Adam, Eve, and the Serpent: Sex and Politics in Early Christianity

Elaine Pagels is perhaps best known as the author of the popular text, `The Gnostic Gospels', highlighting a lesser known arena in early Christian history. Her reputation is somewhat controversial, as is her writing, but one thing is certain - she is a good writer, interesting to read, and she will make her readers think. This particular book, `Adam, Eve and the Serpent' deals with issues surrounding sexuality and gender, a hot topic in the social and cultural situations of today, but similarly of concern throughout much of Christian history. There is a tug-of-war between `traditional values' (leaving aside that there are various traditions) and `revisionist' or `modern' ideas, and few are in agreement over where the boundaries should be drawn. Pagels explores some of the ways in which these traditional roles of gender and patterns of sexual expression arose to become so powerfully ingrained in western Christian society. To this day, most people make the appeal to the early chapters of Genesis both as the paradigm for what God intended for the world as well as the explanation, if not the actual instance, of sin and evil encroaching upon the world. Pagels begins with a copy of the first few chapters of Genesis, and traces ways in which ancient Jewish and early Christian communities interpreted these chapters. Each chapter in Pagel's book highlights a particular theme. The first chapter looks at the understanding of Jewish culture of the early Genesis stories that would have formed the world view of Jesus, Paul, and the other apostles and church leaders, all of whom were born and raised into this Jewish culture. Jesus and Paul do not seem to see original sin as being a sexual sin or act, according to Pagels, and humanity after Adam and Eve are still called to make a moral choice out of freedom that goes beyond sexuality. Later chapters deal with the development of interpretation in light of the political and social situation, first as an oppressed minority, then later as a significant political presence in the empire. Pagels also devotes a chapter to looking at the Gnostics and their views toward gender and sexuality, the radicality of which sowed some of the discord between their community and the greater orthodox church. Pagels then devotes considerable space to the Augustinian development of ideas of sexuality, gender and human nature in relation to Genesis, as all subsequent Christian viewpoints in the West have some relationship, pro or con, to the Augustinian foundations. The prevailing idea of original sin as being sexual derives largely from Augustine (although some of it is based upon misinterpretation). Pagels discusses briefly the issues of exegesis (interpretation) versus eisegesis (reading into the text, or projection) - it is often said that one can find most anything one wants in the bible by interpretation; Pagels has been charged with this as well. However, as an explanation of the ways in which certain texts were

"Adam, Eve, and the Serpent" is a brief, fascinating introduction to the world that shaped early Christian thought. Pagels writes that, during the first four centuries of the common era, there were many different schools of thought about religion, almost as many as there are in the contemporary American setting that she writes. In this book, she examines how one myth -- the story of the fall of Adam and Eve-- shaped different religious thinkers. Some, like Augustine, took it as an illustration of the inherantly sinful nature of people, and used the story to flesh out his highly influential beliefs about original sin. Other religious thinkers, like Gnostics, saw the myth as an allegory about the spirit (Eve) within the flesh (Adam) and even went so far to see the serpant as an early foreshadowing to Christ. The fall wasn't a bad thing -- it was an allegory of emerging spiritual consciousness.Readers may be surprised to discover just how influential the Adam and Eve myth really was. For many under Roman rule, it was the first introduction to a notion of human equality-- all people were equal creations of God-- and a spark that lead to contemporary American concepts that "all men are created equal." (Just to be accurate, in both of these periods it was only men who were seen as equal, and no consideration was given to women, slaves, etc...) Pagels points out that an idea like this, which the American founding fathers took to be 'self-evident' is in fact an empirically unprovable concept, and philosophers like Aristotle would have found it absurd.Elsewhere in the book, Pagels provides an interesting window into Christian attitudes about celibacy. I was surprised to learn a life of renunciation was seen as a freedom from the responsibilities of family life -- my modern mind was more trained to see it as a purely religious concept, not a practical one.Pagels has a succint, controlled writing style that is hypnotic. In just 154 pages, she covers a lot of ground. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and would be curious to see other treatments of the singular influence of certain Bible stories.

