Product Description From the religious historian whose The Gnostic Gospels won both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award comes a dramatic interpretation of Satan and his role on the Christian tradition. With magisterial learning and the elan of a born storyteller, Pagels turns Satan's story into an audacious exploration of Christianity's shadow side, in which the gospel of love gives way to irrational hatreds that continue to haunt Christians and non-Christians alike.From the Trade Paperback edition. From Amazon . . . ground-breaking . . . Many times in the course of reading her explications I found myself saying, "Of course, why hasn't someone said this before?" By showing how the sectarian demonization of the "intimate enemies"--Jews and heretics--shaped early Christianity, the book helps us to understand the power of irrational forces that still need to be confronted in contemporary society. -- S. David Sperling, professor of Bible, Hebrew Union College From Library Journal Pagels, whose Gnostic Gospels (LJ 1/15/79) was a best seller and a major award winner, here examines the New Testament tendency to associate the Devil with Jews resistant to the teachings of Christianity.Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Booklist Pagels' lucid history of the social construction of Satan is not only a wealth of historical information, but also a source of important insights into the demonization of "intimate enemies" that has marked the history of Christianity. Pagels writes that she began with the assumption that Christian discourse about invisible beings, including Satan and other angels, had as its primary purpose what Austrian-born Israeli philosopher Martin Buber called the "moralizing" of the natural universe. She discovered that it had far more to do with social relations among particular persons, and that discovery informs the entire book. She traces the development of Satan in the Jewish community from a sort of roving agent acting on God's behalf--always obstructing but not always evil--to an increasingly evil force identified more and more with intimate enemies, members of one's own community with whom one is in conflict. That trend toward demonization of portions of the Jewish community intensified with the emergence of Christianity and became the basis for demonization of heretics and centuries of anti-Semitism. This is an informative, beautifully written book, an excellent illustration of how careful historical research can illuminate questions of more than passing historical interest. Steve Schroeder From the Publisher From the religious historian whose "The Gnostic Gospels" won both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award comes a dramatic interpretation of Satan and his role in the Christian tradition. With magisterial learning and the élan of a born storyteller, Pagels turns Satan's story into an audacious exploration of Christianity's shadow side, in which the gospel of love gives way to irrational hatreds that continue to haunt Christians and non-Christians alike. From the Inside Flap igious historian whose The Gnostic Gospels won both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award comes a dramatic interpretation of Satan and his role on the Christian tradition. With magisterial learning and the elan of a born storyteller, Pagels turns Satan's story into an audacious exploration of Christianity's shadow side, in which the gospel of love gives way to irrational hatreds that continue to haunt Christians and non-Christians alike.From the Trade Paperback edition. About the Author Elaine Pagels is Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University.

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