The Gnostic Gospels
by Elaine Pagels
1979 /182 pages
rating 8 / history of Christianity

Interesting exploration of how the gnostic gospels interacted with orthodoxy and to shape the Christian church as it developed.

Good book – it’s not about any one of the found gospels found at Nag Hammadi in 1945 but there is more focus on some (Thomas) than others. Pagels’ focus is on how these sources were so varied and how they shaped the early Christian Church. I went on to read Bart Ehrman’s How Did Jesus Become God (2013) and will probably read more along these lines – maybe a tad more academic stuff.