가?' 등의 질문을 던진다.



책을 통해 독자들은 초기 기됵교사에서 잃어버린 정신적 유산과 영성의 복원 가능성과 타당성에 공감할 수 있다. 아울러 소설 <다 빈치 코드>의 논란의 핵심에 있는 '도마 복음'이 마지막 장에 기다리고 있어 흥미롭게 기독교의 사상과 역사를 두루 살펴볼 수 있다.



목차

1. 아가페의 축제에서 니케아 신경까지

2. 어긋나는 진술, 요한복음과 도마복음

3. 하나님의 말씀인가, 인간의 말인가

4. 진리의 정경과 요한의 승리

5. 콘스탄티누스 황제와 보편적 교회



도마복음



책속에서

예컨대 맥레이 교수가 번역한 도마복음에는 이런 구절이 나온다. '예수께서 이르시되 만일 너희가 너희 안에 있는 것을 이끌어내면 너희가 이끌어내는 것이 너희를 구할 것이요, 너희 안에 있는 것을 이끌어내지 아니하면 너희가 이끌어내지 아니하는 것이 너희를 멸할 것이니라.' 이 말슴이 갖는 히은 우리에게 무엇을 믿을지 가르쳐주는 대신, 우리 안에 감추어져 있는 것을 발견할 것을 요구한다는 데에 있다. 나는 충격과 함께 이 같은 시각이 얼마나 '마땅한지' 깨달았다. - 본문 35쪽 중에서  접기

70 예수께서 이르시되 만일 너희가 너희 안에 있는 것을 이끌어나면 너희가 이끌어내는 것이 너희를 구할 것이요 너희 안에 있는 것을 이끌어내지 아니하면 너희가 이끌어내지 아니하는 것이 너희를 멸할 것이니라.-187쪽 - 깨몽

87 예수께서 이르시되 몸에 의존하는 몸은 불행하고 그 둘에 의존하는 영혼은 불행함이라.-188쪽 - 깨몽

122 예수께서 이르시되 영혼에 의존하는 육신에 화 있을진저 육신에 의존하는 영혼에 화 일을진저 하시니라.-191쪽 - 깨몽

저자 및 역자소개

일레인 페이절스 (Elaine Pagels) (지은이)

저자파일



최고의 작품 투표



신간알림 신청



프린스턴 대학 해링튼 스피어 페인 칼리지 종교학과 교수이다. 1970년 하버드 대학에서 박사학위를 받았고, 콜럼비아 대학 버나드 칼리지의 종교학과 교수직을 역임했다. 나그함마디에서 발견된 각종 문헌 편집 작업에 참여한 바 있으며, 지은 책으로 <요한복음의 영지주의적 해석 (The Johannine Gospel in Gnostic Exegesis)>, <영지주의자 바울: 바울 서한의 영지주의적 해석 (The Gnostic Paul: Gnostic Exegesis of the Pauline Letter)>, <아담, 이브, 그리고 뱀 (Adam, Eve, adn the Serpent)>가 있다. <숨겨진 복음서: 영지주의 (The Gnostic Gospels)>로 1980년 전미비평가협회상과 전미도서상을 수상하였으며, 1981년 맥아더상을 수상하였다. 접기

최근작 : <아담, 이브, 뱀>,<믿음을 넘어서>,<사탄의 탄생> … 총 54종 (모두보기)

권영주 (옮긴이)

저자파일



최고의 작품 투표



신간알림 신청

서울대학교 외교학과를 졸업하고 동 대학원에서 영문학을 전공했다. 무라카미 하루키의 『애프터 다크』 『오자와 세이지 씨와 음악을 이야기하다』, 미야베 미유키의 『벚꽃, 다시 벚꽃』 온다 리쿠의 『나와 춤을』 『유지니아』 등을 우리말로 옮겼으며 『삼월은 붉은 구렁을』로 2015년 일본 고단샤에서 수여하는 제20회 노마문예번역상을 수상했다. 그밖에 『빙과』 『전쟁터의 요리사들』 『항구 마을 식당』 『다다미 넉 장 반 세계일주』 등 다수의 일본문학은 물론 『데이먼 러니언』 『어두운 거울 속에』 등 영미권 작품도 활발하게 소개하고 있다.

최근작 : … 총 142종 (모두보기)



   

   

BEYOND BELIEF 새창으로 보기 구매





처음 예수가 백인이 아닌 흑인에 더 가깝다는 얘길 들었을 때,



내가 받았던 충격은 가히 크고도 남음이었다.



아마도.. 그 때부터였으리라_







이 책의 34p.에 페이절스는 이렇게 적고 있다.







『기독교의 무엇이 그렇게 나를 집착하게 하면서 동시에 실망시키는지 내내 고민했다.』







나 역시, 그에 100% 공감한다.



그리고 그것이 바로 내가 끊임없이 금서들을 읽어내는 이유이다.







이 책은 그녀의 전작들보다 훨씬 잘 쓰여졌다.



"BEYOND BELIEF"라는 원제도 정말 맘에 든다.



그리고 이 "BEYOND"라는 단어는 현재의 내 위치도 설명해주고 있다.



여하튼 도마복음이라 하면,



알다시피_



예수님의 어록으로만 묶인 책으로 유명하다.



또, 도입부에 예수의 쌍둥이 유다도마가 기록했다는 발칙한 문구로도 유명하다.



헌데, 막상 글을 대하면 후자의 의견엔 동의할 수가 없다.



글에선 누구의 쌍둥이인지가 불분명 하다는 것.



보기에 따라선 생물학적 -일(이)란성- 쌍둥이처럼도 보이지만



예수와 별개로 쌍둥이인 유다도마란 사람이 저자라 밝힌 것처럼도 보이기 때문이다.



한편, 페이절스의 설명처럼 그리스도에 동화된 의미의 예수의 쌍둥이 유다도마로도 보인다.



아마도 영지주의적 태도에 입각해 보건데 페이절스의 해석이 옳은 표현인듯 하다.







나는 현재 이 책을 비롯하여 그녀의 저작 두 권을 더 가지고 있다.



각각의 텍스트들이 있지만 사실, 이 책들은 모두 공통의 텍스트로 봄이 마땅하다 싶다.



초기 기독교를 설명하고 있고, 사회학적 관점을 유지한다는 것이 바로 그것이다.



그래서 이제쯤은 그녀의 책에 등장하는 인물들의 이름이 너무나 익숙하다.



그리고 그녀의 책 가운데 이 책만큼은 정말 기독교 필독서로 추천하고 싶다.



왜냐면, 정말 우리에겐 "BEYOND BELIEF"가 필요하기 때문이다.







아!



그리고 이 책을 읽고나면 알게 될 것이다.



우리가 특정 단체나 누구를 가리켜 "이단"이라 배척하는 것이 얼마나 큰 오류인지를.



더욱이 개신교는 알아야 한다.







- 접기

Yaa 2006-12-20 공감(3) 댓글(0)

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공감

   

믿음을 넘어선다는 것의 의미 새창으로 보기 구매



올해 중순쯤으로 기억된다.



유다복음이 번역되어 상당한 반향을 불러 일으켰다.



다규멘터리 채널에서 '유다복음의 진실'이란 다큐멘타리를 만들었는데,



그 프로그램에서 인터뷰해주던 사람중에 여성이 한분 있었는데, 그 사람이 바로 이 책의 저자다.



(페이절스는 영지주의와 초기 기독교 연구가로 알려져 있다.)



이 책의 표지에서 예수 몸을 손으로 확인하는 사람이 바로 도마(Thomas)이다.



페이절스는 초기 기독교내에서의 영지주의의 변천을 도마복음과 요한복음을 비교하면서 서술한다.



영지주의가 뭐냐고 묻는다면 사실 전문서적이 번역되어 있지 않는 상황에서 정확한 대답을 한다는 것은 무리다.



하지만, 이 책의 제목이 암시하듯(원서의 제목과 같다)



단순히 믿는 것을 넘어서 스스로 도를 구하여 완성되고자 하는 동양적인 구도의 면을 부각시킨다.



이 책은 해당분야의 전문지식이 없더라도 차근차근 읽어나가노라면 그 내용을 이해함에 큰 어려움이 없다.



나의 개인적 견해를 덧붙이겠다.





자신의 믿음과 관계없이 공동체 생활을 하는 과정에서 무엇인가 질적인 변화나 차이를 추구한다면,



그런 생각이나 태도의 차이가 나타나는 양상은 영지주의와 양상이 비슷하다.



즉, 양이 아닌 질적인 기준을 생각한다는 것 자체가 믿음이상을 넘어서게 된다.

덧붙여 이 책의 편집이나 구성, 그리고 종이질에도 많은 정성을 들인 것 같다.



- 접기

cintamani 2007-07-15 공감(1) 댓글(0)

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공감

   

읽다가 지루해서 내려놓은 책 새창으로 보기 구매

기독교 영지주의는 많은 글들이 있어왔다. 페인절스의 글은 사실상 읽기에 쉽다고 평을 하기도 하지만, 학문적인 영역과 혼합이 되어져서 이루어지다 보니, 나는 가끔식 페인절스의 글 쓰기가 마음에 들지 않을때가 많다. 자신의 경험과 학문적인 견해가 구분하기가 나로서는 힘들었기 때문이다.



또한 기독교 역사와 성서 신학 내지 조직신학에 대한 내용을 알고 읽어내려간다면, 그다지 신선하다거나 새로운 자극이 될만한 글의 내용이 보이지는 않는다.



영지주의에 대한 해석, 초기 교회에 대한 그의 시각은 대체 뭐가 새로운지 잘 모르겠다. 한가지 새로운 점이 있다면, 나그함마디 문서를 통해서 초기 기독교를 보여주었다는 점인데, 이러한 내용은 신구약 외경과 중간기 문헌사와 유대 역사와 예수의 신성과 인성에 대한 논쟁, 삼위일체에 대한 논쟁에 대한 글들을 읽어내려가다보면, 쉬이 알수 있는 내용이다.



현대적인 감각의 언어로 쓰여졌다는 점에서는 좋은 점수를 주고 싶다.



- 접기

minority 2008-07-30 공감(1) 댓글(0)

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공감

   

영지주의와 정통적 가르침의 초기 기독교회 해설 새창으로 보기

  1.



    P.10 "기독교 전통에서 우리가 사랑하는 것은 무엇이고, 사랑할 수 없는 것은 무엇인가?"    P.34 "친한 친구가 열여섯 살에 자동차 사고로 목숨을 잃었을 때, 신자들은 그의 죽음을 가엾게 여기면서도 그가 유대인이고 '새로 태어나지' 않았으므로 영원한 벌을 받았다고 했다. 나는 그 말에 충격을 받았고, 그들의 해석에 찬성할 수 없었다. ~~ 더 이상 내가 머물 곳이 아님을 깨닫고 그 교회에서 나왔다." 



