Nathan E. Lewis

In her book, “Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas,� Elaine Pagels takes issue with the Church as a confessional community. She believes that creeds exclude people from the community of the Church that ought to be welcomed as members. She opens by sharing her personal story of finding warm reception at the Church of the Heavenly Rest in New York City, during a difficult time in her life. She writes on page five, “I wondered when and how being a Christian became synonymous with accepting a certain set of beliefs.� She references Jesus telling his disciples that the world will know them by their love for one another, and concludes that the only mark of the Church should be love.
I decided to call the rector of the Church of Heavenly Rest. I never doubted Pagel’s report of this church’s warm acceptance of people. I needed to discover whether or not this church was a confessional church.
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Elaine Pagels has devoted much of her time to Irenaeus, that fiery Christian theologian, circa 125-202. He published “Against Heresies,” a strong apologetic against Gnostics. Clearly Pagels is trying to make room for Gnostics in the Church. Her book, “Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas,” would be more appropriately titled, “Beyond Belief: Why I Reject Irenaeus as Founder of the Church.”
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