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    Adam, Eve, and the Serpent

    Sex and Politics in Early Christianity

    Author Elaine Pagels
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    Paperback
    $16.00 US
    Knopf | Vintage
    On sale Sep 19, 1989 | 224 Pages | 9780679722328
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    Pagels re-creates the controversies that racked the early church as it confronted the riddles of sexuality, freedom, and sin as embodied in the story of Genesis, showing how what was once heresy came to shape our own attitudes toward the body and the soul.

    "A stunning book...[that] refreshes our view of early Christianity."
    --Christian Science Monitor

    "Pagels has taken a complex and seemingly arcane subject and made it fascinating and accessible."--Wall Street Journal

    "This virtuoso study may disquiet some readers and refresh others; the debate it opens is not likely to leave any reader unmoved."--The New Yorker

    Contents

    Introduction

    1. "The Kingdom of God Is at Hand"

    2. Christians Against the Roman Order

    3. Gnostic Improvisations on Genesis

    4. The "Paradise of Virginity" Regained

    5. The Politics of Paradise

    6. The Nature of Nature

    Epilogue
    Elaine Pagels is the Harrington Spear Paine Foundation Professor of Religion at Princeton University. She is the author of several books, including Reading Judas: The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity, the New York Times bestseller Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas, and The Gnostic Gospels, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the National Book Award. Professor Pagels lives in Princeton, New Jersey. View titles by Elaine Pagels
    "A stunning book ... [that] refreshes our view of early Christianity." —Christian Science Monitor

    "[Adam, Eve, and the Serpent] confirms her reputation as both a scholar and a popular interpreter.... Her book is continuously rewarding and illuminating." —The New York Times

    "This virtuoso study may disquiet some readers and refresh other; the debate it opens is not likely to leave any reader unmoved." —The New Yorker

    "Ms. Pagels has taken a complex and seemingly arcane subject and made it fascinating and accessible.... Any scholarly author who has ever tried to do that will recognize the brilliance of her achievement."  —Wall Street Journal

    About

    Pagels re-creates the controversies that racked the early church as it confronted the riddles of sexuality, freedom, and sin as embodied in the story of Genesis, showing how what was once heresy came to shape our own attitudes toward the body and the soul.

    "A stunning book...[that] refreshes our view of early Christianity."
    --Christian Science Monitor

    "Pagels has taken a complex and seemingly arcane subject and made it fascinating and accessible."--Wall Street Journal

    "This virtuoso study may disquiet some readers and refresh others; the debate it opens is not likely to leave any reader unmoved."--The New Yorker

    Contents

    Introduction

    1. "The Kingdom of God Is at Hand"

    2. Christians Against the Roman Order

    3. Gnostic Improvisations on Genesis

    4. The "Paradise of Virginity" Regained

    5. The Politics of Paradise

    6. The Nature of Nature

    Epilogue

    Author

    Elaine Pagels is the Harrington Spear Paine Foundation Professor of Religion at Princeton University. She is the author of several books, including Reading Judas: The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity, the New York Times bestseller Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas, and The Gnostic Gospels, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the National Book Award. Professor Pagels lives in Princeton, New Jersey. View titles by Elaine Pagels

    Praise

    "A stunning book ... [that] refreshes our view of early Christianity." —Christian Science Monitor

    "[Adam, Eve, and the Serpent] confirms her reputation as both a scholar and a popular interpreter.... Her book is continuously rewarding and illuminating." —The New York Times

    "This virtuoso study may disquiet some readers and refresh other; the debate it opens is not likely to leave any reader unmoved." —The New Yorker

    "Ms. Pagels has taken a complex and seemingly arcane subject and made it fascinating and accessible.... Any scholarly author who has ever tried to do that will recognize the brilliance of her achievement."  —Wall Street Journal

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