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Adam, Eve, and the Serpent: Sex and Politics in Early Christianity
Deepens & refreshes our view of early Christianity while casting a disturbing light on the evolution of the attitudes passed down to us.
Acknowledgments
The Book of Genesis, Chapters 1-3
Introduction
"The Kingdom of God is at hand"
Christians against the Roman order
Gnostic improvisations on Genesis
The "Paradise of Virginity" regained
The politics of paradise
The nature of nature
Epilogue
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments
The Book of Genesis, Chapters 1-3
Introduction
"The Kingdom of God is at hand"
Christians against the Roman order
Gnostic improvisations on Genesis
The "Paradise of Virginity" regained
The politics of paradise
The nature of nature
Epilogue
Notes
Index
189 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
About the author
Elaine Pagels
37books639followersElaine Pagels is a preeminent figure in the theological community whose scholarship has earned her international respect. The Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University, she was awarded the Rockefeller, Guggenheim & MacArthur Fellowships in three consecutive years.
As a young researcher at Barnard College, she changed forever the historical landscape of the Christian religion by exploding the myth of the early Christian Church as a unified movement. Her findings were published in the bestselling book, The Gnostic Gospels, an analysis of 52 early Christian manuscripts that were unearthed in Egypt. Known collectively as the Nag Hammadi Library, the manuscripts show the pluralistic nature of the early church & the role of women in the developing movement. As the early church moved toward becoming an orthodox body with a canon, rites & clergy, the Nag Hammadi manuscripts were suppressed & deemed heretical. The Gnostic Gospels won both the Nat'l Book Critic’s Circle Award & the Nat'l Book Award & was chosen by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best books of the 20th Century.
As a young researcher at Barnard College, she changed forever the historical landscape of the Christian religion by exploding the myth of the early Christian Church as a unified movement. Her findings were published in the bestselling book, The Gnostic Gospels, an analysis of 52 early Christian manuscripts that were unearthed in Egypt. Known collectively as the Nag Hammadi Library, the manuscripts show the pluralistic nature of the early church & the role of women in the developing movement. As the early church moved toward becoming an orthodox body with a canon, rites & clergy, the Nag Hammadi manuscripts were suppressed & deemed heretical. The Gnostic Gospels won both the Nat'l Book Critic’s Circle Award & the Nat'l Book Award & was chosen by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best books of the 20th Century.
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August 21, 2020
If you're new to Pagels I would suggest that you start not here but withThe Gnostic Gospels.That is the foundation, it seems to me, on which all of her other works build.Adam, Eve, and the Serpentfocuses on why early Christians came to believe sex was inherently sinful. An excellent question. It begins with more of the fascinating story of the Valentinian gnostics, who were so troublesome to the early church. Apparently, like earlier Talmudic scholars, the gnostics saw little usefulness in Scriptural readings that were not fresh and innovative. (Karen Armstrong goes into this subject at length in herThe Case for God.) Such a spur to inventiveness naturally gave rise to widely variant readings. This was at a time when early church fathers Irenaeus, Tertullian and others were trying to standardize Scriptural interpretation. The gnostics also believed that clerics were not needed for what was essentially an inward journey of spiritual discovery. Rituals such as baptism and the eucharist they viewed as preliminaries. The gnostics were thus considerably anti-establishment and as such they drove Irenaeus and his fellows a little crazy. So consumed was Irenaeus with the gnostics that he composed a multi-volume refutation of their divergent beliefs. Most useful to this reader was the story in the chapter "The Politics of Paradise" of howAugustine of Hippo"transformed much of the teaching of the Christian faith" from one that emphasized "freedom of the will and humanity's original royal dignity"... "to one of enslavement to sin." Pagels explains how Augustine's own out of control sexually promiscuous youth made it all but impossible for him to understand then prevailing Christian concepts of free will. "Astonishingly," she says, "Augustine's radical views prevailed, eclipsing for future generations of western Christians the consensus of more than three centuries of Christian tradition." There is so much interesting content here. I've just touched on just a few spots. The book is a little denser in terms of its scholarship than other Pagels books. (I've read all but the first two.) I could not get straight through it in one go, but needed a fiction interlude before returning to finish. Nevertheless, highly recommended.
January 27, 2008
It is a truth, occasionally stated, and rarely followed, that before one adopts a faith, joins a religion, or becomes a member of an organized body of worshippers, one ought to understand, intimately, that faith and its implications. One ought also to learn and understand how the faith started and how it came to be as it is when one finds it. I encounter from time to time people, good souls usually, who try to convince me to be born again. Listening to their statements, which generally begin, "The Bible says..." followed by something phrased as absolute and immutable truth, I get the impression that God is thought to have written the Bible and faxed it straight from His PC to His publisher. I am not a profound scholar in these matters, but I know enough to suspect that it may not have happened in quite that way.
This book looks at some of the ideas at the core of Christian belief and practice and helps to sort out for the reader how they came to be as they are stated today. Along the way, we learn some of the history of the early Christian church and how it changed. Initially, it was a small, esoteric sect, an outgrowth of the Jewish faith. It was wrapped up in beliefs about the immanent end of the world and a single all-powerful God. It opposed most of the customs and politics of the Roman world in which it found itself. As time went on, it attracted the notice of the authorities who frequently persecuted its members. There is a famous statement by Gibbon to the effect that all religions were viewed by the masses as equally valid, by the philosopher as equally false, and by the magistrate as equally useful. In the first couple of centuries A. D., this was almost true and represented a world where Christians did not fit in, indeed which they fiercely opposed.
As time went on, the membership of the Christian sect grew. Persecution was stepped up, but to little permanent effect. As the numbers grew, so did its influence. Eventually, Constantine "converted" and made Christianity the official religion of the Empire. (It is not clear that he, personally, believed, but he had considerable political and practical reasons and justifications for his policy.) The Church now found itself flooded with members whose theological motivations were slight. It was intimately bound up with a society and a government which it had previously viewed as corrupt and wicked. Bishops were now powerful people. It was also becoming clear that while the vision of Revelation might some day become real, it wasn't going to happen in the immediately foreseeable future.
The outlook of the organized church changed. It became increasingly concerned with structure, discipline, obedience, and corporate purity. As outsiders, believers could grasp and express free will by cheerful martyrdom and by leading personally pure lives. As part of the government, and the Patriarch of Constantinople was to be, in effect, the imperial minister of state for religion, believers were inevitably co-opted into and made part of the corruption they had always seen in the world around them. The outlook darkened and theology shifted. The concept of liberty and the idea of a good and virtuous government shifted. The Fall in Genesis 3 came to be perceived as dooming man to loss of free will. Man was sinful and could not, in any way avoid it, thanks to Adam. Virginity came to be emphasized, perhaps as a way to differentiate true believers from the sinful world. Death was no longer natural to man as an animal but was a punishment visited on man for his sin. Adam, had he not sinned, would have been immortal, pure, and (it was argued) a virgin. Since he did sin, his descendants were doomed in perpetuity to sin as well. It may be that Augustine and his supporters have a great deal to answer for.
Ms. Pagels has managed in the brief space of 150 or so pages to tell the tale with remarkable clarity and understanding. She does not give a complete history nor does she cover all the points of controversy between the developing Orthodox and the others increasingly thought of as heretics, Gnostics for example. She has written other books to cover other aspects of the early Christian world. This one, however, gives a coherent picture of what they will never teach in confirmation class but which nonetheless has formed and directed what is taught in confirmation class. The set of beliefs and understanding of man and the world (Weltanschaung is the wonderful German word for it) that largely informs the Christian church to this day was defined and crystallized in those first four or five centuries. This is a history one should understand before committing to the creed that derives from it.
