Adam, Eve, and the Serpent: Sex and Politics in Early Christianity

Deepens and refreshes our view of early Christianity while casting a disturbing light on the evolution of the attitudes passed down to us. 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: Elaine Pagels
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 09/19/1989
Pages: 224
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.52lbs
Size: 8.02h x 5.26w x 0.59d
ISBN13: 9780679722328
ISBN10: 0679722327
BISAC Categories:
- Religion | Christianity | History
- Religion | Christian Theology | History
- Religion | Christian Theology | Ethics

About the Author
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.