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Title: The Origin of Satan by Elaine Pagels ISBN: 0-679-73118-0 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 30 April, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.1 (52 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: The role of evil...
Comment: Elaine Pagels, Princeton professor and National Book Award-winning author of "The Gnostic Gospels", has written a mostly fascinating book about the evolution of Satan, from seldom seen fallen angel in the Old Testament to central-to-the-scene villain in the Gospels.
Even having read 30+ books on Christianity, there are things in this book that made me reconsider what I know about the religion. For example, I had always assumed that Christians believed that Jesus's cruxifiction was a pre-ordained blood sacrifice required by God for the salvation of others, not the folly of the devil. But, this book contends that early Christians converted skeptics by claiming that Satan had intervened in God's plan for the Messiah. Jesus hadn't performed all the tasks of the Messiah by the time of his death because Satan possessed Judas and the Roman officials, and he was killed before he was able to.
The book is filled with such revelations. In spite of a sluggish last third, it has added yet another angle of consideration to a fascinating religion.
Rating: 4
Summary: A fascinating expose of the message of hatred in the Bible.
Comment: Elaine Pagels has made a signal contribution to our understanding of how a message of hatred has become a pernicious, if little recognized, element of the Christian tradition. I became interested in New Testament studies because I wanted to understand how the Christian message of love could be distorted to provide justification for such evils as racism and the holocaust. Pagels clearly traces the strong tendency of human beings to demonize their opponents which goes back to the pre-christian hebrew tradition. This book is an excellent introduction to this important question. After reading this, I highly recommend that you graduate to John Dominic Crossan's superb "Who Killed Jesus?", which shows how the New Testament's passion narrative became a source of anti-semitism in Christianity. While Crossan's discussion is somehwat more technical than Pagels, the latter's introduction in "The Origin of Satan" will prepare you and leave you hungry for more.
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent !!!
Comment: Pagel's book is one of the most lucid expositions of early Christianity available to the general reader. In this work she goes step by step through the four canonical gospels to show how the Christian Devil evolved into a unifying symbol of hatred. Her treatise is not really neutral, but in light of the Inquisition, the 700 Club, and Bob Larson, neutrality would be the sign of a numbed psyche. If nothing else, Pagels shows how the concept of Satan in Christianity has marred its message with filth and morbidity. For those Christians still deluded enough to believe literally in the Bible, it would be too much of a shock to read this book. This book is for people who wish to rise above the fear they were subjected to in childhood. (its part of our society. No one escaped it.) It is not for the "faithful".
If you like conspiracy books Here are a few. Having read the TOP books in the Government Cover-up Genre; "Unconventional Flying Objects" (NASA UFO Investigator for 30 years) by the scientist Dr. Paul Hill; my FAVORITE is "Alien Rapture" by Brad Steiger and Edgar Fouche (Top Secret Black Programs Insider) - (Great fiction-soon to be a movie); "Alien Agenda" by the best selling author of 'Crossfire' Jim Marrs (Best reference on UFOlogy); and "The Day After Roswell," by Colonel Corso - I'd say these books are a MUST READ also!
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Title: The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels ISBN: 0679724532 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 19 September, 1989 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Beyond Belief : The Secret Gospel of Thomas by Elaine Pagels ISBN: 0375501568 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 06 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Adam, Eve, and the Serpent by Elaine Pagels ISBN: 0679722327 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 19 September, 1989 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Gospel of Mary Magdalene by Jean-Yves Leloup, Joseph Rowe, Jacob Needleman ISBN: 0892819111 Publisher: Inner Traditions Intl Ltd Pub. Date: 30 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Gnostic Paul: Gnostic Exegesis of the Pauline Letters by Elaine Pagels ISBN: 1563380390 Publisher: Trinity Pr Intl Pub. Date: March, 1992 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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