Favorite Books?

[Moni_Gail]

Not texts, just books. A few of mine are:
Original Christianity by Peter Novak
The Jesus Mysteries
The Lost Goddess
The Laughing Jesus all three by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy

 

[gnomon]

Only religious/spiritual/inspirational books or what?

 

[Moni_Gail]

Sorry. Religious/explanatory for gnostics.

 

[gnomon]

Sorry. Religious/explanatory for gnostics.

Well, I've read one Elaine Pagels book on the subject. I liked it. Felt it wasn't too revealing, though.

I have a book by Bently Layton called the "Gnostic Scriptures". Haven't perused it yet. Know anything about it?

Don't mean to hijack the thread just a quick question.

 

[Moni_Gail]

Well, I've read one Elaine Pagels book on the subject. I liked it. Felt it wasn't too revealing, though.

I have a book by Bently Layton called the "Gnostic Scriptures". Haven't perused it yet. Know anything about it?

Don't mean to hijack the thread just a quick question.

No, sorry I haven't heard of it. I wasn't too impressed with Elaine Pagels either. Not really hijacking if it's in-line with the original question, ask away. I'm looking for more books. Another I have upstairs, which I have yet to crack open is The Gnostic Secret of the Nassenes: The Initiatory Teachings of the Last Supper - Mark H. Gaffney.

 

[gnomon]

No, sorry I haven't heard of it. I wasn't too impressed with Elaine Pagels either. Not really hijacking if it's in-line with the original question, ask away. I'm looking for more books. Another I have upstairs, which I have yet to crack open is The Gnostic Secret of the Nassenes: The Initiatory Teachings of the Last Supper - Mark H. Gaffney.

Thanks. I've been eyeing a collection of the Nag Hammadi texts at work. However, reason and finances are telling me to read the other 600 books lying around my house before I get into anything else. I'm still trying to work up the time to get into "A History of the Jewish People" which comes recommended by Jay. Thanks for the input.

edit: You might be interested in a reference book called The Other Bible. But it is a collection of texts.

 

[Halcyon]

What is Gnosticism? by Karen L. King is a good book.

It's not as simple as the title suggests, it's not an introduction to gnosticism but rather an exploration of what makes a group Gnostic or not, how modern scholars study Gnostic groups etc.
A bit academic, not for light reading, but interesting.

 

[Space Debris]

I second Halcyon's recommendation of King's book. It really is excellent. Another great book along those lines is Rethinking "Gnosticism" by Michael Williams.

 

[Moni_Gail]

Thanks! :hug:

 

[challupa]

Sort of off topic but I noticed you've read alot of Tim and Peter's books. They are real good and I've read most of their's too. I was priviledged to be able to attend a weekend workshop with Tim about a year ago. He is really amazing. Great workshop. If you ever get the opportunity it's really worth your time.

 

[Ali12]

Quran hakeem of course nothing more worthy than that.

 

[Inait Ullah]

The most favorite book in Islam is Quran.Some other book are following
• Digest of Muslim names by Fatimah S. Al-Ja'fari
• A treasury of favorite Muslim names by Ahmed Abdul Hakeem
• A dictionary of Muslim names by Salahuddin Ahmed
• The modern book of Muslim names by Hansib Publishing Company
• Star Muslim Baby Names by Anjum Nishat

 

[arcanum]

Richard Smoley wrote a great book on gnosticism called forbidden faith,Excellent book imo.

 

[Rainbow Mage]

You know that Gnostics love the Quran? Seriously. People in the modern world calling themselves Gnostic absolutely love the Quran.

 

[Adramelek]

I have many favorite books, here are a couple of my favorite titles:

The Satanic Rituals by Anton Szandor LaVey
Hermetic Magic - The Postmodern Magical Papyrus of Abaris by Stephen Edred Flowers, Ph.D.
Lords of the Left-Hand Path by Stephen Flowers, Ph.D.
The Temple In Man by R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz
Ancient Egyptian Myths and Legends by Lewis Spence
The Seven Faces of Darkness by Don Webb
The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution by P.D. Ouspensky
Condensed Chaos by Phil Hine
The Diabolicon by Dr. Michael A. Aquino

 

[Kriya Yogi]

Autobiography of a Yogi-The life of Paramahansa Yogananda by himself
Man's Eternal Quest- By Paramhansa Yogananda
Conversations with Yogananda- By Yogananda's direct disciple Swami Kriyananda who recollected and wrote down his Gurus words and conversations.