This book looks at some of the ideas at the core of Christian belief and practice and helps to sort out for the reader how they came to be as they are stated today. Along the way, we learn some of the history of the early Christian church and how it changed. Initially, it was a small, esoteric sect, an outgrowth of the Jewish faith. It was wrapped up in beliefs about the immanent end of the world and a single all-powerful God. It opposed most of the customs and politics of the Roman world in which it found itself. As time went on, it attracted the notice of the authorities who frequently persecuted its members. There is a famous statement by Gibbon to the effect that all religions were viewed by the masses as equally valid, by the philosopher as equally false, and by the magistrate as equally useful. In the first couple of centuries A. D., this was almost true and represented a world where Christians did not fit in, indeed which they fiercely opposed.
As time went on, the membership of the Christian sect grew. Persecution was stepped up, but to little permanent effect. As the numbers grew, so did its influence. Eventually, Constantine "converted" and made Christianity the official religion of the Empire. (It is not clear that he, personally, believed, but he had considerable political and practical reasons and justifications for his policy.) The Church now found itself flooded with members whose theological motivations were slight. It was intimately bound up with a society and a government which it had previously viewed as corrupt and wicked. Bishops were now powerful people. It was also becoming clear that while the vision of Revelation might some day become real, it wasn't going to happen in the immediately foreseeable future.
The outlook of the organized church changed. It became increasingly concerned with structure, discipline, obedience, and corporate purity. As outsiders, believers could grasp and express free will by cheerful martyrdom and by leading personally pure lives. As part of the government, and the Patriarch of Constantinople was to be, in effect, the imperial minister of state for religion, believers were inevitably co-opted into and made part of the corruption they had always seen in the world around them. The outlook darkened and theology shifted. The concept of liberty and the idea of a good and virtuous government shifted. The Fall in Genesis 3 came to be perceived as dooming man to loss of free will. Man was sinful and could not, in any way avoid it, thanks to Adam. Virginity came to be emphasized, perhaps as a way to differentiate true believers from the sinful world. Death was no longer natural to man as an animal but was a punishment visited on man for his sin. Adam, had he not sinned, would have been immortal, pure, and (it was argued) a virgin. Since he did sin, his descendants were doomed in perpetuity to sin as well. It may be that Augustine and his supporters have a great deal to answer for.
Ms. Pagels has managed in the brief space of 150 or so pages to tell the tale with remarkable clarity and understanding. She does not give a complete history nor does she cover all the points of controversy between the developing Orthodox and the others increasingly thought of as heretics, Gnostics for example. She has written other books to cover other aspects of the early Christian world. This one, however, gives a coherent picture of what they will never teach in confirmation class but which nonetheless has formed and directed what is taught in confirmation class. The set of beliefs and understanding of man and the world (Weltanschaung is the wonderful German word for it) that largely informs the Christian church to this day was defined and crystallized in those first four or five centuries. This is a history one should understand before committing to the creed that derives from it.
March 12, 2014
Saint Augustine was a dick...
July 22, 2022
This is a very informative book with many insights into the early years of Christianity. I would recommend everyone try to read it. There are many interesting facts - for example, there is a gnostic gospel called Testimony of Truth which tells the story of Paradise from the serpent's point of view.
The most intriguing item is that St Augustine of Hippo had a profound effect on the Catholic Church that many people don't appreciate. Augustine took the opposite position to both John Chrysostom and Pelagius, both of whom insisted that Christians through their baptism are free to make moral choices and that although our will cannot affect the course of nature, it can effect our moral decisions. When Pope Zosimus declared Pelagius teaching's orthodox, Augustine protested and lobbied him so successfully that the Pope reversed his decision.
Augustine argued against Pelagius and then Julian of Eclanum that it was human choice - Adam's sin - that brought mortality and sexual desire upon the human race and so deprived Adam's progeny of the freedom to choose not to sin.
When Augustine was a younger man and had a mistress, he wrote a book On Free Will which agreed with the views of Pelagius, but he changed his mind later in life as indicated in his Confessions. Ever since Augustine, the hereditary transmission of original sin has been the official doctrine of the Catholic Church.
Fascinating.
The most intriguing item is that St Augustine of Hippo had a profound effect on the Catholic Church that many people don't appreciate. Augustine took the opposite position to both John Chrysostom and Pelagius, both of whom insisted that Christians through their baptism are free to make moral choices and that although our will cannot affect the course of nature, it can effect our moral decisions. When Pope Zosimus declared Pelagius teaching's orthodox, Augustine protested and lobbied him so successfully that the Pope reversed his decision.
Augustine argued against Pelagius and then Julian of Eclanum that it was human choice - Adam's sin - that brought mortality and sexual desire upon the human race and so deprived Adam's progeny of the freedom to choose not to sin.
When Augustine was a younger man and had a mistress, he wrote a book On Free Will which agreed with the views of Pelagius, but he changed his mind later in life as indicated in his Confessions. Ever since Augustine, the hereditary transmission of original sin has been the official doctrine of the Catholic Church.
Fascinating.
August 9, 2017
It's clear from reading this early work by Elaine Pagels why she has become such a prominent scholar of Christian history. Her ability to synthesize the often complex thoughts of a host of biblical and early church voices on topics ranging from free will to human nature to original sin to celibacy is impressive. InAdam, Eve, and the Serpent,Pagels traces the interpretation of Genesis 1-3 from the Second Temple period through Augustine's battles with the Pelagians – the time period that saw the emergence and eventual triumph of Christianity. She does it extremely well, and anyone reading this will have a much better grasp on several key points of controversy within the Christian world during its first four centuries.
If I were to make any critiques, it would be that she all but ignores the church's split between the Greek East and the Latin West, which – although still informal at the time of Augustine – was far more important in understanding why Eastern fathers like John Chrysostom differed so strongly from Augustine on issues like human nature than Pagels gives it credit for.
That nitpick aside, this book holds up well for being nearly 30 years old, and the description of the debate between Augustine and Julian of Eclanum is worth whatever price you pay for it – unless you get lucky like I did, and your library leaves it on its giveaway cart!
If I were to make any critiques, it would be that she all but ignores the church's split between the Greek East and the Latin West, which – although still informal at the time of Augustine – was far more important in understanding why Eastern fathers like John Chrysostom differed so strongly from Augustine on issues like human nature than Pagels gives it credit for.
That nitpick aside, this book holds up well for being nearly 30 years old, and the description of the debate between Augustine and Julian of Eclanum is worth whatever price you pay for it – unless you get lucky like I did, and your library leaves it on its giveaway cart!
February 6, 2017
Studying classics and religion as an undergraduate, I read a lot of Pagels.Gnostic Gospelswas a textbook for a class, and I read many of her articles about the Nag Hammadi texts, etc. ReadingAdam, Eve, and the Serpent,a book that has been on my shelf for about 16 years, transported me back to those days of pouring over the texts. It also reminded me of how entire belief systems - institutions - and civilizations are built on the interpretation of a few words. And those few words in this case are the early chapters of Genesis. You know the ones: with the fruit, and the pronouncements of pain, death, and sin.
The book is not an introductory text, and it gets pretty dense. The final two chapters were hard for me to get through as it was a lot of textual analysis and discourse/dialogue between early church fathers. It is frustrating to read, because the realization comes that so much of this discussion and infighting formed ideologies that are clung to today, thousands of years later.
Chapter 4 "The Paradise of Virginity" Regained was the strongest (and most readable) chapter. It set the stage for the later chapters with the debates with Augustine and John Chrysostom, and later between Augustine and Julian.
In the end, Pagels states it flat out: WHY did the Church adopt Augustine's ideas of original sin, asceticism/virginity/chastity above all, loss of liberty and free thought (things that werenotpart of Jesus's original teachings)??