    이 책을 읽는 이들은 아마도 작가와 같은 고민을 하고 있다.  기독교를 좋아하지만 뭔가 답답하다는 것.                                                                 



   이미 영지주의에 관심을 가졌으니 이 책을 폈으리라고 생각하는데, 이 책은 영지주의와 정통가르침이 서로 대립하던 초기 기독교회의 이야기이다. 작가는 이 책의 목적을 이렇게 밝힌다. p.43 "신약성경의 사중복음을 옹호하는 기독교도들은 도마복음 같은 가르침을 공격하고 신자들에게 그런 가르침을 이단으로 배격하기를 요구했다. 그렇게 되기까지의 과정, 그리고 그것이 기독교 전통의 역사에서 의미하는 바를 살펴보는 것."



2. 영지주의와 정통적 가르침이 혼합되어 공존하는 길을 모색하는 과정에 있는게 아닐까



  절에 가기를 더 좋아하면서 집안 식구들이 모두 성당을 다니기 때문에 주말마다 반강제적으로 성당에 가고 있다. 그래서 늘상 두 가르침을 비교하고 있다. 그런데  과거 가톨릭 성인들의 행적이나 가르침들을 보면 불교가르침과 그 영적구도의 자세와 별반 다르지 않다고 느끼는 때가 있다. 결국은 모든 종교가 하나를 지향하고 있는 것이 아닐까...그냥 방식이 다른 것 뿐일까 ...하고 생각하고 있는데...



  P.75 에 이런 서술이 있다.  '



 선수련을 하는 미국인 노사가 "도마복음을 알았더라면 불교 신자가 될 필요가 없었을 것" 이라고 하자 다른 베네딕투스회 데이비드 수사는  도마복음을 비롯한 몇몇 비정통적 복음은 신비주의적 면이 있기는 해도 본질적으로는 교회의 가르침과 다르지 않다고 하면서 "그들이 하는 이야기는 모두 아빌라의 성테레사나 십자가의 성 요한네스 같은 위대한 신비주의자들의 저술에 나옵니다."        그러나 일레인은 성테레사나 성요한네스 등은 정통적 가르침과 일치하지 않으면 안 된다는 것, 적어도 일치하는 것처럼 보여야 한다는 것을 알고 있었을 것이라고 한다.   



  그녀의 간결한 진술에 지금까지의 고민이 뚜렷이 보이는 느낌이 들기도 했다. 그러나 그들이 의무적이고 강제적으로 그런 방식으로 행동한 것이 아니라  자신들의 행동이 정통가르침에 위배되지 않는다고 생각한게 아닐까. 즉, 데이비드 수사의 말처럼 본질적으로 같은 게 아닐까...하는 생각도 든다. 성요한네스등도 굳이 새롭게 영지주의를 주장하며 교회의 분열을 조장할 필요가 없고, 가르침을 널리 실천하는데 굳이 그런 방식을 펼 필요가 없다는 것을 알았기 때문인지도 모른다.  아마도 초기기독교회에서는 영지주의를 분리시켰지만 끊임없이 영지주의는 교회내로 스물스물 끼어들어왔던 것이다. 다만, 일레인은 이제 더 강력하게 영지주의를 교회내로 편입시키려는 노력 중 인 것이다.



  현재의 가톨릭교회 또한 개방적인 자세를 취하며 끊임없이 혁신했기 때문에 그 거대한 몸집을 유지할 수 있었던 것 같은 생각이 들고, 다양한 종파의 기독교회들은 말할 것도 없다. 영지주의자들과 같은 구도자들이 있었기 때문에 명맥을 유지할 수 있었던 것이 아닐까. 분명히 현재의 교회는  중세와 다르다.   유대교회의 주류 조차도 기독교와의 공존과 조화를 모색하고 있다고 한다.



  미사시간에도 요한복음에 관한 영지주의적 해석을 들은 적이 여러번 있다. 난 당연히 가톨릭은 신비주의적 해석을 경계하니까 요한복음도 합리적으로 해석했다고 생각했는데...  요즈음의 성당의 가르침이나 태도를 보면 영지주의적 해석을 넘나들고 있는 것 같은 느낌이 든다. 현재 가톨릭교회의 주류 해석이 뭔지 도대체 궁금하다. 내가 들은 것들은 신부님의 독단적인 해석이었을까... 한 신부님에게 들은 얘기가 아닌데...



  3. 이 책을 읽었더니 고민이 해결되는 것이 아니라, 더욱더 깊이 신학적 탐구의 길을 열어준 것 같다.  하지만 다행스러운 것은, 가톨릭과 기타교회가 영지주의적 해석을 널리 받아들이길 간절히 바랄 필요가 없이, 불교가 존재한다는 점이다.



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Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas by Elaine Pagels | Goodreads

Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas by Elaine Pagels | Goodreads


Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas

 3.94  ·   Rating details ·  5,772 ratings  ·  256 reviews
Pagels, a writer and thinker on religion and history, winner of the National Book Award for The Gnostic Gospels, reflects on what matters most about spiritual and religious exploration in the 21st century. This book explores how Christianity began by tracing its earliest texts, including the Gospel of Thomas, rediscovered in Egypt in 1945.

When her infant son was diagnosed with fatal pulmonary hypertension, Pagels' spiritual and intellectual quest took on a new urgency, leading her to explore historical and archaeological sources and to investigate what Jesus and his teachings meant to his followers before the invention of Christianity. The discovery of the Gospel of Thomas, along with more than 50 other early Christian texts, some unknown since antiquity, offers clues. She compares such sources as Thomas' gospel (which claims to give Jesus' secret teaching and finds its closest affinities with kabbalah) with the canon to show how Christian leaders chose to include some gospels and exclude others from the collection many call the New Testament. To stabilize the emerging church in times of persecution, church fathers constructed the canon, creed and hierarchy - and, in the process, suppressed many of its spiritual resources.

