An NBCC and National Book Awardwinning scholar of Gnosticism and early Christianity argues that the concept of Satan was central to the way apocalyptic Jews and the Christian Church saw—and treated—their enemies. When St. Paul declared that Christians were struggling with the powers of darkness and not with common flesh and blood, he was expressing an essentially cosmic attitude. Pagels (Religion/Princeton; The Gnostic Gospels, 1979, etc.) believes that this attitude led to a demonizing of human opponents and opened the door to a new kind of fanaticism and hatred. She argues that this dualistic cosmology originated with the Jewish Essene sect who pitted the ``sons of Light'' against the ``sons of Darkness.'' Pagels argues that the Gospels invoke this apocalyptic scenario against the Jews who opposed Jesus. As the Christian movement became increasingly Gentile, this demonizing came to be directed against pagan magistrates and, finally, dissident Christians. Fundamental to Pagels's argument is the thesis of many scholars that the Gospel accounts of Jesus' trial and execution, by seeming to place blame on the Jews rather than the Romans, actually reflect the situation of later decades when Christians were completely separated from Judaism and anxious not to provoke the Romans. Pagels sees the whole demonizing tendency as continuing down the centuries in anti-Semitism and in sectarian hatred generally. Her case is not entirely convincing. For instance, she seems to have forgotten that mass slaughter of enemies, e.g., the Canaanites, had already been advocated in the early Hebrew scriptures without any reference to Satan. Furthermore, her powerful quotations of Gnostic sources and the Pagan philosopher Celsus cause her to introduce theological questions that she fails to address in any depth, e.g., her assumption that orthodox Christianity was essentially dualistic and that the proscription of heresy was merely an issue of control. An attractive and scholarly, if not entirely satisfying, presentation of a stimulating thesis.
Pub Date: June 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-679-40140-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1995
Excruciating drivel from the ex-wife of fallen televangelist Jim Bakker. Nearly a decade after PTL's collapse and her first husband's incarceration, the unsinkable Tammy Faye has resurfaced with her own talk show, a second marriage, and a wig business. This autobiography is part of her return to the public eye, an attempt to explain her marriages, her ministry, and her mascara (after a fundamentalist childhood in which cosmetics were forbidden, Tammy Faye discovered at age 17 that ``what I lacked in breasts I more than made up for in eyelashes''). What results from these self-revelations is an often skewed version of reality. She denies that she ever enjoyed an extravagant lifestyle at Heritage USA (the purported air-conditioner in the doghouse was really just a heating unit) and rejects any notion of financial wrongdoing on Bakker's part. She sees his downfall as the result of a conspiracy led by Jerry Falwell and suggests that high members of the Reagan administration, such as Ed Meese, assisted in the plot. Although even Falwell's supporters would not claim him to be above reproach, many of Tammy Faye's accusations are simply unsupportable. And her narrative has clearly benefited from hindsight. Repeatedly, she describes herself as intuitively mistrusting Falwell and others, but claims that Jim never listened to her advice and that his poor decisions led them to ruin. Her version of the PTL scandal is certainly the most salacious part of the book, which at other times is riddled with aphorisms like ``Faith is spelled R-I-S-K'' and ``God wants us to prosper.'' Jessica Hahn is regarded as a seductive tart who deserves all blame, and Tammy Faye expresses wonder that anyone would consider Hahn attractive, since ``she didn't even have boobs.'' Only diehard PTL followers will have sufficient faith to waste their money on this. (Jim Bakker is also publishing a memoir; see p. 1392.) (Author tour; satellite TV tour)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-679-44515-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Villard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1996
An attempt to prove by scientific methods that the soul exists, by a physicist who has explored this terrain before, in The Eagle's Quest (1991) and The Dreaming Universe (1994). Wolf certainly succeeds in pointing up the limitations of the old Newtonian science. Logical, objective, materialist science gave us industrialization, and one of industrialization's undeniable results is a polluted world in which the majority of inhabitants live in poverty. Thus science in its objectivity, the author asserts, fails to provide any usable moral compass. But Wolf indicts science for an even more profound and damaging failing: its contribution to our sense of ``spiritual isolation, to a feeling of depression,'' and to the conviction that life is pointless. He wants somehow to quantify those manifestations that are universally felt but cannot be seen: the diminishment one feels after the death of a loved one; sudden insights that lead to greater knowledge; dreams that transform consciousness as surely as cold logic. Such conditions are real and have real effects, he argues, even if they are subjective. The old science describes static conditions and cannot deal with the fluid nature of reality except to deny its existence. Quantum physics, however, allows us to begin to grapple with fluid reality, because it recognizes that the observed object changes even as it is observed. Does such a recognition suggest the realm of the soul, ebbing in some unmeasurable, timeless constant? The argument is essentially this: We cannot see the soul, but we can fleetingly observe its effects on consciousness. Therefore, it's real. Wolf's language is, thankfully, quite clear, his presentation of ideas deft, including an entertaining tour of theories of the soul from Plato to Einstein. In the end, however, he sounds less like a scientist than a Buddhist—or, to be precise, he tries to use Buddhism to explain what science has been unable to describe. Trendy, but earnest and appealing as well.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-684-81200-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1996
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