Simply put, it bolstered the Church. How can people govern themselves if they're innately sinful? if they are sullied by sex and marriage? Only the Church can govern them. (Because they are clearly without sin...)
3.5 stars overall
The book is not an introductory text, and it gets pretty dense. The final two chapters were hard for me to get through as it was a lot of textual analysis and discourse/dialogue between early church fathers. It is frustrating to read, because the realization comes that so much of this discussion and infighting formed ideologies that are clung to today, thousands of years later.
Chapter 4 "The Paradise of Virginity" Regained was the strongest (and most readable) chapter. It set the stage for the later chapters with the debates with Augustine and John Chrysostom, and later between Augustine and Julian.
In the end, Pagels states it flat out: WHY did the Church adopt Augustine's ideas of original sin, asceticism/virginity/chastity above all, loss of liberty and free thought (things that werenotpart of Jesus's original teachings)??
Simply put, it bolstered the Church. How can people govern themselves if they're innately sinful? if they are sullied by sex and marriage? Only the Church can govern them. (Because they are clearly without sin...)
3.5 stars overall
April 14, 2022
My second Pagels, an extremely underrated author, this added significant insight to my understanding of early Christianity and its most prominent figures. With Saint Augustine especially, I was able to view him in an entirely different light. This didn’t necessarily change my fundamental opinion of him (not a favorable one), but it led me to think more deeply about the factors at play both within his personal experience and externally in the Church and the Empire at the time that no doubt contributed to his philosophy. This book is a valuable resource to religious and non-religious alike.
December 11, 2014
How did Christianity change from a movement proclaiming freedom and liberation to a movement announcing human enslavement to sin? And how was the story of Adam and Eve, interpreted widely and differently, influential to that end? What happened had profound implications for Christianity and Western culture and in this book Elaine Pagels does a fantastic job of answering those questions.
The book is chronologically linear, beginning with attitudes toward sexual morality during the time of Jesus of Nazareth and then the apostle Paul. Then we see a treatment of persecution of Christians by the Roman empire, interpretations of Genesis by gnostic authors, and the elevation of the status of celibacy as the most conducive to holiness. Finally, we see the hugely influential opinions of Augustine, including the development of his theology of "Original Sin" and his understanding of nature. The organization of this book is well done, as each chapter contributes to the development of the larger themes and yet each chapter can be taken out of the context of its own and read by itself.
One of the interesting points in the book is how politics shapes theology and vice versa. Under imperial Roman domination with its highly stratified society Christianity's messages of freedom (moral and political) and egalitarianism were highly appealing. However, after Christianity was adopted by the Roman state the message had to change to still be persuasive.
Another interesting point is how faulty Augustine's reasoning behind "Original Sin" are, especially when compared with modern scientific understanding. Original Sin is still the official doctrine of the Catholic Church and yet the weaknesses of its theological underpinnings are glaring, as revealed by Pagels. Augustine also misinterpreted some of Paul's writings.
All in all a fascinating, well-researched and documented book, one that will make the reader look very closely at Christian history with a greater understanding of the complex intertwining of politics and theology that make up church history.
The book is chronologically linear, beginning with attitudes toward sexual morality during the time of Jesus of Nazareth and then the apostle Paul. Then we see a treatment of persecution of Christians by the Roman empire, interpretations of Genesis by gnostic authors, and the elevation of the status of celibacy as the most conducive to holiness. Finally, we see the hugely influential opinions of Augustine, including the development of his theology of "Original Sin" and his understanding of nature. The organization of this book is well done, as each chapter contributes to the development of the larger themes and yet each chapter can be taken out of the context of its own and read by itself.
One of the interesting points in the book is how politics shapes theology and vice versa. Under imperial Roman domination with its highly stratified society Christianity's messages of freedom (moral and political) and egalitarianism were highly appealing. However, after Christianity was adopted by the Roman state the message had to change to still be persuasive.
Another interesting point is how faulty Augustine's reasoning behind "Original Sin" are, especially when compared with modern scientific understanding. Original Sin is still the official doctrine of the Catholic Church and yet the weaknesses of its theological underpinnings are glaring, as revealed by Pagels. Augustine also misinterpreted some of Paul's writings.
All in all a fascinating, well-researched and documented book, one that will make the reader look very closely at Christian history with a greater understanding of the complex intertwining of politics and theology that make up church history.
August 4, 2011
Augustine, arguably Christianity’s greatest teacher, often stressed the sinful nature of sexual desire. Adam’s sin corrupted the whole of nature itself, and infants are infected from the moment of conception with the disease of original sin. When did this idea come about that sex is inherently sinful? When did the fall become the Fall?
In Genesis 1, God gifted the power of earthly rule to Adam. Yet, in the late fourth and fifth centuries, this message began to change. Adam’s prideful desire for self-government led to the fall—I mean, the Fall—of mankind, and ever since, humanity has been sick, helpless, irreparably damaged. Human beings are incapable of self rule, not in any genuinely good way.
Says Augustine, “even the nature of the semen from which we were to be propagated” is “shackled by the bond of death.” Every being conceived through semen is born contaminated with sin. Christ alone is born without this sin, this libido. Because of Adam’s disobedience, “the sexual desire of our disobedient members arose in those first human beings.” These members are rightly called pudenda [parts of shame] because they “excite themselves just as they like, in opposition to the mind which is their master, as if they were their own masters.”
Okay, perhaps I have overemphasized Augustine and his hangup about sex. There’s more to the book, and Pagels is a good writer who manages to turn even this dubious topic into a fascinating read.
In Genesis 1, God gifted the power of earthly rule to Adam. Yet, in the late fourth and fifth centuries, this message began to change. Adam’s prideful desire for self-government led to the fall—I mean, the Fall—of mankind, and ever since, humanity has been sick, helpless, irreparably damaged. Human beings are incapable of self rule, not in any genuinely good way.
Says Augustine, “even the nature of the semen from which we were to be propagated” is “shackled by the bond of death.” Every being conceived through semen is born contaminated with sin. Christ alone is born without this sin, this libido. Because of Adam’s disobedience, “the sexual desire of our disobedient members arose in those first human beings.” These members are rightly called pudenda [parts of shame] because they “excite themselves just as they like, in opposition to the mind which is their master, as if they were their own masters.”
Okay, perhaps I have overemphasized Augustine and his hangup about sex. There’s more to the book, and Pagels is a good writer who manages to turn even this dubious topic into a fascinating read.
January 16, 2021
Pagels unravels a tangle of collective feelings about good and evil, like an archaeologist of the Western mind. She explores the history of ancient concerns - What dangers must we fear? What limits on ourselves must we observe, or lose our souls? To these fearful questions, answers have accumulated in our minds for at least 4,000 years. Pagels sifts the residue of ancient texts, exposing the choices we have made. In the growing legend of Adam, Eve, and the Serpent, she finds a powerful cautionary tale. If the original sin was seeking knowledge of good and evil, what does that say about sanity? There are many ways to interpret this tale, but how was it actually interpreted by religious and political leaders over the course of history? Pagels documents the rise of a religious doctrine against the perils of freedom.
For peace and unity to prevail, most leaders of Jewish, Christian, or Muslim communities have felt it essential that ordinary people must doubt their own ability to know right from wrong. They needed to see that free will was the root of evil, and obedience the cardinal virtue of religion. As Augustine put it,
"... obedience... is, so to speak, the mother and guardian of all the virtues of a rational creature. The fact is that a rational creature is so constituted that submission is good for it, while yielding to its own rather than its Creator's will is, on the contrary, disastrous." (The City of God, 14:12)
So the people must cease trusting their own minds, and turn for guidance to a higher authority. But which external authority should they follow?
In this great inquiry, as usual, Pagels combines the roles of textual analyst, literature critic, anthropologist, and even social therapist. Her work remains important and relevant decade after decade.
For peace and unity to prevail, most leaders of Jewish, Christian, or Muslim communities have felt it essential that ordinary people must doubt their own ability to know right from wrong. They needed to see that free will was the root of evil, and obedience the cardinal virtue of religion. As Augustine put it,
"... obedience... is, so to speak, the mother and guardian of all the virtues of a rational creature. The fact is that a rational creature is so constituted that submission is good for it, while yielding to its own rather than its Creator's will is, on the contrary, disastrous." (The City of God, 14:12)
So the people must cease trusting their own minds, and turn for guidance to a higher authority. But which external authority should they follow?
In this great inquiry, as usual, Pagels combines the roles of textual analyst, literature critic, anthropologist, and even social therapist. Her work remains important and relevant decade after decade.
October 8, 2014
Pagels was working on the material for this book when I took her course on Genesis at Union Theological Seminary in New York. My roommate and friend at the time was one of her students at Barnard College, so we got to know her and her husband personally, being invited to at least one party at their apartment.
As in her class, Pagels is clear and accessible to non-specialists. Like most of her books, except her doctoral dissertation, this one, while confined to the first centuries of the Church, deals with matters which, while ancient, are still relevant. As usual, she shows how many common assumptions about Christian belief are either too narrow, given the history of the Church and its debates, or simply wrongheaded and she manages to do so without becoming shrill.
As in her class, Pagels is clear and accessible to non-specialists. Like most of her books, except her doctoral dissertation, this one, while confined to the first centuries of the Church, deals with matters which, while ancient, are still relevant. As usual, she shows how many common assumptions about Christian belief are either too narrow, given the history of the Church and its debates, or simply wrongheaded and she manages to do so without becoming shrill.
Read
August 4, 2008This was my second favorite Pagels book, after The Gnostic Gospels. The book most contains quotes and analysis of early Christian (and some contemporary Jewish) thinkers from Jerome to Augustine and Julian of Eclanum. While nominally about sexual mores, the book thoroughly explores the idea of free will and Augustine's paradoxical idea of hereditary original sin. As with all books about early Christianity, I found myself in much closer agreement with the heretics.
September 10, 2010
I really enjoy Pagels' work. She isn't writing from a Christian, this is right, point of view. She is writing from a historical/analytical point of view. I liked how she links religion and poltics and calls Jesus a political protestor--very interesting.
March 24, 2021
So much worth the reading by one of our leading public intellectuals. Her studied insight into early Christianity and antecedant mythology and resulting implications matters greatly to our sense of self and cultural identity.
June 6, 2010
A fascinating look at early Christianity and the nuanced ways that the story of the Fall has influenced theological debates for centuries and continues to influence much that we take for granted about underlying theological assumptions today.
I was especially impressed by Pagels' interrogation of Augustine -- she's clearly not a big fan -- and the time and care that she spent investigating his influence on Christian thought from then until now. I was surprised to learn how little free will Augustine believed that individuals possess, and this helped me understand that "trapped" feeling I've often had in certain churches -- the idea that try though we might, we will never become good persons.
Refreshingly, Pagels illustrates alternative interpretations of the Genesis story, many of which were the most prevalent and accepted interpretations of their time. Very few, in fact, agreed with Augustine. Most theologians of the early church believed that human beings were created as good, and in the image of God. They believed that certain natural "evils," like death and pain, were inherent to the created order, but that individual "evils," like murder and adultery, were entirely of our own volition.
This is an extremely well-researched book, and yet it's accessible at the same time. Pagels also has a slight feminist angle, which I love (though it certainly does not come close to being the central mode of inquiry in this work). All in all, I learned more about the early church and the formation of theological assumptions than in any other text.
I was especially impressed by Pagels' interrogation of Augustine -- she's clearly not a big fan -- and the time and care that she spent investigating his influence on Christian thought from then until now. I was surprised to learn how little free will Augustine believed that individuals possess, and this helped me understand that "trapped" feeling I've often had in certain churches -- the idea that try though we might, we will never become good persons.
Refreshingly, Pagels illustrates alternative interpretations of the Genesis story, many of which were the most prevalent and accepted interpretations of their time. Very few, in fact, agreed with Augustine. Most theologians of the early church believed that human beings were created as good, and in the image of God. They believed that certain natural "evils," like death and pain, were inherent to the created order, but that individual "evils," like murder and adultery, were entirely of our own volition.
This is an extremely well-researched book, and yet it's accessible at the same time. Pagels also has a slight feminist angle, which I love (though it certainly does not come close to being the central mode of inquiry in this work). All in all, I learned more about the early church and the formation of theological assumptions than in any other text.
July 28, 2012
This is basically a history of Christian thought/ opinion/ dogma about this story from Christ through Augustine (about 500 AD.) I find the seriousness which this obviously ludicrous myth is debated amazing, but completely astounding is that the interpretation Augustine came up with became the one the religion went with. Over the 500 years, almost every interpretation imaginable was offered by learned theologists, some of which were very reasonable. But it was Augustine who came up with the idea of original sin and the fact that neither death nor sex are natural, but are punishments for Adam's sin.
The epilogue of Adam, Eve and the Serpent gave us a little of Elaine Pagel's experience. She started researching early Christian thought because she wanted to find the "true Christianity." Unfortunately, she found more variety of thought among early Christians than we even find today. It seems, anyone can find support for anything in the Bible and that was more true before the "orthodox" church around 3-400 a.d. declared the apocrypha heretical and weeded through Paul's letters (many of which were spurious, some of which made it into the final form of the Bible anyway) among other writings and texts. The book was enormously enlightening, but I don't think it helped me find "the right interpretation" any more than all that research helped Pagels.
The epilogue of Adam, Eve and the Serpent gave us a little of Elaine Pagel's experience. She started researching early Christian thought because she wanted to find the "true Christianity." Unfortunately, she found more variety of thought among early Christians than we even find today. It seems, anyone can find support for anything in the Bible and that was more true before the "orthodox" church around 3-400 a.d. declared the apocrypha heretical and weeded through Paul's letters (many of which were spurious, some of which made it into the final form of the Bible anyway) among other writings and texts. The book was enormously enlightening, but I don't think it helped me find "the right interpretation" any more than all that research helped Pagels.
May 14, 2010
Finally finished this one for the book group. Basically it is a history of the development of Christian morality in the first four centuries of the Christian Church which is still being taught in many churches today. Apparently, we have Augustine to thank for many of the beliefs about sexuality and relationship that are alive and well in the twenty-first century--he's the one who came up with the concept of original sin.
The book has some problems in that the beginning is repetitive in a couple of places--something I think Pagel's editor might have wanted to help her with. Then, her conclusion is boiled down into one fairly simple point, which she immediately says might not be the reason that this morality has persisted for over 1600 years, this is her best educated thought on the subject.
Even with it's problems, I would still recommend this book. There is so much that the average Christian doesn't know about the history of the church and how much of what we believe today was really shaped by that history and not by Jesus or his teachings.
The book has some problems in that the beginning is repetitive in a couple of places--something I think Pagel's editor might have wanted to help her with. Then, her conclusion is boiled down into one fairly simple point, which she immediately says might not be the reason that this morality has persisted for over 1600 years, this is her best educated thought on the subject.
Even with it's problems, I would still recommend this book. There is so much that the average Christian doesn't know about the history of the church and how much of what we believe today was really shaped by that history and not by Jesus or his teachings.
May 13, 2007
The Book of Genesis is only about four pages long but its interpretation has arguably had more impact on the character of Western views on sin and sex than any other document. Originally labeled heretical by the Pope, Augustine's reading of Genesis was later lobbied not only into acceptance but dominance that is so long-standing, so pervasive that we automatically take it for granted. It seems "natural" to Westerners to associate sex and sin; women and sinful temptation. Pagels unpeels this onion. Without her expert unfolding, clear understanding of who we are religiously, morally, culturally and sexually is much more difficult if not impossible.
Non-scholars especially should be prepared and know they are wading into a serious treatise. They should also know the effort will be well-rewarded.
Non-scholars especially should be prepared and know they are wading into a serious treatise. They should also know the effort will be well-rewarded.
November 28, 2010
This is really a book about how the concept of original sin evolved and became Catholic doctrine. Most of the time is spent discussing Augustine, his views, those who opposed him, and why his views eventually dominated. Some of the quotes are pretty amusing and bizarre--especially the one about Adam's sin being perpetuated via semen--LOL! But the implications of the debate (from 300-500 ad) are still with us today. I especially enjoyed a couple of pages in which Pagels discussed why people have the tendency to feel guilt when some travesty takes place in their lives (ie "what did I do to deserve this?" ).
If you're interested in the early Christian era, you would probably enjoy just about anything written by Pagels.
If you're interested in the early Christian era, you would probably enjoy just about anything written by Pagels.
December 3, 2012
Excellent insights from a scholar on the formation of the early Christian church. Her thesis is that “certain ideas—in particular, ideas concerning sexuality, moral freedom, and human value—took their definitive form during the first four centuries as interpretations of the Genesis creation stories, and how they have continued to affect our culture and everyone in it, Christian or not, ever since.” Xxviii Excellent information on how the Nicean Creed came about and how many diverse voices of the time were consequently cut out of the conversation.
November 29, 2008
Ms. Pagels scholarship in the area of early Christian writing is again impressive. In this work she reviews the Judeo-Christian creation myth and its permutations in gender relations. The story is worth the effort to read if only to give one a historical perspective on women's rights or lack thereof. Christianity has done little in the area of gender equality and, in fact, has been a barrier for women to overcome. Not at all dissimilar to the Bible's historical relationship to slavery.
January 28, 2012
This amazing book shows that we are not inherently sinful. St. Augustine manipulated the Genesis 1-3 text to say that we are and the Catholic Church adopted his interpretation as a means of controlling people. Like sick people need to take their medicine (i.e. the sacraments of confession and communion) regularly. The protestant reformers, particularly John Calvin, continued and exacerbated Augustine's misinterpretation.
February 23, 2014
If I pursue a graduate degree, at this point it would probably be connected in some form to early church history. Preferably pre-constantine/augustine, and emphasizing eastern christianity. That being said, this book nails the topic I think is most important to the way I and many others are living life (whether you know it or not): Is human nature mostly good or mostly bad? It is not very readable unless you are mildly familiar with the names of church fathers and some academic biblical studies. Its been a challenge typing this review and grasping it all in my head!
My only complaints about the book is I wish it was a bit easier to read and I wish it had a bit more connection to Jewish thought on Genesis 1-3/human nature.
In this book Elaine Pagels gives a history of the interpretation of Genesis 1-3 for the first 400-500 years of Christianity. About half the book deals with Augustine's interpretations and the other half is the people he argued against. The first chapter is kind of foundational talking about Jesus and Paul and first century Judaism. Because of Augustine's timing, prominence and support of the Roman empire/the popes of his time his view became the dominant one in western christianity. I would absolutely agree we see the impact of it every day in western culture.
"What Augustine says, in simplest terms, is this: human beings cannot be trusted to govern themselves, because our very nature— indeed, all of nature— has become corrupt as the result of Adam’s sin."
--For those who know me, this is exactly the opposite of my buddy Thoreau and the transcendentalists, for those who don't, now you see my bias:)
According to Pagels, this was also the opposite of the first 300 years of christian interpretation of Genesis 1-3!!
In those opening chapters the first christians saw God blessing humanity with the freedom to self-govern. God blessed humanity with a will that can choose moral freedom, thats what being made in the image of God was about. The emphasis was not on any kind of 'original sin' until Augustine. According to Pagels "the whole point of the story of Adam, most Christians assumed, was to warn everyone who heard it not to misuse that divinely given capacity for free choice."
The author claims that 'previous ideology of human freedom' was espoused by Justin, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Gregory of Nyssa, Valentinus, Clement, Origen, Jovinian, Pelagius, John Chrysostom, Julian of Eclanium. There's some pretty big hitters there. And also some who were considered heretics. Lengthy quotes and summaries are provided of each of them. The church fathers who identified with Augustine were Jerome, Ambrose and Pope Siricius of Rome (who was the one who decided who was a heretic and who wasn't). It was better for the pope and for the roman empire if people were considered bad, that way they could justify their desire for more control over people.
To sum it up again:
"Many christian converts of the first three centuries...regarded the proclamation of the moral freedom to rule oneself as virtually synonymous with the gospel. Yet with Augustine in the late fourth and early fifth centuries this message changed---Instead of the freedom of the will and humanity's original royal dignity, Augustine emphasizes humanity's enslavement to sin. Humanity is sick, suffering, and helpless, irreparably damaged by the fall, for that 'original sin,' Augustine insists, involved nothing else than adam's prideful attempt to establish his own autonomous self-government." --this is exactly the opposite of what previous church fathers saw in Gen 1-3.
So Augustine sees Adam's sin as choosing to self-govern, previous church fathers see god's image as the opportunity to self-govern. Augustine sees human will/nature as evil, previous church fathers see nature as, at least in the beginning, good. It is disastrous for a person to follow his own will according to Augustine.
So where does the sex part of this book come in?
"Augustine, one of the greatest teachers of western Christianity, derived many of (the following) attitudes from the story of Adam and Eve: that sexual desire is sinful; that infants are infected from the moment of conception with the disease of original sin; and that Adam's sin corrupted the whole of nature itself. Even those who think of Genesis only as literature, and those who are not Christian, live in a culture indelibly shaped by such interpretations as these."
Augustine linked human nature to his sexuality. He could not get his mind (reason was considered good) to control his sexual urges and therefore his sexual urges and nature were sinful. Because nature was sinful it played towards mankind's need for more government, a view which previously was alien to christian ideas. But now that the roman empire had adopted christianity it became quite advantageous to them. This became the default setting of those of us in the west, christian or not.
This first question I have of her/the previous interpretation is what of Paul's statements especially in Romans? She deals with Paul's apparent endorsement of Augustine's view of human nature at length, one quote I thought dealt with the main pauline reference (romans 5:12) is the following:
"Through one man (or because of one man) sin entered the world, and through sin, death; and thus death came upon all men, in that all sinned" John Chrysostom, like most christians, took this to mean that adam's sin brought death into the world, and death came upon all because "all sinned." But Augustine read the passage in Latin, and so either ignored or was unaware of the connotations of the greek original; thus he misread the last phrase as referring to Adam. Augustine insisted that it meant that 'death came upon all men, in whom all sinned'--that the sin of that one man, adam, brought upon humanity not only universal death, but also universal, and inevitable, sin. Augustine uses the passage to deny that human beings have free moral choice, which jews and christians had traditionally regarded as the birthright of humanity made 'in God's image.' "
In reading this book you will also receive a pretty decent overview of early church history, with lots of connections to her studies on the gnostic gospels. I haven't read that book, or those gospels, but I am fascinated by them as I read this book, especially the gospel of philip. In the epilogue she says she was looking for a unification of beliefs before Constantine/Augustine/Eusebius but what she found was that there were many diverse interpretation of Jesus and the scriptures prior to the Roman empire's adoption of Christianity.
Some other quotes which I found quite pertinent:
-- "are human beings capable of governing themselves? defiant christians hounded as criminals by the roman government emphatically answered yes. But in the fourth and fifth centuries, after the emperors themselves became patrons of Christianity, the majority of Christians gradually came to say no."
"Justin, like many Jews and many of his fellow Christians, tended to interpret the difficulties of human life less in terms of the fall of Adam and Eve than in the terms of the fall of the Angels." --so our difficulty/sin did not come from adam's 'original sin' but came from angels falling.
"Since God created everyone 'in his image,' Clement added, both slave and free must equally philosophize, whether male of female in sex... for the individual whose life is framed as ours may philosophize without education, whether barbarian greek, slave, whether an old man or a boy, or a woman. For moral self-restraint is common to all human beings who have chosen it. And we admit that the same nature exists in every race, and the same virtue."
"Where earlier generations of Jews and Christians had once found in Gen 1-3 the affirmation of human freedom to choose good or evil, Augustine, living after the age of Constantine found in the same text a story of human bondage. Yet as Augustine grew older he argued that even the most saintly ascetic was not, in himself, capable of self-mastery; that all humankind was fallen and that the human will was incorrigibly corrupt. This cataclysmic transformation in Christian thought from an ideology of moral freedom to one of universal corruption coincided, as we shall presently see, with the evolution of the Christian movement from a persecuted sect to the religion of the emperor himself."
Thank you Elaine, thank you to anyone interested in these thoughts, it is my belief they are of utmost importance. I'm really impressed you read this far.
My only complaints about the book is I wish it was a bit easier to read and I wish it had a bit more connection to Jewish thought on Genesis 1-3/human nature.
In this book Elaine Pagels gives a history of the interpretation of Genesis 1-3 for the first 400-500 years of Christianity. About half the book deals with Augustine's interpretations and the other half is the people he argued against. The first chapter is kind of foundational talking about Jesus and Paul and first century Judaism. Because of Augustine's timing, prominence and support of the Roman empire/the popes of his time his view became the dominant one in western christianity. I would absolutely agree we see the impact of it every day in western culture.
"What Augustine says, in simplest terms, is this: human beings cannot be trusted to govern themselves, because our very nature— indeed, all of nature— has become corrupt as the result of Adam’s sin."
--For those who know me, this is exactly the opposite of my buddy Thoreau and the transcendentalists, for those who don't, now you see my bias:)
According to Pagels, this was also the opposite of the first 300 years of christian interpretation of Genesis 1-3!!
In those opening chapters the first christians saw God blessing humanity with the freedom to self-govern. God blessed humanity with a will that can choose moral freedom, thats what being made in the image of God was about. The emphasis was not on any kind of 'original sin' until Augustine. According to Pagels "the whole point of the story of Adam, most Christians assumed, was to warn everyone who heard it not to misuse that divinely given capacity for free choice."
The author claims that 'previous ideology of human freedom' was espoused by Justin, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Gregory of Nyssa, Valentinus, Clement, Origen, Jovinian, Pelagius, John Chrysostom, Julian of Eclanium. There's some pretty big hitters there. And also some who were considered heretics. Lengthy quotes and summaries are provided of each of them. The church fathers who identified with Augustine were Jerome, Ambrose and Pope Siricius of Rome (who was the one who decided who was a heretic and who wasn't). It was better for the pope and for the roman empire if people were considered bad, that way they could justify their desire for more control over people.
To sum it up again:
"Many christian converts of the first three centuries...regarded the proclamation of the moral freedom to rule oneself as virtually synonymous with the gospel. Yet with Augustine in the late fourth and early fifth centuries this message changed---Instead of the freedom of the will and humanity's original royal dignity, Augustine emphasizes humanity's enslavement to sin. Humanity is sick, suffering, and helpless, irreparably damaged by the fall, for that 'original sin,' Augustine insists, involved nothing else than adam's prideful attempt to establish his own autonomous self-government." --this is exactly the opposite of what previous church fathers saw in Gen 1-3.
So Augustine sees Adam's sin as choosing to self-govern, previous church fathers see god's image as the opportunity to self-govern. Augustine sees human will/nature as evil, previous church fathers see nature as, at least in the beginning, good. It is disastrous for a person to follow his own will according to Augustine.
So where does the sex part of this book come in?
"Augustine, one of the greatest teachers of western Christianity, derived many of (the following) attitudes from the story of Adam and Eve: that sexual desire is sinful; that infants are infected from the moment of conception with the disease of original sin; and that Adam's sin corrupted the whole of nature itself. Even those who think of Genesis only as literature, and those who are not Christian, live in a culture indelibly shaped by such interpretations as these."
Augustine linked human nature to his sexuality. He could not get his mind (reason was considered good) to control his sexual urges and therefore his sexual urges and nature were sinful. Because nature was sinful it played towards mankind's need for more government, a view which previously was alien to christian ideas. But now that the roman empire had adopted christianity it became quite advantageous to them. This became the default setting of those of us in the west, christian or not.
This first question I have of her/the previous interpretation is what of Paul's statements especially in Romans? She deals with Paul's apparent endorsement of Augustine's view of human nature at length, one quote I thought dealt with the main pauline reference (romans 5:12) is the following:
"Through one man (or because of one man) sin entered the world, and through sin, death; and thus death came upon all men, in that all sinned" John Chrysostom, like most christians, took this to mean that adam's sin brought death into the world, and death came upon all because "all sinned." But Augustine read the passage in Latin, and so either ignored or was unaware of the connotations of the greek original; thus he misread the last phrase as referring to Adam. Augustine insisted that it meant that 'death came upon all men, in whom all sinned'--that the sin of that one man, adam, brought upon humanity not only universal death, but also universal, and inevitable, sin. Augustine uses the passage to deny that human beings have free moral choice, which jews and christians had traditionally regarded as the birthright of humanity made 'in God's image.' "
In reading this book you will also receive a pretty decent overview of early church history, with lots of connections to her studies on the gnostic gospels. I haven't read that book, or those gospels, but I am fascinated by them as I read this book, especially the gospel of philip. In the epilogue she says she was looking for a unification of beliefs before Constantine/Augustine/Eusebius but what she found was that there were many diverse interpretation of Jesus and the scriptures prior to the Roman empire's adoption of Christianity.
Some other quotes which I found quite pertinent:
-- "are human beings capable of governing themselves? defiant christians hounded as criminals by the roman government emphatically answered yes. But in the fourth and fifth centuries, after the emperors themselves became patrons of Christianity, the majority of Christians gradually came to say no."
"Justin, like many Jews and many of his fellow Christians, tended to interpret the difficulties of human life less in terms of the fall of Adam and Eve than in the terms of the fall of the Angels." --so our difficulty/sin did not come from adam's 'original sin' but came from angels falling.
"Since God created everyone 'in his image,' Clement added, both slave and free must equally philosophize, whether male of female in sex... for the individual whose life is framed as ours may philosophize without education, whether barbarian greek, slave, whether an old man or a boy, or a woman. For moral self-restraint is common to all human beings who have chosen it. And we admit that the same nature exists in every race, and the same virtue."
"Where earlier generations of Jews and Christians had once found in Gen 1-3 the affirmation of human freedom to choose good or evil, Augustine, living after the age of Constantine found in the same text a story of human bondage. Yet as Augustine grew older he argued that even the most saintly ascetic was not, in himself, capable of self-mastery; that all humankind was fallen and that the human will was incorrigibly corrupt. This cataclysmic transformation in Christian thought from an ideology of moral freedom to one of universal corruption coincided, as we shall presently see, with the evolution of the Christian movement from a persecuted sect to the religion of the emperor himself."
