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elaine pagels and the neuro-politics of paradise by Alex Burns (alex@disinfo.com) - January 07, 2001 |
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| In December 1945 a collection of fifty-two Gnostic Christian texts and codices was uncovered at the Egyptian town of Nag Hammádě which has radically altered our perceptions of Judeo-Christianity. For many years, these documents were shrouded in mystery, until a group of scholars broke this silence to publicly release this material. Scholar Elaine Hiesey Pagels had been part of an international team which published an English edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and was to become a key platyer in the religious studies publishing war that exposed the social construction of Salvation by institutionalized Christianity. Her credentials were impeccable, and indicated what was to come: a B.A. from Stanford University in 1964; Ph.D from Harvard University's graduate religious studies program in 1970; recipient of the prestigious Rockefeller fellowship (1978), a Guggenheim fellowship (1979), and MacArthur Prize fellowship (1981). She is currently the Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University. Pagels had attracted academic interest for her books The Johannine Gospel in Gnostic Exegesis (1973) and The Gnostic Paul (1975), but it was The Gnostic Gospels (1979) which catapulted her to public prominence (winning her the US National Book Critics Circle Award and the US National Book Award), and which brought much of the Nag Hammadi material to the general public. Pagels provocatively contended that institutionalized Christianity had emerged from personality-driven cliques and petty infighting, and that Western history might have been radically different if Gnostic texts dating from 200 AD had been included in the Christian canon. Although not a cohesive movement (Valentinus's sect is amongst the most famous), Gnostic Christian sects placed greater emphasis on personal direct experience of the Judeo-Christian God's revealed knowledge. Gnostic Christians also suggested a very human relationship between Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene, and that the Resurrection was principally a symbolic act. Psycho-analyst Carl Gustav Jung had gradually uncovered the alchemical methods of Gnostic Christianity, and attempted reconstructive rituals had been preserved by Rosicrucian offshoots such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and Aleister Crowley. But in the hellish glare of atomic mushroom clouds, the emergent Global Brain evidently decided that this hidden current had to manifest itself, and quickly. Traditionalist scholars objected to Pagels' textual interpretations and feminine emphasis (Pagels' research should not be confused with the more recent feminist/consensus values publishing industry), but she had cross-referenced orthodox apologetic arguments against Valentinian texts. This in-depth research continued with Adam, Eve and the Serpent (1988), which examined how the primordial Creation myths have shaped our consciousness. The 1987 death of her six-year old son, and 1988 death of husband Heinz Pagels (a famous quantum physicist and Chaos Theory icon) led Pagels to reflect on the construction of enemies and how humans cope with tragey and catastrophy. The Origin of Satan (1995) traced the cultural evolution of Satan from a Life After Death judgment figure to an innately evil archetypal force used to demonize heretics and segments of the Jewish community. There was abundent evidence that Satan was used as a scare-crow figure to get the deeply divided Christian community to cohere as a group in the face of manufactured external threats. Pagels' uncovering of anti-Semitism's theological roots and the memetic mutation of the Gospel of Love (Agape) into irrational hatred was again attacked by Traditionalists, but well received by a public who still remembered the shadowy specter of the Inquisition and genocidal Crusades. Pagels' magisterial and witty writings reveal an important neuro-political lesson: Salvation must be found from personally mediated truths. Heed her call and remember. Always. |
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Adam, Eve, And The Serpent The Richmond Review: Book Review: The Origin Of Satan Royce Carlton: Elaine Pagels The Gnostic Mass Princeton Prof Details Satan's Roots Adam, The Fall, The Messiah, And The Fall: The Mormon Perspective NPR: Talk Of The Nation: Nature Of Evil Year In Review: 1995: Elaine Pagels That Old Time Religion: The Gnostic Roots Of The Heaven's Gate Cult Techgnosis The Eastern Way Of Death Heinz Pagels: The Quick Buck Becomes Quicker Gnosis: A Journal Of The Western Inner Traditions The Gnosis Archive Disinformation Dossier On Howard Bloom Disinformation Dossier On The Real Jesus From Jesus To Christ: The First Christians Notes On John Chrysostom |
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