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    The Origin of Satan

    How Christians Demonized Jews, Pagans, and Heretics

    Author Elaine Pagels
    Ebook
    Knopf | Vintage
    On sale Oct 12, 2011 | 240 Pages | 9780307807366
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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.
    Elaine Pagels is the Harrington Spear Paine Foundation Professor of Religion Emeritus at Princeton University. She is the author of several books, most recently the New York Times bestseller Miracles and Wonder. Some of her other works include the New York Times bestseller Beyond Belief, and The Gnostic Gospels, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the National Book Award. She lives in Princeton, New Jersey. View titles by Elaine Pagels
    "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

    About

    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.

    Author

    Elaine Pagels is the Harrington Spear Paine Foundation Professor of Religion Emeritus at Princeton University. She is the author of several books, most recently the New York Times bestseller Miracles and Wonder. Some of her other works include the New York Times bestseller Beyond Belief, and The Gnostic Gospels, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the National Book Award. She lives in Princeton, New Jersey. View titles by Elaine Pagels

    Praise

    "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

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