Word: christly
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...CHURCH STUDY GROUPS. Princeton professor Elaine Pagels won a National Book Award for her 1979 essay The Gnostic Gospels, which explored those alternative interpretations of the Christ story. The book was a surprise best seller, and three titles later, study groups at churches around the country are using Pagels' works to supplement more traditional Bible studies...
...early heresies if you're a conservative--have been experiencing a resurrection of their own. Their renaissance is unlikely to reinstate them in the exalted company of the canonical New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. But it fills a perceived need for alternative views of the Christ story on the part of New Age seekers and of mainline believers uncomfortable with some of their faith's theological restrictions. This yearning is transforming the once obscure texts into objects of popular discourse. Their rising cultural profile can be seen...
Elaine Pagels is part of that minority, which sees certain verses in John as refutations of Thomasine thought and a valuable illustration of how the early Christian communities lobbied for their version of Christ and his message. "I'm not saying [John] was responding to Thomas as written, because there may not have been a written text [yet]," she says. "But after you study them, it is inconceivable that the Gospel of John is not responding to some of these ideas." In her book Beyond Belief, Pagels adopts an argument proposed by Claremont Graduate University religion professor Gregory Riley. John...
Asked during an early Republican debate in Iowa to name the "philosopher-thinker" he most identified with, Bush replied, "Christ, because he changed my heart." In office, he often talks about the power of prayer and calls freedom a "gift from the Almighty." He appointed Attorney General John Ashcroft (who has proudly said that in America "we have no king but Jesus") and surrounded himself with a more quietly devout circle that includes the likes of Condoleezza Rice and Karen Hughes. "What is most important," says a Christian activist, "is that...
...time: a decade or two from now. The scene: the First Church of Christ, Smoker, the only place where nicotine addicts can find sanctuary in a society that has declared their pastime illegal. Communicants file up to the altar rail for a long drag on a cigarette - a precious, stale relic from the last carton of Marlboros sold before the U.S. government banned smoking in 2007. The priest blesses the faithful, they cough in response, and all exeunt to today's hymn, "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes...