Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JF Quinnelly who wrote (26441)	12/3/1998 10:08:00 PM
From: Grainne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Freddy, Pagel's book "The Gnostic Gospels" won both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is a respected religious historian who is a professor of religion at Princeton. You continue to assert that there is no such thing as gnostic Christians, and yet you have not responded to the Christadelphian's analysis of the Bible, stating that the concept of Trinity came later. I did a search at Amazon and discovered quite a few books about Gnostic Christians. I don't know what you are talking about with your statement about an unknown author writing under Paul's name, since it is Thomas' Gospel which was found at Nag Hammadi. However, it is obvious that there were many factions of Christians, not to mention people like Constantine who had more political motives than religious ones. So what do you mean when you say "it would have been difficult if not impossible to smuggle in writing from outside the circle of the early church"? There were all sorts of writings, perhaps even some which have not been rediscovered yet. You continue to seem to be saying that there was just one kind of Christian belief system, where in reality there were many, with a long struggle for dominance which was resolved to some degree by force at the Council of Nicea. Saying that Gnosticism is not unique to Christianity is like saying that the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection, and the concept of Trinity are not unique to Christianity. Both of these statements are equally true, but so what? The fact is that there was a strong Gnostic Christian movement, just as the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection and the concept of the Trinity were adapted by the Christians. I thought this Amazon.com review of Pagel's book was interesting: "Gnosticism's Christian form grew to prominence in the 2nd century A.D. Ultimately denounced as heretical by the early church, Gnosticism proposed a revealed knowledge of God ("gnosis" meaning "knowledge" in Greek), held as a secret tradition of the apostles. In The Gnostic Gospels, author Elaine Pagels suggests that Christianity could have developed quite differently if Gnostic texts had become part of the Christian canon. Without a doubt: Gnosticism celebrates God as both Mother and Father, shows a very human Jesus's relationship to Mary Magdalene, suggests the Resurrection is better understood symbolically, and speaks to self-knowledge as the route to union with God. Pagels argues that Christian orthodoxy grew out of the political considerations of the day, serving to legitimize and consolidate early church leadership. Her contrast of that developing orthodoxy with Gnostic teachings presents an intriguing trajectory on a world faith as it "might have become." The Gnostic Gospels provides engaging reading for those seeking a broader perspective on the early development of Christianity. --F. Hall"