Adam, Eve, and the Serpent
Stock No: WW722327
Adam, Eve, and the Serpent                             -     By: Elaine Pagels

Adam, Eve, and the Serpent

Random House Inc / 1989 / Paperback

Expected to ship on or about 12/03/24.
Stock No: WW722327

Buy Item Our Price$14.40 Retail: $16.00 Save 10% ($1.60)
Expected to ship on or about 12/03/24.
Quantity:
Stock No: WW722327
Random House Inc / 1989 / Paperback
Quantity:

Add To Cart

or checkout with

Add To Wishlist
eBook Our Price$12.99 View Details
Quantity:


Add To Cart

or checkout with

Wishlist

Product Close-up
This product is not available for expedited shipping.
* This product is available for shipment only to the USA.

Product Description

How did the early Christians come to believe that sex was inherently sinful? When did the Fall of Adam become synonymous with the fall of all humanity? What turned Christianity from a dissident sect that championed the integrity of the individual and the idea of free will into the bulwark of a new imperial order--with the central belief that human beings cannot choose not to sin? In this provocative materpiece of historical scholarship Elaine Pagels re-creates the controversies that racked the early church as it confronted the riddles of sexuality, freedom, and sin as embodied in the story of Genesis. 189 pages, softcover from Vintage Books.

Product Information

Title: Adam, Eve, and the Serpent
By: Elaine Pagels
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 189
Vendor: Random House Inc
Publication Date: 1989
Dimensions: 8 X 5 1/4 X 5/8 (inches)
Weight: 8 ounces
ISBN: 0679722327
ISBN-13: 9780679722328
Stock No: WW722327

Publisher's Description

A National Book Award winner and New York Times bestselling author deepens and refreshes our view of early Christianity while casting a disturbing light on the evolution of the attitudes passed down to us. 

"Confirms her reputation as both a scholar and a popular interpreter.... Continuously rewarding and illuminating." —The New York Times

How did the early Christians come to believe that sex was inherently sinful? When did the Fall of Adam become synonymous with the fall of humanity? What turned Christianity from a dissident sect that  championed the integrity of the individual and the idea of free will into the bulwark of a new imperial order—with the central belief that human beings cannot not choose to sin?  In this provocative masterpiece of historical scholarship Elaine Pagels re-creates the controversies that racked the early church as it confronted the riddles of sexuality, freedom, and sin as embodied in the story of Genesis.  And she shows how what was once heresy came to shape our own attitudes toward the body and the soul.

Author Bio

ELAINE PAGELS is the Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University and the author of Reading Judas, The Gnostic Gospels—winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the National Book Award—and the New York Times bestseller Beyond Belief. She lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

Editorial Reviews

"A stunning book ... [that] refreshes our view of early Christianity." —Christian Science Monitor

"[Adam, Eve, and the Serpent] confirms her reputation as both a scholar and a popular interpreter.... Her book is continuously rewarding and illuminating." —The New York Times

"This virtuoso study may disquiet some readers and refresh other; the debate it opens is not likely to leave any reader unmoved." —The New Yorker

"Ms. Pagels has taken a complex and seemingly arcane subject and made it fascinating and accessible.... Any scholarly author who has ever tried to do that will recognize the brilliance of her achievement."  —Wall Street Journal

Ask a Question

Author/Artist Review