Sunday, August 05, 2012

Review of Pagels, Revelations

ELAINE PAGELS'S REVELATIONS is reviewed by Prof. Greg Carey in the Huffington Post: Elaine Pagels on Revelation -- and Revelations. Excerpts:
The bottom line is that, while Pagels aspires to present a sympathetic picture of the broad expanse of Christian revelatory literature, she really doesn't like Revelation. (For my own three-part series on Revelation, see part one, part two and part three.) Pagels' conclusion laments that the church has largely stuck with "apocalyptic polarities" at the expense of Gnostic revelations that "speak of the kinship of all beings with one another and with God," judging that "we need such universal visions now more than ever" (p. 176). I doubt that many readers who actually work through the Gospel of Truth and Thunder, Perfect Mind will come away with the same impression.
I'm not so sure about that. Ridley Scott made a Prada commercial using Thunder, Perfect Mind. An ancient text with that kind of modern appeal sounds like a pretty universal vision to me.

Earlier reviews etc. here and links.