Ingledsva
HEATHEN ALASKAN
Thanks. If you have access to a library that has this book, or are so inclined as to order one if you're intrigued by early Christianity, Elaine Pagels who is a professor of religion at Princeton wrote a book some time ago called The Gnostic Gospels. What is particularly revealing in this work of hers which broke the ground of this to the public mind, is how in the early Christian movement it was not some single idea that got spread out from a single source as a whole cohesive body of teachings, which then later "heresies" crept in and corrupted. Not at all. That is a created myth, termed by one scholar whose name escapes me at the moment as the "Great Story". The "Great Story" goes that Jesus descended from heaven with his message fully intact, taught his disciples, who then became the sources of authority for the message, who then trained the bishops of Rome, who then held the teaching as pure and true and fought against errors that crept in...
I really enjoy Pagels books. Adam, Eve, and the Serpent, - and - The Origins of Satan - are other interesting books by her.
You also might like some of Bishop Spong's books, such as - Born of a Woman.
Or Maybe Matthew Fox - such as - Original Blessings.
If you want the more interesting take on the movement of religion, myth, sacred languages, and alphabets, read THE WHITE GODDESS by Robert Graves.
And everyone interested in religion and myth should read THE GOLDEN BOUGH by James Frazer.
And of course - anything by Joseph Campbell. The HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES, THE POWER OF MYTH, etc.
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