Nathan E. Lewis

Blaise Paschal (1623-1662), a French scientist and religious philosopher, wrote his “Pensees,” fragments, if not little gems presenting his view of the world. His thoughts trace the universal search for God as he cuts across doctrine and into the very heart of the moral problem. When I am tired or distracted, Paschal’s terse sentences can re-start my thinking. He wrote, “Two extremes: to exclude reason, to admit reason only.” Continue reading »

Have you read the University of Oregon ads in The Oregonian? They each include the slogan, “If UOnly knew.” My favorite is titled, “Snowflakes, Stress, and Semiconductors: Do you See a Pattern Here?” Yes! I do see good order in the world around us! The ad reads, “Do you see a pattern here? Richard Taylor does. The UO professor of Physics is lead the way with internationally recognized research into fractuals, curious patterns found in nature that repeat themselves. Continue reading »

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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Elaine Pagels is a primary source of inspiration and content for Dan Brown. Most of her scholarship has been devoted to the Nag Hammadi texts, discovered in Upper Egypt in 1945. These texts are mostly fragments of the writings discarded by the Church in the process of canonizing the Bible. In 1979 Pagels’ “The Gnostic Gospels� was published. Her subsequent books have each taken up a theme or issue that can be recognized as “Gnostic.� In 2003 Pagels’ “Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas,� continued her life’s work to promote the Nag Hammadi texts as equally valid documents for the Christian religion, alongside of the books of the Bible.
Dan Brown’s “Da Vinci Code,� popularly spins and embellishes the stories that are told by those who have read the Nag Hammadi texts.
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In today’s issue of the Oregonian, Saturday, May 13, 2006, Nancy Haught “pulls together observations and ruminations” concerning the Da Vinci Code. Under her “Web sites” she recommends three, one of which is Westminster Theological Seminary’s site, www.thetruthaboutdavinci.com.
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Dan Brown’s “DaVinci Code” has been a New York Times Bestseller for two years straight and the movie shows this May 19, 2006. Brown is a master at writing “cliff hangers,” and weaving a fast paced story. Amazingly he does so with one of the most tired, uninteresting stories in western literature. We are fascinated with Jesus - we either worship him or we hate him - but few people ignore him.
In a recent Newsweek article Dan Brown candidly revealed his intentions of putting an end, once for all, to the lie, known as Christianity. Regardless of his authorial intent, he has offered us the opportunity to discuss the nature and life of Jesus. This is the view of the editors of World Magazine who write in their May 6, 2006 issue, “It’s hard to imagine a time in at least the past 40 years when the big New York publishers were promoting so many books about Jesus. While these volumes are meant to undermine faith in the Jesus of the Bible, their popularity suggests an opportunity to talk about Jesus in the public square.” Continue reading »