Drawing on new scholarship - her own and that of an international group of scholars - that has come to light since the 1979 publication of The Gnostic Gospels, she shows that what matters about Christianity involves much more than any one set of beliefs. Traditions embodied in Judaism and Christianity can powerfully affect us in heart, mind and spirit, inspire visions of a new society based on practising justice and love, even heal and transform us.

Provocative and moving, Beyond Belief, the most personal of her books to date, shows how the impulse to seek god overflows the narrow banks of a single tradition. She writes, "What I have come to love in the wealth and diversity of our religious traditions - and the communities that sustain them - is that they offer the testimony of innumerable people to spiritual discovery, encouraging us, in Jesus' words, to 'seek, and you shall find.'"

CONTENTS
From the feast of Agape to the Nicene Creed
Gospels in conflict: John and Thomas
God's word or human words?
The canon of truth and the triumph of John
Constantine and the Catholic Church
Acknowledgements
Notes
Index
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Published May 6th 2003 by Random House (NYC) (first published January 1st 2003)
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Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas
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 Average rating3.94  · 
 ·  5,772 ratings  ·  256 reviews

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Sejin,
Sejin, start your review of Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas
Jan-Maat
Long ago but not so far way I bought this book for my father, who was interested in reading the Gospel of Thomas. I had read an apocryphal Gospel one day while a student, happily nosing around in the reference section - it related how once when Jesus was a boy he was out playing in the street when some bigger boys came along, stamped on his mud pie and laughed at him. Jesus' eyes at this flashed with anger and those bully boys fell dead. Later their parents went round to Joseph and Mary and complained bitterly about Jesus' behaviour. Joseph and Mary gave Jesus a good talking to, after which he raised the boys from the dead and restored them to life.

For various reasons I'm a cautious and wary person, and so was unkeen, unfamiliar as I was with the Gospel of Thomas, to present my father with this kind of material without some kind of explanatory framework no doubt fearing some outbreak of gnosticism in middle England(view spoiler), and so it came to pass after some poking and prodding, that I came across Pagels' book, thought it looked the part, and gave it to the old man. I'm still not sure if he ever read it.

Which plainly was his loss if he didn't because it is a great introduction to the spiritual world of the early church, the one problem with which is that I'm not sure that the Gospel of Thomas as it is presented here on it's own has the weight to sustain her argument.

Pagels frames the story of the quashing of spiritual interpretations of the meaning of the ministry of Jesus (view spoiler) in favour of an Orthodox and Catholic church by the time of Constantine with her experience as a mother living through the death of a son, attending church first in crisis, later with her daughter for a Christmas service. I felt this placed a discussion of religious matters in its proper context: the experience of life, rawness and loss, the openness to community, a sense of loss and a sense of the need for metaphysical meaning. But then again I dreamt last night that I was employed by the British Government to buy and sell warships to African heads of state, so your opinion may well be different (view spoiler).

To do this Pagels assumes that the Gospel of John was written in response to the Gospel of Thomas, my concern here was that she advances no discussion of the possible date of composition for either, but at a pinch, reading, one can assume that the first was written, if not in response to the Gospel we can read at the end of this book ,then in general terms to beliefs that the author of John did not approve of (view spoiler) as evidenced by John's presentation of "doubting" Thomas. Pagels' basic conception is of a dynamic, human, environment, and the various oddities of the Gospel attributed to John lend themselves to supporting that view - in other words John's Gospel is really not much like the three synoptic Gospels which together with John form part of the orthodox canon of the New Testament (view spoiler).

Pagels puts forward to the reader that there were two types of believers in the early church, a distinction that reminded me of Karen Armstrong's A History of God. On the one hand there were those who accepted what they were taught, on the other those who took this as a starting point to seek for themselves after truth. Or perhaps those who believed that at most only Jesus had (at least) some element of divinity in his nature (view spoiler) and those who felt that everyone has sparks of the divine in them - this later was to become an important element in Jewish mystical tradition (view spoiler). Or again that there are two types of conversion experience...the first sees salvation as deliverance from sin and death; the second shows how someone "ignorant of God and of [one's] own nature," and mired in destructive activity, eventually develops a growing awareness of - and need for - relationship with God (p162-3). Pagel cites Heracleon who describes the first group as perceiving God as a strict, limited, but well-meaning master and father, who has decreed the death penalty for every one of his children who sins and yet loves them and grieves when they perish. But they also believe that, apart from Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross, God does not forgive his children; he actually only saves those who 'believe' (p161). The alternative, for Heracleon, and I suspect for Pagels (and for that matter Karen Armstrong) is a conception of God as spiritual nourishment (pp 161-2). The story she tells in her book is that the first won out over the second. The hows and the whys are tempting to speculate about, but we don't even know much about the winning side, and what we know about the loosing side almost entirely comes from what the winners choose to say about them.

Almost. Luckily for us in the 1950s, an Egyptian uncovered a stash of writings deemed heretical by Athanasius - repeatedly bishop of Alexandria (view spoiler) in the late fourth century and buried for safe keeping by Nag Hammadi. One of those texts was the Gospel of Thomas. This reads as a stripped down version of the Gospel of Mark. It has no stories, only sayings attributed to Jesus, most of which seem in comparison to the conventional Gospels very familiar. Some are not familiar but similar. A few are a little bit different. Not, I felt, different enough to sustain Pagels' argument, but then I am not a second or third century Bishop striving for order and to contain debate.

