The Gnostic Gospels (Modern Library 100 Best Nonfiction Books)

by Elaine Pagels

the discoveries at Nag Hammadi reopen fundamental questions. They suggest that Christianity might have developed in very different directions—or that Christianity as we know it might not have survived at all. Had Christianity remained multiform, it might well have disappeared from history, along with dozens of rival religious cults of antiquity. I believe that we owe the survival of Christian tradition to the organizational and theological structure that the emerging church developed. Anyone as powerfully attracted to Christianity as I am will regard that as a major achievement. We need not be surprised, then, that the religious ideas enshrined in the creed (from “I believe in one God,” who is “Father Almighty,” and Christ’s incarnation, death, and bodily resurrection “on the third day,” to faith in the “holy, catholic, and apostolic church”) coincide with social and political issues in the formation of orthodox Christianity.