The Origin of Satan: How Christians Demonized Jews, Pagans, and Heretics PDF
Preview The Origin of Satan: How Christians Demonized Jews, Pagans, and Heretics
Acclaim for ELAINE PAGELS’S The Origin of Satan “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 “Illuminating and rewarding ... a very readable scholarly work ... a model of erudition and conciseness.” —Newsday “Fascinating and valuable.” —The Nation “Lucid and closely reasoned. . . . Pagels remains always a lively writer who discerns the human implications of esoteric texts and scholarly disputes.” —Chicago Tribune “One of today’s leading interpreters of the world of early Christianity. . . . She brilliantly shows how otherwise arcane theology is related to the social context in which it was conceived.” —Milwaukee Journal Sentinel “Succeeds wonderfully” —San Francisco Chronicle ELAINE PAGELS’S The Origin of Satan Elaine Pagels is Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University. Professor Pagels received her doctorate from Harvard University in 1970 and has taught at Barnard College, where she chaired the Department of Religion, and at Columbia University. She was responsible for editing several of the texts from Nag Hammadi and has written four other books: The Johannine Gospel in Gnostic Exegesis; The Gnostic Paul: Gnostic Exegesis of the Pauline Letters; The Gnostic Gospels; and Adam, Eve, and the Serpent. The Gnostic Gospels won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the National Book Award. Professor Pagels was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 1981. She lives and teaches in Princeton, New Jersey. ALSO BY ELAINE PAGELS Adam, Eve, and the Serpent The Gnostic Gospels The Johannine Gospel in Gnostic Exegesis The Gnostic Paul: Gnostic Exegesis of the Pauline Letters THE ORIGIN OF SATAN [THIS PAGE WAS INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK] THE ORIGIN OF SATAN E P LAINE AGELS Vintage Books A DIVISION OF RANDOM HOUSE, INC. NEW YORK FIRST VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION, MAY 1996 Copyright • 1995 by Elaine Pagels Al1 rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in hardcover by Random House, Inc., New York, in 1995. The Library of Congress has cataloged the Random House edition as follows: Pagels, Elaine. The origin of Satan / Elaine Pagels. — 1st ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-679-40140-7 1. Devil—Biblical teaching. 2. Bible. N. T. Gospels—Criticism, interpretation, etc. 3. Christianity and antisemitism. I. Title. BS2555.6.D5P34 1995 235'.47—dc20 95-7983 Vintage ISBN: 0-679-73118-0 Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 To SARAH AND DAVID with love
The list of books you might like
