broader still: when one new translation of the texts (Layton 1987)
was reissued in paperback in 1995, its cover bore an illustration
rich with esoteric symbolism and the new subtitle ‘ancient
wisdom for the new age’. If you eat lentils, hug trees, and don’t
wash, then this could be the book for you....
The debate on the Nag Hammadi library is instructive about
the passions that are invested in the quest for early Christianity.
One of the most ardent popularizers of the texts in recent decades
has been the Princeton historian Elaine Pagels. Her books often
begin with confessional passages about her own spiritual long-
ings that have impelled her to read these extraordinary texts. Her
studies of the Nag Hammadi writings have drawn criticism on
grounds that show how the boundaries between scholarship and
faith can become blurred. One such critique reads:For some researchers, Elaine Pagels, for example, this pro-
cess [i.e. the disappearance of the ‘Gnostic’ tradition] has
seemed a great betrayal, the suppression of free-thinking
and feminism by totalitarian bishops. But such a judgment
fails to grasp the insidious nature of the Gnostic alterna-
tive and the tenuous position of bishops in the days of the
determinative struggle.
(Young 1991: 18–19)More recently, it has been written of the whole question:[TheGospel of Thomas] is now being referred to by some
as ‘the fifth gospel’ in order to shore up claims that its earlier
layers provide access to a Jesus more congenial today than
the Jesus portrayed by New Testament writers... [T]he
assumption in some circles that Q and Thomas are ‘gospel’
for humankind today is to be repudiated. The primary reason
for that is theological, not historical... In essence, this was
Irenaeus’ answer at the end of the second century. I believe
that it still has theological validity today.
(Stanton 2004: 3–4)ORTHODOXY AND ORGANIZATION IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY
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