The Gnostic Gospels is a landmark study of the long-buried roots of Christianity, a work of luminous scholarship and wide popular appeal. First published in 1979 to critical acclaim, winning the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, The Gnostic Gospels has continued to grow in reputation and influence over the past two decades. It is now widely recognized as one of the most brilliant and accessible histories of early Christian spirituality published in our time.
Another book I'm reading included a fantastic quote from this book about women in the primitive church that really struck me so I hopped onto Overdrive and picked up the entire book. I'm so glad I did! I knew little to nothing about the gnostic gospels and even less about the gnostic branch of Christianity that didn't make it much past 200 AD. This is a great introductory type book if you're totally clueless- Pagels gives plenty of background and none of her analyses are too esoteric for the casual reader.
I especially loved her discussion on the divine feminine, a subject of particular interest to me lately. She expounds a few different theories that were popular during early Christian times but have since been mostly quashed: a divine mother, a feminine holy spirit as the 3rd member of the Trinity, a dyadic god, and a few more pagan ideas that were adopted by some followers of gnosticism. All utterly fascinating. It was a LOT of new information- I kind of want to listen again!
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