Pagels is one of the original researchers of the Nag Hammadi manuscripts and a lot of the Coptic and Gnostic texts that scholars are still working through today. She’s been doing serious, primary-source work in this space for decades. I did not know she was still actively publishing so it’s genuinely impressive to see her add another strong book to an already massive bibliography.
I picked up the Gospel of Thomas recently while working through Diarmaid MacCulloch’s Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years. I hadn’t read the Gospel of Thomas in a very long time, and MacCulloch’s treatment of the early church controversies reminded me just how much insight this text provides.
I stumbled across Rainn Wilson’s podcast Soul Boom the way I stumble across most things I didn’t know I was interested in — serendipitously. One episode led to another, and after just a few episodes I had a decent sense of what he’s been up to since The Office wrapped. The short version: he’s been on a genuine, years-long mission to make big philosophical and spiritual questions feel normal to talk about. Soul Boom is the book version of that mission.
Sacred Places of a Lifetime by National Geographic is an excellent coffee table style reference book showcasing some of the great sacred places around the world.
I picked this book up after hearing the author interviewed on a podcast — and by “picked up” I mean it was on sale on Amazon and seemed worth a quick read.
How to Read the Bible by Harvey Cox is an accessible, nuanced, and genuinely creative introduction to engaging with the best-selling and most influential single book in the world.
Sometimes a name shows up everywhere in the same week. That happened to me with Paul Tillich. His name popped…
I picked up Dynamics of Faith at a used bookstore along with The Courage to Be — same author, same…
I picked up Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman after a weekend that included visiting the Martin Luther King…
Practical Mysticism by Evelyn Underhill is a 1914 book on Christian mystical practice. It’s available for free on Standard Ebooks, which is one of my favorite resources on the internet for beautifully formatted public domain books.
Nixey’s “The Darkening Age” reveals how Christian zealots systematically destroyed classical civilization after gaining power – an excellent, well-researched read.
Heretic by Catherine Nixey is about the hundreds, if not thousands, of versions of Christianity that flourished in the hundreds…
Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years by Diarmaid MacCulloch is a doorstop of a book that is readable, fascinating, and approachable.
*like, sometimes I publish…a lot :O – though you can pick what categories you want.
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I’m Nate Shivar from Atlanta, Georgia, USA. I love nature, public lands, books, and the old-school Internet.
