“Jesus Christ rose from the grave.' With this proclamation, the Christian church began. This may be the fundamental element of Christian faith; certainly it is the most radical.” MayChristianJesusChristChurchElementsJesus ChristFundamentalsRoseGravesRadicalChristian FaithProclamationChristian Church Book:The Gnostic Gospels Source: The Gnostic Gospels
“Christians have ... identified their opponents, whether Jews, pagans, or heretics, with forces of evil, and so with Satan... Nor have things improved since. The blood-soaked history of persecution, torture, murder, and destruction perpetrated in the name of religion is difficult to grasp, let alohne summarize, from the slaughter of Christians to the Crusades to the Inquisitiion to the Reformation to the European witchcraze to colonialization to today's bitter coflict in the Middle East.” TodayChristianEvilNamesForceDifficultBloodAtheismMiddleDestructionMurderJewPositive AtheismEastBitterSatanOpponentsTortureMiddle EastPersecutionPaganReformationSlaughterHereticCrusades Author:Elaine Pagels
“Contemporary Christianity, diverse and complex as we find it, actually may show more unanimity than the Christian churches of the first and second centuries. For nearly all Christians since that time, Catholics, Protestants, or Orthodox, have shared three basic premises. First, they accept the canon of the New Testament; second, they confess the apostolic creed; and third, they affirm specific forms of church institution. But every one of these - the canon of Scripture, the creed, and the institutional structure - emerged in its present form only toward the end of the second century.” FirstsMayEndsShowsChristianFormReligionThreeChurchAcceptingChristianityCenturyThirdsCatholicInstitutionsStructureComplexesScriptureContemporaryOrthodoxCreedsDiverseTestamentPremisesNew TestamentProtestantsChristian ChurchCanonApostolicUnanimity Author:Elaine Pagels
“Why did the consensus of Christian churches not only accept these astonishing views but establish them as the only true form of Christian doctrine? . . . these religious debates - questions of the nature of God, or of Christ - simultaneously bear social and political implications that are crucial to the development of Christianity as an institutional religion. In simplest terms, ideas which bear implications contrary to that development come to be labeled as 'heresy'; ideas which implicitly support it become 'orthodox.'” IdeasChristianFormPoliticalReligionSocialTermChristChurchReligiousViewsAcceptingChristianitySupportDevelopmentBearsContraryDebateDoctrineOrthodoxCrucialSimplestConsensusAstonishingImplicationsHeresyChristian ChurchChristian Doctrine Author:Elaine Pagels
“What is clear is that the Gospel of Judas has joined the other spectacular discoveries that are exploding the myth of a monolithic Christianity and showing how diverse and fascinating the early Christian movement really was.” ChristianChristianityClearMovementDiscoveryMythFascinatingDiverseSpectacularExplodingJudas Author:Elaine Pagels
“The idea that each individual has intrinsic, God-given value and is of infinite worth quite apart from any social contribution - an idea most pagans would have rejected as absurd - persists today as the ethical basis of western law and politics. Our secularized western idea of democratic society owes much to that early Christian vision of a new society - a society no longer formed by the natural bonds of family, tribe, or nation but by the voluntary choice of its members.” IdeasTodayChristianLawValuesChoicesIndividualGivenNationsSocialWomenNaturalVisionDemocracyMembersBasesInfiniteDemocraticWesternAbsurdContributionEthicalRejectedPersistTribesPaganDemocratic Society Book:Adam, Eve, and the Serpent: Sex and Politics in Early Christianity Source: Adam, Eve, and the Serpent: Sex and Politics in Early Christianity
“Rediscovering the controversies that occupied early Christianity sharpens our awareness of the major issue in the whole debate, then and now: What is the source of religious authority? For the Christian the question takes more specific form: What is the relation between the authority of ones own experience and that claimed for the scriptures, the ritual and the clergy?” WholeChristianFormReligiousChristianityIssuesAwarenessSourceAuthorityMajorsRelationDebateScriptureRitualControversyClergy Book:The Gnostic Gospels Source: The Gnostic Gospels
