There are some kinds of Christianity that insist you have to believe literally in doctrine. The Gnostic gospels open out the complexity and multiplicity of approaches to this. If you think the story of the virgin birth is mistranslated, for instance, it doesn’t mean you have to throw out the whole thing. Elaine Pagels Read Quote
Throughout the ages, Christians have adapted John of Patmos’s visions to changing times, reading their own social, political and religious conflicts into the cosmic war he so powerfully evokes. Yet his Book of Revelation appeals not only to fear and desires for vengeance but also to hope. Elaine Pagels Read Quote
I got to thinking about the Book of Revelation that was written by a Jewish prophet who was also a follower of Jesus who hated the Roman Empire. I realized that the Book of Revelation could be a way to reflect on the issue of religion’s relationship to politics. Elaine Pagels Read Quote
I had been taught that the separation between religion and politics happened in the Enlightenment. But there were people who tried to create a secular relationship to government 2,000 years ago, and those people were the Jews. Elaine Pagels Read Quote
The Book of Revelation is all about the conflict, the contest between the forces of Good and Evil. Elaine Pagels Read Quote
I realized that conventional views of Christian faith that I’d heard when I was growing up were simply made up – and I realized that many parts of the story of the early Christian movement had been left out. Elaine Pagels Read Quote
The sense of a spiritual dimension in life is absolutely important, and the religious communities are also important. The question of believing in a set of creedal statements is a lot less important, because I realize the Christian movement thrived then and can now on other elements of the tradition. Elaine Pagels Read Quote
We use the word ‘synoptic’ to talk about Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and it really means ‘seeing together,’ because they all have a similar perspective. Matthew and Luke – whoever wrote those Gospels – used Mark as a focus and as a basic story. So all of them have a lot in common. Elaine Pagels Read Quote
What’s different about the Gospel of Thomas is that, instead of focusing entirely on who Jesus is and the wonderful works of Jesus, it focuses on how you and I can find the kingdom of God, or life in the presence of God. Elaine Pagels Read Quote