Elaine Pagels' knowledge of the development of Christianity during its first four centuries is very much in evidence in ADAM, EVE AND THE SERPENT as she describes the evolution of diverse interpretations of the Genesis creation stories held by succeeding generations of the new sect. In her account attitudes toward marriage, family, procreation and celibacy are shown to vary widely.The author portrays Jesus as a man who views himself as a prophet sent to warn mankind of the coming Kingdom of God. Preparation for this event, according to Jesus, will require an allegiance that is stronger even than one's ties to family and nation.The message of Jesus and later Paul was mostly about repentance and purification. Pagels claims that this emphasis became modified as the religion spread to Rome, Greece, Asia and Africa. A struggle then ensued between orthodox believers who sought a new ethical system and institutional structure which set them apart from the neighboring pagans and the gnostics who wished to achieve an elevated level of spiritual consciousness without the supervision of bishops and clergy.The author points out that the lessons of the creation stories as interpreted by the first Christians allow them to validate the freedom of humans to choose between good and evil. In the fifth century Augustine looks at Genesis more as a story of human bondage. While the earlier Christians see people as being capable of self government, the prevailing attitude among believers reverses itself abruptly after the time of Constantine.Elaine Pagels writes with clarity and she has the ability to make difficult material seem understandable to those of us who are not academics.In this book I learned more about the incredible assortment of beliefs prevalent within the early church. The vision of a simple and unified body of beginning Christians has always apparently been just a myth.

If you just have a chance to glance at the book, (1)read pg 150, this is the last page before the epilogue(and is a very concise summary of the book's topics), then read the (2)epilogue, then chapter 1 (3)"the kingdom of God is at hand".(these will give you the best idea of the type of writing and whether it means with your interests) The meat of the book is chapter 6 "the nature of nature" which is an extended argument against Augustine's view of original sin as 1)carried by semen 2)at odds with the radical moralfreedom that the early church taught 3)at odds with natural science. 4)is primarily a cynical justification of the power of religious and political organizationsI really don't know who to recommend the book to. It is written not for scholars, although rebuttal of her points would require at least as good a scholar as she is, but rather at an undergrad level. Educated laymen, interested scholars from associated disciplines, people following an interest in Augustine, early church history particular the gnostics(her speciality) would be the natural audience. I read it as part of a deliberate study on Gen 1-3 and interpretations and found it most interesting and provocative with regards to this interest.She is a good and competent writer, holding your attention and making effort to explain difficult and esoteric historical points not only clear but relevant. A noble and achievable goal in this book. As to the content, there are only a few points that i am particularly competent to analyze as they cross my interests or knowledge base. In several of these she had misread orthodox thinking and comes close to strawman arguments, however i am not sure if this stems from her committments in the field or from my lack of historical depth. But it doesn't demolish the arguments only make them not-persuasive to me.The book is an extended historical and theological introduction to the exegesis of Genesis 1-3, in particular, the relationship of Adam-Eve-the serpent to the questions of freewill or moral competence-to-choose. She is most detailed and fact-based when she talks about Augustine in chapter 6, but most interesting as she outlines the 4 or 5 centuries of intellectual history in chapter 1. As a secondary, but certainly interesting theme, there is the interpenetration of religious with political thinking. Why doctrines are not hand delivered from God above but rather are often the result of backroom manipulations and intrigue. It is this tension between ideas as independent creatures, like Plato's forms, and as nothing more than justifications of power structures and hierarchical institutions that supplies a movement, a dynamic that makes the book readable and engaging. I am, of course, aware of Prof. Pagels by reputation, however this is the first book of hers i have had the pleasure of reading and as a result will be interesting in finding more, particularing in her field of Gnostic studies and the Nag Hammadi manuscripts.

Anyone even remotely familiar with Western civilization knows the story of the Garden of Eden. What we often don't know is how profoundly that story has influenced society for the past few thousand years. Elaine Pagels does a wonderul job of describing the evolution of some of our most basic social values, such as the inherent value of each soul, freedom of choice, and the sinful nature of sexual desire, all stemming from the early Christian "Church Fathers'" interpretation of the Garden story. What did God mean that "man (and woman) was created in the image of God?" What was the meaning of the forbidden fruit? And how has that influenced the politics of today? All of these and more are addressed between the covers of this book.One of the signature's of Pagels writing is the in-depth exploration of the writings and debates of the early Christian thinkers who, by the fifth century, largely shaped Christianity into the paradigm we know today. Augustine in particular gets a great deal of ink in this book, as well as Julian (the heretic from Italy), John Chrysostom, Clement and others. In particular, the last two chapters on the Politics of Paradise and the Nature of Nature strongly portray the power of Augustine's philosophy, and Pagels analysis of the psychic attraction to Augustine's paradoxical philosophy regarding "will" is exceptional. I also very much enjoyed her description of the evolution of Christian thinking from one of ultimate free will (so powerful that it resulted in thousands of Christian martyrs in the second and third century), to one of the inherent wickedness of humans by virtue of the original sin, resulting in the need for punitive and controling church and civic governments to rule over all people. The result was the power of the Catholic Church for 1600 years, not to mention the horror of the Dark Ages of christianity.Elaine Pagels is a delight to read, and ranks up there with Karen Armstrong as a commentator and analyst of the evolution of religion. This is a great little book!