** Synopsis
p. 34
…many scholars are now convinced that the New Testament Gospel of John, probably written at the end of the first cen-tury, emerged from an intense debate over who Jesus was -- or is. To my surprise, having spent many months comparing the Gospel of John and the Gospel of Thomas, which may have been written at about the same time, I have now come to see that John's gospel was written in the heat of controversy, to defend certain views of Jesus and to oppose others.
What John opposed, as we shall see, includes what the Gospel of Thomas teaches -- that God's light shines not only in Jesus but, potentially at least, in everyone. Thomas's gospel encourages the hearer not so much to believe in Jesus, as John requires, as to seek to know God through one's own, divinely given capacity, since all are created in the image of God. For Christians in later generations, the Gospel of John helped provide a foundation for a unified church, which Thomas, with its emphasis on each person's search for God, did not.
35
Nevertheless, I intended that book to raise certain questions: Why had the church decided that these texts were "hereti-cal" that only the canonical gospels were "orthodox"? Who made the decisions, and under what conditions? As my colleagues and I looked for answers, I began to understand the political concerns that shaped the early Christian move-ment.
NOTE:These are simply the passages in this book that appealed to me. Undoubtedly, you would have made other selections. My purpose in presenting these excerpts is not only to give an accounting of what I deemed interesting, but to present ideas you might find interesting through your own read-ing. I encourage you to get the book, make your own notes, and share them with me.
Beyond Belief excerpts.pdf
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