Elaine H Pagels

[This book] explores how Christianity began by tracing its earliest texts, including the secret Gospel of Thomas, rediscovered in Egypt in 1945.... [The author explores] historical and archeological sources to investigate what Jesus and his teachings meant to his followers before the invention of Christianity as we know it.... [She] compares such sources as Thomas' gospel ... with the canonic texts to show how Christian leaders chose to include some...

The author of "The Gnostic Gospels" draws on personal experiences and the perspectives of neurologists, anthropologists, and historians to illuminate the enduring capacity of faith in explaining and meeting the challenges of the twenty-first century. Dealing with unimaginable loss-- the death of her young son, followed a year later by the shocking loss of her husband-- Pagels began to reflect on the persistence and nature of belief. Here she illuminates...