The ongoing evolution of Christianity

Elaine Pagels has a gift for bringing ancient Christian texts alive, and for displaying their profound, sometimes startling import for contemporary experience. As a historian of religion, she has poured over and translated early Christian writings that were buried for 1,600 years at Nag Hammadi, Egypt. Her initial findings were detailed in the groundbreaking book, "The Gnostic Gospels" (1979).

That award-winning work offered the first direct look at texts termed heretical by early church fathers, who, beginning in the second century, felt the time had come to establish a Christian canon and a set of doctrinal beliefs. Those doctrines - including Jesus' divinity and the Holy Trinity - were eventually enshrined in the Nicene and other creeds that constitute orthodox teachings.

In her new book, "Beyond Belief," Pagels draws on further study of the more than 50 discovered texts - but particularly the Gospel of Thomas - to reveal a diversity of early teachings about Jesus that will resonate with many people today.

"Although later denounced by certain leaders as 'heretics,' " she writes, "many of these Christians saw themselves as not so much believers as seekers, people who 'seek for God.' "

Pagels, who teaches religion at Princeton University, points out that the Gospel of John is the only one in the New Testament that actually promotes the idea of Jesus as God in human form, and she argues, based on research, that it was written explicitly to counter the Gospel of Thomas, which said otherwise. Thomas's gospel, she writes, teaches "that God's light shines not only in Jesus but, potentially at least, in everyone ... and encourages the hearer ... to seek to know God through one's own divinely given capacity, since all are created in the image of God."

Thomas teaches that one's affinity with God is the key to the kingdom. A quote from the gospel reads: "Jesus said, 'Let the one who seeks not stop seeking until he finds. When he finds, he will become troubled; when he becomes troubled, he will be astonished and will rule over all things.'"

The gospels of John and Thomas share striking similarities, however. Both encourage people to look toward "the beginning" not the end of time, and both emphasize, unlike Mark, that the kingdom of God is not to be expected in the future, "but is already here - an immediate and continuing spiritual reality," Pagels says.

In her graceful, illuminating exploration of various works - including the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, which shows that women were also early teachers, and the Gospel of Truth, which speaks of God as Father and Mother - Pagels explicitly raises the question of how different Christianity might have been had these works not been banned.

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