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Elaine Pagels
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The Origin of Satan: How Christians Demonized Jews, Pagans, and Heretics Paperback – April 30, 1996

by Elaine Pagels (Author)

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From the National Book Award-winning and National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author of The Gnostic Gospels comes a dramatic interpretation of Satan and his role on the Christian tradition. 

"Arresting...brilliant...this book illuminates the angels with which we must wrestle to come to the truth of our bedeviling spritual problems." —The Boston Globe

With magisterial learning and the elan of a born storyteller, Pagels turns Satan’s story into an audacious exploration of Christianity’s shadow side, in which the gospel of love gives way to irrational hatreds that continue to haunt Christians and non-Christians alike.
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  1. Print length
    214 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Vintage
  4. Publication date
    April 30, 1996
  5. Dimensions
    5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0679731180
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0679731184
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From the Publisher

Boston Globe praises book's profound spiritual insights and inner struggles

San Francisco Chronicle praises Pagels' skill in reviving ancient texts

NYT praises book for reimagining familiar concepts in a provocative way

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Arresting...brilliant...this book illuminates the angels with which we must wrestle to come to the truth of our bedeviling spritual problems." —The Boston Globe

"Pagels is a wonderful writer.... She has a gift for bringing ancient texts alive.... Fascinating." —San Francisco Chronicle

"Lively reading...a book that makes familiar concepts disturbingly fresh and provocative." —The New York Times

"Pagels has achieved something important.... Thoughtful scholarly works that are also original and adventurous are not common. The Origin of Satan is such a work, and we should be correspondingly grateful." —New York Review of Books

"Lucid and closely reasoned.... Pagels remains always a lively writer who discerns the human implications of esoteric texts and scholarly disputes." —Chicago Tribune

From the Back Cover

igious historian whose The Gnostic Gospels won both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award comes a dramatic interpretation of Satan and his role on the Christian tradition. With magisterial learning and the elan of a born storyteller, Pagels turns Satan's story into an audacious exploration of Christianity's shadow side, in which the gospel of love gives way to irrational hatreds that continue to haunt Christians and non-Christians alike.

Product details

About the author

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Elaine Pagels

Elaine Pagels

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After receiving her doctorate from Harvard University in 1970, Elaine Pagels taught at Barnard College, Columbia University, where she chaired the department of religion. She is now the Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University. Professor Pagels is the author of several books on religious subjects and was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 1981. She lives and teaches in Princeton, New Jersey.