Longer years ago I first read Eusebius and Henry Chadwick's The Early Church. Later Geza Vermes' The Changing Faces of Jesus. With each subsequent book I read on faith, on the early Church, I imagine that I am a little like an exploratory spacecraft sent into orbit around a planet to build up velocity so I can fling myself sling-shot style further out in search of understanding. In orbit one rotates round and round the same material, but sees it from a new angle with each approach.

Slowly I learn the oddness of what had been taught to me in school as plain and uncontroversial.
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Lee Harmon
Sep 24, 2011rated it it was amazing
Pagels is a recognized scholar of religion, and the author of The Gnostic Gospels, among others. This book might be her best.

Don't buy this expecting a dull, scholarly exposition on the Gospel of Thomas. It's hardly that. It's sort of an unobtrusive evangelism for unorthodox Christianity, a plea for the kind of "religious truth" that can never hide behind a stale set of doctrine.

Pagels bares her soul in this book, and her passion for spirituality, religion and Christianity shines. The result is inspirational. This is the book that turned me on to Pagels' scholarship, and I've felt a distant kinship ever since. It's really less about the Gospel of Thomas and more about diversity and meaning within the early Christian movement. John's Gospel actually gets as much attention as the Gospel of Thomas. While John hints of gnostic influence, it also finds itself in direct opposition to Thomas on many topics, such as the divinity of Christ. Pagels embraces this diversity of ideas, and spends a great deal of time discussing how the canon of acceptable scripture grew.

I love engaging, thought-provoking books, and Pagels never disappoints.
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Kathryn
I used this for my MA thesis. It's very smoothly and interestingly written--engaging, really--and contains a great deal of interesting information on the foundations of Christianity and, especially, how early church leaders strove to overpower one another and promote their own view of Jesus. Focus on is the "lost" Gospel of Thomas, part of the Nag Hamadi library--theory is that church leaders who came to power tried to destroy evidence of this report of Jesus' teachings that centered more on Gnostic and mystic spirituality. (Warning: Naturally, this may be off-putting to those who prefer to focus on traditional perspectives of the Bible. However, those interested in exploring various aspects of spiritualty and perceptions of Jesus would probably find it interesting.) (less)
Megan
Mar 25, 2009rated it it was amazing
Elaine is wonderful and I began enjoying her work as a student. I think her book on the Gnostic Gospels in general is intelligent and accessible yet this particular work ( though I stand by my 5 star rating) is, at times, redundant. This is an endlessly fascinating subject for me and I trust Pagels knowledge base and motives. Good book.
David Withun
Jun 10, 2012rated it it was ok
Shelves: religion
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Mike
May 03, 2010rated it it was amazing
Beyond Belief has been a formative book for me. (This is the third time I’ve read it.) In a nutshell, the New Testament is the end result of a protracted and often bitter media war. Two thousand years ago those arguing for one belief over another used the same techniques of persuasion that we see today. Case in point. Only is the Gospel of John is there a character named Doubting Thomas. Johannine Christians believed very different things than their contemporaries and rivals, the Thomas Christians. One way to assert one’s views over another’s is to demean and caricature the opposition’s most revered figurehead, and that’s what the author of the Gospel of John did when he turned the apostle Thomas into Doubting Thomas. Of course, this is all conjecture, but Elaine Pagels’ scholarship is very convincing, and human nature being what it is, her conclusions make a world of sense to me. (less)
David Elkin
Sep 17, 2017rated it really liked it
Pagels is a well know Gnostic writer and this book is one of her better ones. A nice study of a Gospel not found in the Bible
Erik Graff
Aug 16, 2010rated it really liked it
Recommends it for: Christians
Recommended to Erik by: no one
Shelves: religion
During my studies at Union Theological Seminary in New York I became acquainted with Elaine Pagels, initially on a social level as one of my girlfriend's favorite teachers at Barnard College, then as my own teacher for a course entitled "Creation Myths in Genesis" at Union. I wasn't much interested in the course topic, but I was interested in working under the author of The Johannine Gospel in Gnostic Exegesis, a book which had impressed me while working on my undergraduate thesis on the history of scholarly debate about the origins of "gnostic" movements. As it happened, she was considerate enough to allow me to supplement the course work with a review of all of the patristic testamony through the fourth century and an encyclopedic thesis covering this material entitled "On the Procession of the Heresiarchs of Gnosis." Since then I have endeavored to read all of her books as they became available.

This particular title followed upon the deaths of her son, Mark (1987) and--unmentioned in it--husband, Heinz (1988). At the time I was acquainted with her and Heinz, neither seemed particularly religious, but as the text indicates, these losses caused her to reconsider her position. Such personal reflections introduce the text.

Three main topics come up repeatedly in Beyond Belief. First, The Gospel of Thomas, a version of which was discovered in Egypt in 1945. A collection of the sayings of Jesus, some have attempted to relate it to the long hypothesized Q, or "source", behind the canonical gospel sayings. Pagels does not push this thesis. Instead, she takes this and, to a lesser extent, other extra-canonical gospels to represent the actual diversity of early Christian belief and practice, a diversity suppressed by the affiliation of one section of the movement with the Powers and Principalities of Rome. Second, she employs Irenaeus, and most particularly his Adversus Haeresis, as an early example (c. 180) of the repressive ideology which won out. Having studied him myself rather intensively, I would only fault her for failing to emphasize how personal much of his invective is and for failing to note the irony of some this supposedly orthodox Father of the Church's own beliefs, most particularly his claim that Jesus lived to a ripe old age. Third, she discusses the original imperially-sponsored Council of the Church (325)which capped the early stage of ideological repression. With this, and with some brief review of the Arian controversy associated with the Council and its consequences, her overview ends.

