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Contact: Tim Miller at (785) 864-7263.

'Gnostic Gospels' author to speak April 26 in Lawrence

LAWRENCE -- A groundbreaking scholar of early Christianity will speak on her work on the ancient Gnostic Christians April 26 in Lawrence.

Elaine Pagels, professor of religion at Princeton University and author of books that include "The Gnostic Gospels," "Adam, Eve and the Serpent" and "The Origin of Satan," will present the annual University of Kansas Religious Studies Lecture at 7 p.m. at Plymouth Congregational Church. The event headlines the centennial celebration of the Department of Religious Studies at KU.

Pagels gained international recognition for her best-selling 1979 book "The Gnostic Gospels," an analysis of a trove of ancient manuscripts unearthed in Egypt in 1945. The manuscripts, known collectively as the Nag Hammadi Library, including many early Christian writings previously unknown, demonstrated that early Christianity was a far more diverse movement than had previously been believed. They also showed that women were once prominent in some early Christian groups and were only later excluded from organizational prominence.

As the early church moved from a decentralized movement to an orthodox organization with a precisely defined canon of scripture, prescribed rituals and ordained clergy, materials that deviated from the approved norm were denounced as heretical. The Gnostic scriptures and other documents were suppressed. Today they provide a perspective on the rich diversity of early Christianity otherwise unavailable.

Pagels later published "Adam, Eve and the Serpent" (1988), an exploration of the Genesis creation stories and their role in the development of sexual attitudes in the Christian West.

Then, after two tragic events, Pagels published her most recent book. In 1987, she lost her six-year-old son to disease, and in 1988 her husband Heinz Pagels, an esteemed physicist, died in a rock-climbing accident. Elaine Pagels' reflections on her losses culminated with the publication of "The Origin of Satan" in 1995.

Pagels is the featured speaker for the centennial of the study of religion at KU. In 1901 classes in religion began to be taught under the auspices of the Disciples of Christ denomination in a private building near KU. Later other denominations joined the program, forming the Kansas School of Religion. In 1977, the current Department of Religious Studies was created within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at KU, replacing those earlier private programs.

The Pagels lecture is sponsored by the Friends of the Department of Religious Studies, a private organization that supports the department's work. Additional support for the lecture is being provided by the Hall Center for the Humanities and the KU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Alumni Club Advisory Board.

Professor Tim Miller, chair of the Department of Religious Studies, said, "One reason we are bringing Pagels to Lawrence, and arranging for her to speak off campus, is that her ideas have generated such interest among the general public. She reaches an audience far beyond the academy, as her successful books demonstrate."