Thank you Elaine, thank you to anyone interested in these thoughts, it is my belief they are of utmost importance. I'm really impressed you read this far.
May 27, 2022
Brilliant book taking us into the first five centuries of Christian theology - with broad impact on how we continue to understand and engage with our world in terms of marriage, celibacy, free will and sin. Pagels helps us understand how radical Christ's (and later Paul’s) message must have been in its rejection of the traditional hierarchy of society and in its embrace of celibacy. All of course in anticipation of the end of times, which was soon to come.
These views were so radical indeed that, in the centuries that follow, Church Fathers like Clement or Irenaeus will promote a more manageable version: putting marriage on par with celibacy and toning down the rejection of family. This is then justified by use of canon falsely attributed to Paul: the Deutero-Pauline letters.
Tough questions on the role of women in the clergy or the role of clergy versus personal interpretation are all contentious and make for a far more diverse early Christianity than one would think. One of the more interesting transitions is likely that of Christianity as a religion of freedom in the face of Roman, societal and familial oppression into co-optation by the Roman state. A view of empire as representative of evil incarnate and in a very real sense of devil worship has to shift in but a few generations. That’s where Augustine’s absolutist concept of original sin finds traction, in great opposition to earlier conceptions which would never conceive of inborn sin or indeed a natural world tainted from the get-go. Much of the undercurrent of our contemporary ideas on free will or the sinful nature of sexual desire find their root here.
I thought it was a fascinating book and would strongly recommend it to anyone with an interest in ancient history and the foundations of the Western world.
These views were so radical indeed that, in the centuries that follow, Church Fathers like Clement or Irenaeus will promote a more manageable version: putting marriage on par with celibacy and toning down the rejection of family. This is then justified by use of canon falsely attributed to Paul: the Deutero-Pauline letters.
Tough questions on the role of women in the clergy or the role of clergy versus personal interpretation are all contentious and make for a far more diverse early Christianity than one would think. One of the more interesting transitions is likely that of Christianity as a religion of freedom in the face of Roman, societal and familial oppression into co-optation by the Roman state. A view of empire as representative of evil incarnate and in a very real sense of devil worship has to shift in but a few generations. That’s where Augustine’s absolutist concept of original sin finds traction, in great opposition to earlier conceptions which would never conceive of inborn sin or indeed a natural world tainted from the get-go. Much of the undercurrent of our contemporary ideas on free will or the sinful nature of sexual desire find their root here.
I thought it was a fascinating book and would strongly recommend it to anyone with an interest in ancient history and the foundations of the Western world.
November 7, 2023
This year I’ve worked through 2 volumes of Foucault’s History of Sexuality. A key point I thought was missing, at least from my perspective as a psychologist examining a philosopher’s work, was how Christianity came to adopt its repressive views of sexuality. This book addresses that and more. I loved the examiniation of early church ‘fathers’ and their beliefs as well as critiques from gnostic writers of the time that have now been deemed to be heresy.
April 11, 2018
This book had some interesting points, particularly when discussing the gnostic gospels. It also explained how the Catholic Church understood Original Sin and the implications of this. If this area of study was more appealing, I would have enjoyed this work more. I will read her book 'The Gnostic Gospels' which seems more my cup of tea!
March 13, 2024
I read this book to learn about different views regarding original sin in Christian tradition. What I learned is that there is no conclusive single right thinking. Is all nature corrupt? Is the Genesis story figurative? Would God really punish all humankind for a bite of an apple? What does it all really mean? The answer is it depends on who you listen to.
June 28, 2024
A dense read. 40yo Stephanie is grateful that 18yo Stephanie kept this in the collection. I was too naive (and dumb) to really appreciate it at the time.
This book has opened an interest in understanding more about the first few centuries of the Christian church. Definitely makes you question what you've always assumed as truth.
This book has opened an interest in understanding more about the first few centuries of the Christian church. Definitely makes you question what you've always assumed as truth.
May 17, 2022
Mind blowing.
According to Pagel's research, the early Christians had multiple perspectives on the meaning of the Adam and Eve story.
Great read. Not an easy read but if you're curious, well worth your time.
According to Pagel's research, the early Christians had multiple perspectives on the meaning of the Adam and Eve story.
Great read. Not an easy read but if you're curious, well worth your time.
March 28, 2023
This book, "Adam, Eve, and the Serpent," has been in the stack of my unread books for several years. I’m not sure why because I’m a big Pagels fan. Maybe I just didn’t want to read one more interpretation of this ancient story. But that’s not what this book is. Since the pandemic, getting a book from the public library has been a slow process, so I have been reading my unread books. Altogether it's been a good experience.
Pagels, a well-regarded New Testament scholar, has concentrated most of her studies on the early days of Christianity. How did Christianity come to be? How did it develop? What and who were its major influences? How did it change? In this book she looks specifically at the Genesis story, chapter 1-3, the story of Adam and Eve and the serpent, not to offer a new, modern interpretation, but to trace the way Christians from the first through the fifth century interpreted it. She asks how a small group of Jesus followers came to grow from a dissident Jewish sect to become a popular but persecuted movement to, under the Emperor Constantine, become the sanctioned believers of the official religion of the Roman Empire.
It’s not that she’s writing the history of these centuries so much as she is showing that Christianity didn’t develop apart from the politics of the time; it developed as a reaction to the time – often in dissent; sometimes in affirmation. I don’t really concentrate on that aspect of her book in this review, although I found it interesting and important. I liked the major questions she asked and answered.
In the first place, what distinguished this religious group from the pagans of that day, in other words, what made them Christians and not pagans? There may be no one answer, but Pagels emphasizes it was their idea of individual liberty. They were to turn away from pagan images and the imperial cult of the emperor and instead look within themselves and there find the invisible image of the one invisible God, since God created everyone in his image. Clement, an early church father of the 2nd century, wrote,
“both slave and free must equally philosophize, whether male or female…whether barbarian, Greek, slave, whether an old man, or a boy, or a woman. For moral self-restraint is common to all human beings who have chosen it. And we admit that the same nature exists in every race, and the same virtue.”
To the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, liberty was experienced when one lived under the rule of a good emperor. In contrast, liberty, the dissident Christians argued, involved freedom to stand up to unjust rulers. Many did and became martyrs. Out of such suffering and agony, Pagels writes a new vision for the basis of social and political order was born, “an order no longer founded upon the divine claims of the ruler or the state, but upon the qualities that Christian believed were inherent within every man, and, some dared to insist, within every woman as well, through our common creation ‘in God’s image.’ “* (i.e. the Genesis story)
How then did Christianity change from a movement proclaiming freedom and liberation to a movement preaching human enslavement to sin? It seems that the answer lies, at least in major part, to what wrong Adam and Eve did when they ate the forbidden apple and what were the subsequent consequences. Most orthodox Christians as did many of their Jewish contemporaries, Pagels writes, believed Adam’s transgression brought suffering and toil and death into a once perfect world but they still asserted that every person retained the individual ability to choose good or evil, even as Adam had. But this message would change.
The nature of Adam’s transgression would also change. Most of the early church fathers thought disobedience was Adam’s sin; and when they disagreed among themselves, they disagreed primarily on which moral law should be drawn from the Genesis story, not on whether they had the ability to draw on and act upon that moral law. For some, the freedom which they had been given demanded that if they wanted to be the most pleasing to God, they should choose to make the greatest sacrifice of their earthly desires and that would mean celibacy. Those ascetically inclined Christians saw Adam and Eve in their perfect and innocent form as virgins, but their sin and consequent sexual awakening, as a result of their sin, led them into marriage and all the ills that followed. Some pointed to Jesus and Paul, arguing that their admonishing and example were evidence for the superiority of the celibate life. But Pagels points out that this was not because of a revulsion to sex but because they believed that the Kingdom of God was near and they desired to free themselves of earthly entanglements for that age so close at hand. Even so, if all did not agree that Christians originally were meant to be celibates like Adam and Eve before "the fall," virtually all came to believe that the celibate life was a higher calling than the married life. But they did not assert that sex was inherently sinful.