Pagels' thesis that the early church was diverse and that the concretization of an orthodoxy under the Empire led to the suppression of many elements, particularly those maintaining a more democratic, or "low", Christology, is incontestable. She doesn't go far, however, in expositing what these other streams of thought actually maintained. Instead, she alludes, mostly by quotation, to some characteristic positions later rejected by the Church. The most important of these would seem to be, first, that what the Christ was we can be and, second, that there are many paths to such realization. In other words, what the official Church tried to stamp out was experientially-based religion--precisely, though not explicitly stated, what led her to reconsider her own beliefs.

This book was written for the general public. No specialized knowledge is required, the documentation being confined to endnotes, beyond a general familiarity with the Christian tradition.
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Mark
Jan 28, 2009rated it liked it
The book compares the outlook of the apostle Thomas with the writings that became the book of John. His outlook is that God is within all of us and Jesus told us to find the way to heaven. Even that all people have the spirit of God within us and need to come to Gnosis ( a mutual knowing or understanding of one another with God) through meditation, introspection and study. My main complaint is that very little of the book actually discusses what Thomas' teachings are. Mostly, the book focuses on how his teachings were repressed in favor of John in the creating of the canon of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. First Pagels focuses on Irenaeus who pushes for a 'four-formed' canon in the 2nd century, then she focuses a large part of the book on Roman Emporer Constantinus' conversion and acceptance of Christianity, his patronage, and his organization of bishops to create the Nicene Crede, which is still the basis for ecclesiatical books included as orthodox Christian teachings and the basis for most subsequent versions of the bible. She makes MANY references to the books of Nag Hammadi, which were the basis for her book The Gnostic Gospels.

I find her writing to be interesting, although with sheer amount of dates and names, it can be a bit dry. It is educational to read about how the teachings of Christ were captured and synthesized into what has become the Catholic Church. She follows many of the political and ideological controversies of the first few centuries after Christ's life.
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Randy White
While I enjoyed "Beyond Belief", both the content and Dr. Pagels's writing style, I was somewhat disappointed in the lack of analysis of the Gospel of Thomas. Dr. Pagels presents decent analysis of the Gnostic movement, and places the Gospel of John within the Gnostic context, yet fails to deliver much on the Gospel of Thomas. I enjoyed her personal story and how she believes that there is more than one way to discover God, but again this book is supposed to be about the Gospel of Thomas (or so I assumed from the title). Finally, her analysis of the role of Constantine in enshrining orthodox Christianity as the religion of the late Roman Empire is cursory. She gives Constantine a pass, without noting the real role he played, the fact that as he lay dying he was baptized by an Arian bishop and not an orthodox bishop, and that the shields of his soldiers during THE pivotal battle to become Emperor may have borne the Cross on one side but ALSO bore the symbol of the Sun god on the other as he was hedging his bets. All in all a good read, but rather "light and fluffy" when it comes to the stated material it would supposedly deal with (yes, I end sentences with preposition). (less)
John Martindale
Dec 05, 2018rated it liked it
Shelves: religionaudiobook
This book hardly touches on the Gospel of Thomas. I read the Gospel of Thomas before coming to this book, and I was hoping for some scholarly reflections, but I got very little.

She briefly comments on a handful of saying such as:
Jesus said, "That which you have will save you if you bring it forth from yourselves. That which you do not have within you will kill you if you do not have it within you." It seems this is the passage that resonated most with Pagels, having rejected traditional Christianity, this passag is right up her ally.

She points out the following passage as something Gnostics may have used to identify themselves.
Jesus said, "If they say to you, 'Where did you come from?', say to them, 'We came from the light, the place where the light came into being on its own accord and established itself and became manifest through their image.' If they say to you, 'Is it you?', say, 'We are its children, we are the elect of the living father.' If they ask you, 'What is the sign of your father in you?', say to them, '.
Pagel's think maybe some of the Gospel of John was written in opposition to this.

Pagel mentions nothing concerning the bizarreness found in Thomas like the following:
Simon Peter said to him, "Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of life."
Jesus said, "I myself shall lead her in order to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who will make herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven."
Not any mention of weirdness like: Jesus said, "Blessed is the lion which becomes man when consumed by man; and cursed is the man whom the lion consumes, and the lion becomes man."

But yeah, she presents the Gospel of Thomas evidence that there were these Christians who believed we could find the truth within ourselves, that everyone came from the light was was created in God's image and had access to the truth within themselves, if we only seek it. While the gospel of John on the other hand, mentions people are in darkness, and turn from the light, cannot find the truth and only Jesus reveals the truth to the elect. Pagels seems to be attempting to say there was a better form of Christianity that was destroyed by the dogmatic catholics, which is what most of the book is about. But eventually while writing about Irenaeus and his "Against Heresies", pointed out that Irenaeus was actually rather inclusive as he tried to define catholicity and outline spectrum of "orthodoxy", the reason he was so hateful towards the Gnostics, was their stuck up attitude, their walking around like they were the enlightened people, and dismissing and brushing off the enlightened who just couldn't get it, or couldn't the truth. But yeah, Pagel's seem to suggest Irenaeus depictions here was accurate, and this may be in part why he turned against them so strongly, throwing every vindictive and hateful epithet their direction. If this is the case, it seems to go against just how wonderful these gnostic Christians were. Looks like both ends of the power struggle had their share of nastiness. 
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Lisa Louie
Oct 01, 2008rated it really liked it
While I'm a little disappointed that Beyond Belief is not the book I was hoping it would be, the book's argument builds steadily to a satisfying plateau of understanding, namely that the social and political upheaval that dominated the first two centuries after Jesus' life and death motivated the likes of church father Irenaeus to unify the church under one set of beliefs and practice, and simultaneously to squelch the diversity of beliefs about God and Jesus that abounded in the early church....more
Heather Shaw
May 09, 2012rated it liked it
Recommends it for: practicing or disaffected Christians, anyone interested in the origins of Christian doctrine
You don't have to agree with everything Elaine Pagels says to love her. This book combines scholarly research with a personal vulnerability that is very disarming, and I found myself engaged with the book on a personal level that I did not expect.

