The Gospel of Thomas: A Guidebook for Spiritual Practice

The Gospel of Thomas: A Guidebook for Spiritual Practice is an academic and spiritual commentary upon the Gospel of Thomas, a text discovered in Egypt in 1945 that brings new light to Jesus Christ's teachings, offering insights in following in His footsteps and in effect, becoming His "twin". Sections titled "Practice" drive one to reflect upon how to apply the wisdom and selflessness of Christ's teachings to daily life, while questions entitled "Reflections" urge the reader to consider such tasks as "How can I be a more prayerful person while still being true to my understanding of the spiritual universe?" A vessel for personal and spiritual self-growth as surely as it is an analytical dissection of religious text, The Gospel of Thomas is an excellent guide for anyone seeking to explore what this holy text has to say about belief, life, God's Kingdom and the way of Jesus Christ.

If you want to really know Christ as God has intended him to be known and as Jesus himself wanted his followers to know him then read this book. The BIBLE seems insignificant to those who have read this Gospel and come to understand the reality in which Christ lived himself and wished other followers to apply his words - those of the Gospel of Thomas - to their lives. This is a must read for ANYONE who calls themselves to be "Christian."

If a Gospel of Jesus Christ had been discovered 50 years ago, and its content and tone were deeply at odds with the entire thrust of the churches' traditional interpretations of Jesus' message, and it had been established by biblical scholars to be both earlier and more accurate than the four canonical gospels...wouldn't you expect these facts to be common knowledge, and important news to most Christians? Well, those facts are all true, but normative Christianity seems to have responded to the Gospel of Thomas with a collective yawn. The cognitive dissonance inherent in the fact that those who call themselves Christians are not interested in reading a newly-discovered and unique gospel is enough to make one agree with Ron Miller that organized religion is more interested in controlling thoughts and political influence than in spirituality. Every Christian should be interested in the Gospel of Thomas. In this book, Ron Miller uses current scholarship, engaging prose, and an inimitably direct and open style of thinking to explain Jesus' message in the light of these newly discovered teachings. It turns out that Miller is an important contemporary thinker. What he finds will surprise you. There is one drawback to this book -- it does not contain all of the sayings in the Gospel of Thomas. For that, you must refer to The Gospel of Thomas Annotated & Explained, translated by Stevan L. Davies.