Elaine Pagels...religious historian still teaching and writing

Elaine Pagels
February 13th, 1943

Quite a scholar and often consulted on PBS specials on theology.

She was "...born in Palo Alto, California (1943). She's a professor at Princeton and she's most famous for her work on early Christian texts, especially the Gnostic Gospels — writings about Jesus from the second to fourth centuries. She won the National Book Award for her 1979 study The Gnostic Gospels (1979), which the Modern Library named as one of the 100 best books of the 20th century.

The Gnostic Gospels begins: "'Jesus Christ rose from the grave.' With this proclamation, the Christian church began. This may be the fundamental element of Christian faith; certainly it is the most radical."

Her other books include Adam, Eve and the Serpent (1988), The Origin of Satan (1995), Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas (2003), and Reading Judas: The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity (2007)."

Elaine Pagels [Wikipedia]

The Gnostic Gospels

by

Elaine Pagels

ISBN-10: 0679724532
ISBN-13: 978-0679724537