That said, I was troubled by Pagels' tendency to equate mysticism and gnosticism, and I think this is problematic to her argument. I would loosely define mysticism as a belief in man's capacity to commune with God on a personal level, to recognize God within himself and to become one with God. Gnosticism is a very specific belief system that contains mystical elements, but which was declared heretical by Irenaeus in the second century.

Pagels' argues that the Gospel of John was likely written to refute the so-called gnostic gospel of Thomas, and that Irenaeus championed the Gospel of John and the Nicene Creed (which draws freely from John's gospel) to establish the divinity of Christ as the central doctrine of Christianity, which in turn would rid the church of pesky gnostic sects. The New Testament canon, along with the Nicene Creed, effectively excluded all mysticism from the catholic (lowercase) church, while instituting a Catholic (uppercase) doctrine of atonement and original sin. Here's the rub: Pagels seems to equate the acceptance of Christ's divinity with a denial of mysticism. We are separated from God by original sin, therefore we cannot have access to God without a mediator (Christ).

What bothers me is that Pagels creates this false dichotomy between orthodox doctrine and christian mysticism, without any mention of how these traditions intersect and complement each other within the orthodox faith. I am no scholar, nor am I well-educated on the finer points of Orthodox doctrine, but I do know that the Orthodox Church does not hold a doctrine of atonement or original sin (in the same sense as the Roman Catholic church), but does promote the concept of theosis, a mystical journey wherein man is ultimately joined to God, becoming divine by grace. Pagels oversimplifies her argument by excluding any mention of these points, which present a rather compelling gray area between the gnostic sects and modern Christianity (with it's focus on man's separation from God).

I enjoyed reading the book, overall, but found myself more interested in what Pagels leaves out, and why...
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Charlotte
Apr 06, 2011rated it liked it
Shelves: spiritual-ethics
This book was used as a study book for a Tuesday morning discussion group. While it's subtitle is the Secret Gospel of Thomas (and the text of the complete Gospel of Thomas is printed in the back, we found it to be more of a history of the development of the early Christian Church. In 1945 a stone jar was found at Nag Hammadi in upper Egypt containing other writings from the beginning of the Christian era. These texts had been hidden when they had been ordered to be destroyed. Elaine Pagels stepped inside a church during a morning run, and found herself drawn to the spiritual power she felt there. This began a search for her in determining at what point the church moved from the strong spiritual base in its early years to one of creeds and statements of beliefs. (She also now sees now a swing back to the spiritual base, with less interest in creeds.) Studying early writings helped her see that there was a wide diversity of interpretations in the years following Christ's death, and the creeds and beliefs statement (culminating in the canonization of the books to appear in the Bible during the time of Constantine) were a desperate effort to protect the "true faith" from the many groups with what seemed like strange and dangerous interpretations. Much of the book is history. Pagels sees that harm sometimes results from unquestioning acceptance of religious authority. Her final words are, "What I have come to love in the wealth of our religious traditions--and the communities that sustain them--is that they offer the testimony of innumerable peopleto spiritual discovery. Thus they encourage those who endeavor, in Jesus words, to "seek, and you shall find."(less)
Chip
Oct 06, 2010rated it really liked it
Yes, there is a discussion of the Gospel of Thomas; yes, there is a little about the author's struggle to find her own faith; there's even a compact overview of the first millenium of Christianity. What this book is concerned with mostly is the internecine war for dominance between the proponents of the Gospel of John and the proponents of every other Gospel. This book dissects and examines the history of that war and demonstrates how the results of this war shaped, and continues to shape, the Christian world today. The rest mentioned previously is the gilding on the frame; the meat of this book is the incisive examination of the winners (the Orthodoxy) and the losers (the Gnostics). Very well done and a compelling read. (less)
jcg
Mar 25, 2009rated it really liked it
I thought the book was going to be about the Gospel of Thomas, but it is really an overview of early Christianity tied in with Elaine Pagels personal search for something to make sense of the world.

Written in plain language, it covers a lot of territory and shows how the beliefs of some groups were crowded out of orthodox Christianity. As always, the most ruthless win.

The main investigation of the book is how to tell the difference between divinely inspired texts and those that are human imagination.

