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74 of 77 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Paradise Revisited, December 3, 2002
This review is from: Adam, Eve, and the Serpent: Sex and Politics in Early Christianity (Paperback)
Anyone even remotely familiar with Western civilization knows the story of the Garden of Eden. What we often don't know is how profoundly that story has influenced society for the past few thousand years. Elaine Pagels does a wonderul job of describing the evolution of some of our most basic social values, such as the inherent value of each soul, freedom of choice, and the sinful nature of sexual desire, all stemming from the early Christian "Church Fathers'" interpretation of the Garden story. What did God mean that "man (and woman) was created in the image of God?" What was the meaning of the forbidden fruit? And how has that influenced the politics of today? All of these and more are addressed between the covers of this book. One of the signature's of Pagels writing is the in-depth exploration of the writings and debates of the early Christian thinkers who, by the fifth century, largely shaped Christianity into the paradigm we know today. Augustine in particular gets a great deal of ink in this book, as well as Julian (the heretic from Italy), John Chrysostom, Clement and others. In particular, the last two chapters on the Politics of Paradise and the Nature of Nature strongly portray the power of Augustine's philosophy, and Pagels analysis of the psychic attraction to Augustine's paradoxical philosophy regarding "will" is exceptional. I also very much enjoyed her description of the evolution of Christian thinking from one of ultimate free will (so powerful that it resulted in thousands of Christian martyrs in the second and third century), to one of the inherent wickedness of humans by virtue of the original sin, resulting in the need for punitive and controling church and civic governments to rule over all people. The result was the power of the Catholic Church for 1600 years, not to mention the horror of the Dark Ages of christianity. Elaine Pagels is a delight to read, and ranks up there with Karen Armstrong as a commentator and analyst of the evolution of religion. This is a great little book!
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36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
All things old are new again..., October 1, 2004
This review is from: Adam, Eve, and the Serpent: Sex and Politics in Early Christianity (Paperback)
Elaine Pagels is perhaps best known as the author of the popular text, `The Gnostic Gospels', highlighting a lesser known arena in early Christian history. Her reputation is somewhat controversial, as is her writing, but one thing is certain - she is a good writer, interesting to read, and she will make her readers think. This particular book, `Adam, Eve and the Serpent' deals with issues surrounding sexuality and gender, a hot topic in the social and cultural situations of today, but similarly of concern throughout much of Christian history. There is a tug-of-war between `traditional values' (leaving aside that there are various traditions) and `revisionist' or `modern' ideas, and few are in agreement over where the boundaries should be drawn.
Pagels explores some of the ways in which these traditional roles of gender and patterns of sexual expression arose to become so powerfully ingrained in western Christian society. To this day, most people make the appeal to the early chapters of Genesis both as the paradigm for what God intended for the world as well as the explanation, if not the actual instance, of sin and evil encroaching upon the world. Pagels begins with a copy of the first few chapters of Genesis, and traces ways in which ancient Jewish and early Christian communities interpreted these chapters.
Each chapter in Pagel's book highlights a particular theme. The first chapter looks at the understanding of Jewish culture of the early Genesis stories that would have formed the world view of Jesus, Paul, and the other apostles and church leaders, all of whom were born and raised into this Jewish culture. Jesus and Paul do not seem to see original sin as being a sexual sin or act, according to Pagels, and humanity after Adam and Eve are still called to make a moral choice out of freedom that goes beyond sexuality.
Later chapters deal with the development of interpretation in light of the political and social situation, first as an oppressed minority, then later as a significant political presence in the empire. Pagels also devotes a chapter to looking at the Gnostics and their views toward gender and sexuality, the radicality of which sowed some of the discord between their community and the greater orthodox church. Pagels then devotes considerable space to the Augustinian development of ideas of sexuality, gender and human nature in relation to Genesis, as all subsequent Christian viewpoints in the West have some relationship, pro or con, to the Augustinian foundations. The prevailing idea of original sin as being sexual derives largely from Augustine (although some of it is based upon misinterpretation).
Pagels discusses briefly the issues of exegesis (interpretation) versus eisegesis (reading into the text, or projection) - it is often said that one can find most anything one wants in the bible by interpretation; Pagels has been charged with this as well. However, as an explanation of the ways in which certain texts were understood and passed on, Pagels is a good voice to include - her scholarship and research support is sound, and her interpretations fit within reasonable limits. This is a book that introduces the reader to ideas perhaps unknown, intriguing, and certainly worthy of conversation.
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28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The many influences of one myth..., May 21, 2004
This review is from: Adam, Eve, and the Serpent: Sex and Politics in Early Christianity (Paperback)
"Adam, Eve, and the Serpent" is a brief, fascinating introduction to the world that shaped early Christian thought. Pagels writes that, during the first four centuries of the common era, there were many different schools of thought about religion, almost as many as there are in the contemporary American setting that she writes. In this book, she examines how one myth -- the story of the fall of Adam and Eve-- shaped different religious thinkers. Some, like Augustine, took it as an illustration of the inherantly sinful nature of people, and used the story to flesh out his highly influential beliefs about original sin. Other religious thinkers, like Gnostics, saw the myth as an allegory about the spirit (Eve) within the flesh (Adam) and even went so far to see the serpant as an early foreshadowing to Christ. The fall wasn't a bad thing -- it was an allegory of emerging spiritual consciousness. Readers may be surprised to discover just how influential the Adam and Eve myth really was. For many under Roman rule, it was the first introduction to a notion of human equality-- all people were equal creations of God-- and a spark that lead to contemporary American concepts that "all men are created equal." (Just to be accurate, in both of these periods it was only men who were seen as equal, and no consideration was given to women, slaves, etc...) Pagels points out that an idea like this, which the American founding fathers took to be 'self-evident' is in fact an empirically unprovable concept, and philosophers like Aristotle would have found it absurd. Elsewhere in the book, Pagels provides an interesting window into Christian attitudes about celibacy. I was surprised to learn a life of renunciation was seen as a freedom from the responsibilities of family life -- my modern mind was more trained to see it as a purely religious concept, not a practical one. Pagels has a succint, controlled writing style that is hypnotic. In just 154 pages, she covers a lot of ground. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and would be curious to see other treatments of the singular influence of certain Bible stories.
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