All these books explain everything in terms of God and the meaning of life. Infinite wisdom is written in these books.

 

[Caladan]

The Jesus Mysteries
The Lost Goddess
The Laughing Jesus all three by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy

Freke and Gandy write some very unresearched and unscholarly material.
many of their claims are echoed in other juvenile work such as the movie 'Zeitgeist'.

 

[Skwim]

Favorite book: Fun with Dick and Jane. The first book (1st grade I think) I was abke to read. It meant a lot to me at the time.

 

[Requia]

Freke and Gandy write some very unresearched and unscholarly material.

That's a heck of a blanket statement to not back up. And taking a look at one of the books (I've not actually read any of them) its got a list of citations 80 pages long, so 'unresearched' doesn't seem to apply. And 'unscholarly'? I suppose that applies, there's no peer review on the book, but there's no peer review on *any* book that I'm aware of.

[quote[many of their claims are echoed in other juvenile work such as the movie 'Zeitgeist'.[/quote]
Such as?

 

[Caladan]

That's a heck of a blanket statement to not back up. And taking a look at one of the books (I've not actually read any of them) its got a list of citations 80 pages long, so 'unresearched' doesn't seem to apply. And 'unscholarly'? I suppose that applies, there's no peer review on the book, but there's no peer review on *any* book that I'm aware of.

You might have not actually read them, but I HAVE read the Jesus mysteries.
and here is what some notable scholars and media has to say:

Chris Forbes, an ancient historian and senior lecturer at Macquarie University has criticised the work noting that Freke and Gandy are "not real scholars, they are popularisers.” He notes that their arguments about Jesus are "grossly misconceived, and their attempt to draw links between Jesus and various pagan god-men is completely muddled.

When the BBC approached N. T. Wright, asking him to debate Freke and Gandy concerning their thesis in The Jesus Mysteries, Wright replied that "this was like asking a professional astronomer to debate with the authors of a book claiming the moon was made of green cheese."

Bart Ehrman, in an interview with the Fortean Times, was similarly asked for his views on the work of Freke and Gandy. He responded by saying, "This is an old argument, even though it shows up every 10 years or so. This current craze that Christianity was a mystery religion like these other mystery religions-the people who are saying this are almost always people who know nothing about the mystery religions; they've read a few popular books, but they're not scholars of mystery religions. The reality is, we know very little about mystery religions-the whole point of mystery religions is that they're secret! So I think it's crazy to build on ignorance in order to make a claim like this

Such as?

Where to begin.
I know I'll just sum it up: 'pure crap' is what I had in mind.

A review in The Irish Times entitled “Zeitgeist: the Nonsense” wrote that “these are surreal perversions of genuine issues and debates, and they tarnish all criticism of faith, the Bush administration and globalization—there are more than enough factual injustices in this world to be going around without having to invent fictional ones." Skeptic magazine's Tim Callahan criticizes the first part of the film on the origins of Christianity:
Some of what it asserts is true. Unfortunately, this material is liberally—and sloppily—mixed with material that is only partially true and much that is plainly and simply bogus. […] Zeitgeist is The Da Vinci Code on steroids.

Other reviews assert that it is "conspiracy crap", “based solely on anecdotal evidence” and “fiction couched in a few facts”, or disparaging reference is made to its part in "the 9/11 truth movement"

Academic coverage of Zeitgeist has also been sparse, mainly lumping the movie in with other conspiracy movies, and typically treating it as part of a contemporary phenomenon of “truth” movies. According to an article published in Scientific American by Michael Shermer:
“The postmodernist belief in the relativism of truth, coupled to the clicker culture of mass media where attention spans are measured in New York minutes, leaves us with a bewildering array of truth claims packaged in infotainment units. It must be true—I saw it on television, at the movies, on the Internet, The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, That's Incredible, The Sixth Sense, Poltergeist, Loose Change, Zeitgeist the Movie.”