Then along came Augustine and with him it was no longer the idealization of the celibate life but the idea that sex was inherently sinful. Augustine, before his conversion, was a well known libertarian. His struggles against his lust have been widely written about by Augustine himself. What he felt he could not control, he assumed no one could control and he turned that into the doctrine that humankind has no free will. Even the saintliest ascetic, Augustine argued, was not, in himself, capable of self-mastery because all were fallen, all were corrupt. Thus Augustine transformed the idea in the Christian faith of liberty and the dignity of the individual to one of enslavement to sin.
Even with Augustine’s ascendancy, not all of the church fathers and bishops agreed. Notably Chrysostom and Pelagius still argued for free will, but Augustine prevailed and had them declared heretics. I am not here going to trace how the doctrine of original sin and in Adam all have sinned prevailed. Nor have I done justice to Pagels’ discussion of the Gnostics or the “nature of nature.” I have only mentioned a few highlights of her journey through the early centuries of the church focusing on the Adam and Eve story. What I was most interested in, in Pagels’ account, was that the early apologists for the Christian faith celebrated free will, liberty, and autonomy as God’s greatest gift to humankind and, after Augustine, that doctrine got lost to the doctrine he promulgated that “in Adam all have sinned” and that humankind is no longer free but enslaved to sin. And this became the official doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church and of several other Protestant denominations even in many churches to this day.
Pagels book is a fairly slim volume, but she manages to trace the evolution of Christian thinking from its emphasis on free will and liberty to the need for church and secular government to control human beings because they are incapable of controlling/governing themselves. She is an excellent writer – clear, succinct, and able to make complex ideas understandable. She provides helpful summaries at the end of each of the six chapters.
__________________________________________________________________
*More than sixteen hundred years later, in a totally different social and political context, American revolutionaries would invoke the same creation story against the British king’s claim to divine right, declaring: “We hold these truths to be self evident; that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…” Not that the Christians of the early times would have imagined their vision as the basis for a political agenda, Pagels writes.
Pagels, a well-regarded New Testament scholar, has concentrated most of her studies on the early days of Christianity. How did Christianity come to be? How did it develop? What and who were its major influences? How did it change? In this book she looks specifically at the Genesis story, chapter 1-3, the story of Adam and Eve and the serpent, not to offer a new, modern interpretation, but to trace the way Christians from the first through the fifth century interpreted it. She asks how a small group of Jesus followers came to grow from a dissident Jewish sect to become a popular but persecuted movement to, under the Emperor Constantine, become the sanctioned believers of the official religion of the Roman Empire.
It’s not that she’s writing the history of these centuries so much as she is showing that Christianity didn’t develop apart from the politics of the time; it developed as a reaction to the time – often in dissent; sometimes in affirmation. I don’t really concentrate on that aspect of her book in this review, although I found it interesting and important. I liked the major questions she asked and answered.
In the first place, what distinguished this religious group from the pagans of that day, in other words, what made them Christians and not pagans? There may be no one answer, but Pagels emphasizes it was their idea of individual liberty. They were to turn away from pagan images and the imperial cult of the emperor and instead look within themselves and there find the invisible image of the one invisible God, since God created everyone in his image. Clement, an early church father of the 2nd century, wrote,
“both slave and free must equally philosophize, whether male or female…whether barbarian, Greek, slave, whether an old man, or a boy, or a woman. For moral self-restraint is common to all human beings who have chosen it. And we admit that the same nature exists in every race, and the same virtue.”
To the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, liberty was experienced when one lived under the rule of a good emperor. In contrast, liberty, the dissident Christians argued, involved freedom to stand up to unjust rulers. Many did and became martyrs. Out of such suffering and agony, Pagels writes a new vision for the basis of social and political order was born, “an order no longer founded upon the divine claims of the ruler or the state, but upon the qualities that Christian believed were inherent within every man, and, some dared to insist, within every woman as well, through our common creation ‘in God’s image.’ “* (i.e. the Genesis story)
How then did Christianity change from a movement proclaiming freedom and liberation to a movement preaching human enslavement to sin? It seems that the answer lies, at least in major part, to what wrong Adam and Eve did when they ate the forbidden apple and what were the subsequent consequences. Most orthodox Christians as did many of their Jewish contemporaries, Pagels writes, believed Adam’s transgression brought suffering and toil and death into a once perfect world but they still asserted that every person retained the individual ability to choose good or evil, even as Adam had. But this message would change.
The nature of Adam’s transgression would also change. Most of the early church fathers thought disobedience was Adam’s sin; and when they disagreed among themselves, they disagreed primarily on which moral law should be drawn from the Genesis story, not on whether they had the ability to draw on and act upon that moral law. For some, the freedom which they had been given demanded that if they wanted to be the most pleasing to God, they should choose to make the greatest sacrifice of their earthly desires and that would mean celibacy. Those ascetically inclined Christians saw Adam and Eve in their perfect and innocent form as virgins, but their sin and consequent sexual awakening, as a result of their sin, led them into marriage and all the ills that followed. Some pointed to Jesus and Paul, arguing that their admonishing and example were evidence for the superiority of the celibate life. But Pagels points out that this was not because of a revulsion to sex but because they believed that the Kingdom of God was near and they desired to free themselves of earthly entanglements for that age so close at hand. Even so, if all did not agree that Christians originally were meant to be celibates like Adam and Eve before "the fall," virtually all came to believe that the celibate life was a higher calling than the married life. But they did not assert that sex was inherently sinful.
Then along came Augustine and with him it was no longer the idealization of the celibate life but the idea that sex was inherently sinful. Augustine, before his conversion, was a well known libertarian. His struggles against his lust have been widely written about by Augustine himself. What he felt he could not control, he assumed no one could control and he turned that into the doctrine that humankind has no free will. Even the saintliest ascetic, Augustine argued, was not, in himself, capable of self-mastery because all were fallen, all were corrupt. Thus Augustine transformed the idea in the Christian faith of liberty and the dignity of the individual to one of enslavement to sin.
Even with Augustine’s ascendancy, not all of the church fathers and bishops agreed. Notably Chrysostom and Pelagius still argued for free will, but Augustine prevailed and had them declared heretics. I am not here going to trace how the doctrine of original sin and in Adam all have sinned prevailed. Nor have I done justice to Pagels’ discussion of the Gnostics or the “nature of nature.” I have only mentioned a few highlights of her journey through the early centuries of the church focusing on the Adam and Eve story. What I was most interested in, in Pagels’ account, was that the early apologists for the Christian faith celebrated free will, liberty, and autonomy as God’s greatest gift to humankind and, after Augustine, that doctrine got lost to the doctrine he promulgated that “in Adam all have sinned” and that humankind is no longer free but enslaved to sin. And this became the official doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church and of several other Protestant denominations even in many churches to this day.
Pagels book is a fairly slim volume, but she manages to trace the evolution of Christian thinking from its emphasis on free will and liberty to the need for church and secular government to control human beings because they are incapable of controlling/governing themselves. She is an excellent writer – clear, succinct, and able to make complex ideas understandable. She provides helpful summaries at the end of each of the six chapters.
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*More than sixteen hundred years later, in a totally different social and political context, American revolutionaries would invoke the same creation story against the British king’s claim to divine right, declaring: “We hold these truths to be self evident; that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…” Not that the Christians of the early times would have imagined their vision as the basis for a political agenda, Pagels writes.
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