She doesn't touch on the work of scholars who believe that the Gospel of John was originally written more sypathetically to the Gospel of Thomas, but that a later Redactor added the opening chapters and inserted additional material to change the perspective to refute Thomas.
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Eleanor
Oct 21, 2019rated it liked it
This was interesting, though I was disappointed that it was not more about the Gospel of Thomas specifically, as the title indicated, but was more generally about the strife within the early Christian church/es as to which "version" should prevail.
Jason
Nov 06, 2007rated it liked it
First and foremost I think Elaine Pagels writes nicely. She gives her work a nice tone and it flows easily. This book itself seems to contrast an apparently ancient work, the Gospel of Thomas, to one of the main works in the Four Formed Gospel, John. The Gospel of Thomas was discovered with some other works hid away in a field in the town of Nag Hammadi in upper Egypt. Apparently these works which oppose orthodox Christianity were hid there to preserve them from being destroyed. Pagels herself was apparently disillusioned with orthodox Christianity at an early age and asked herself 'how could people with different beliefs be condemned to hell?' Therefore, she has found great comfort in works like the Gospel of Thomas which seem to say the Truth of God can be found within as opposed to John which says Jesus is the way to the Truth etc. The Gospel of Thomas has a bit of similarity with Buddhist thought (especially Zen) which emphasizes looking to oneself for ultimate answers and also the idea that we only lose perfection through not realizing our Buddha natures. For these reasons this book is actually an interesting read but I can't give it a high rating because I find it fanciful to say the least. There is a reason John was included in the gospels of the new testament by the early Christians. I don't believe like Pagels does that John was written perhaps to refute the more heretic book of Thomas. Secondly, John seems to have much in common with the synoptic gospels even though Pagels proclaims it doesn't. If you do a thorough check of the information you will see for yourself. I simply cannot believe that for nearly two thousand years we've all been duped about how Christianity should have been. I have no doubts that Pagels has some merit of scholarship but I do not feel she's above and beyond the many scholars who have looked and written about this issue extensively. To put it simply: Pagels doesn't give any strong proof for us to accept the Gospel of Thomas and also other so-called secret works.

Throughout the book Pagels gives us an account of a man named Irenaeus, the bishop of Lyons, and his struggle to suppress what he viewed as heretical works of the day being put forth.

Later in this book Pagels goes on to give a minor historical account of the Nicene Creed. Of course, this was the time when the orthodox doctrines were agreed upon by most of the Christian leaders and would shape the universal Catholic church in the future. Perhaps distressingly to "true" Christians the concept or idea of the Trinity was solidified here. We are also told about a bishop who held a contrary view, (as did some other Christians at this time) Arius. However, ultimately the emperor Constantine who had been a Christian convert prevailed and we have what constitutes orthodoxy today. My point here being that Pagels did a good job of providing interesting reading. Her minor tracing of history keeps you interested enough to plow ahead. It's a shame the other parts of the book didn't have more support or weight to help make them more convincing. This is what ultimately causes this book to fall short.
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Gail Holm
Apr 25, 2015rated it really liked it
This is the second time I’ve read Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas. Reading it with a group this time deepened my understanding. The words, “Beyond Belief,” have significance in more than one way. I think these words mainly refer to early Christians who chose to embrace rituals, myths and perspectives that didn’t have the stamp of approval of church leaders, such as Irenaeus, who were trying to establish orthodoxy. This phrase can be extended to those people who continue to be seekers today. “Beyond Belief” could also refer to the motives of the orthodox Christian leaders. Beyond getting Christians to accept one immutable story and path to salvation, the orthodox leaders were trying to consolidate the religion in the interest of power and protection from outside forces.
Pagels suggests that the Gospel of John may have been written to refute Thomas’s claims that the light of God shines in everyone and that individuals may seek God. John proposed that Jesus IS God and that believing in Jesus is the only thing that matters. I’m puzzled, however, that The Secret Gospel of Thomas was chosen as the subtitle. Pagels discusses other non-canonical gospels that also incurred the wrath of the orthodox leaders. In addition, the content of the book is woven from many strands. To me, it isn’t primarily about The Gospel of Thomas.
Ireneas and others established a mandatory set of beliefs for Christians thereby consolidating the church and establishing the structure that made Christianity’s continued existence possible, but often, strict adherence to orthodoxy has been harmful. Today, many people want to feel free to interpret religious stories and tenets in light of their own experiences…to go “beyond belief.” More and more we go our own ways, away from organized religion. I hope we can save the life-affirming aspects of organized religion without depending on the structure of orthodoxy.
Beyond Belief is a thought-provoking book that will engage readers interested in how Christian beliefs developed and how the church became a power to be reckoned with. Moreover, Pagels insights into the content of Christian works rejected by the orthodoxy may give spiritual validation to those who seek in light of their own experience.
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Janet
Sep 26, 2011rated it liked it
The book compares the gospel of John with the gnostic gospel of Thomas. Both follow a similar timeline - different from Matthew, Mark and Luke. John's emphasis is on communing to God through Jesus Christ. Thomas has more of a Buddhist approach - looking for God inside yourself.

The theological aspects aren't nearly as interesting as the political ones. In compiling the bible, the "editor" (in the form of Bishop Irenaeus of Lyon) was the one who decided which books to include, and which to leave out, and declaring the books left out as blasphemous.

This does not provide the Gospel of Thomas, but at least some of the text is available online, and also in the book covering the 52 text discovered in Egypt in 1945, The Nag Hammadi Scriptures.
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Jane
Sep 29, 2011rated it liked it
Like some of Bart Ehrman's books, Pagels deals extensively with conflicts among early Christian sects and how the Bible ended up being what it is today. The Gospel of Thomas is one among many others that didn't make the cut and we wouldn't know of it today except that it was hidden for 1600 years with other gnostic gospels at Nag Hammadi. There was not as much detail about the Gospel of Thomas as I had expected. Pagels compares it to the Gospel of John which states that belief in Jesus is the only means of salvation. Thomas asserts that there is a spark of divinity in all of us with the implication that there may by more than one road to God. (less)
Carol
May 16, 2009rated it it was amazing
After reading Picoult's Change of Heart, I was given this book as a Mom's Day gift. I enjoyed Pagels' guidance through the debate of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th centuries regarding the life and teachings of Jesus. As a Religion Prof a Princeton, Pagels has studied the debate of those years through not only those gospels included in the Bible but also the hidden 50 books that were not included and that were found in Neg Hammadi in 1945. A fascinating read that is 'healing, good sense, and gives permission to think,imagine and yet believe'. (less)