Author: Leloup, Jean-Yves

"One of the cache of codices and manuscripts discovered in Nag Hammadi, the Gospel of Thomas, unlike the canonical gospels, does not contain a narrative recording Christ's life and prophecies. Instead, it is a collection of his teachings in 114 logia, or sayings, that were gathered by Judas Didymus Thomas, whom some claim was Jesus' closest disciple. No sooner was this gospel uncovered from the sands of Upper Egypt than scholars and theologians began to bury it anew in a host of conflicting interpretations and polemics. While some say it is a hodgepodge from the canonical gospels, for others it is the source from which all the gospel writers drew their material and inspiration." "In this new translation of the Gospel of Thomas, Jean-Yves Leloup shows that the Jesus recorded by the "infinitely skeptical and infinitely believing" Thomas has much in common with gnostics of nondualistic schools. Like them, Jesus preaches the coming of a new man, the genesis of the man of knowledge. In this gospel, Jesus describes a journey from limited to unlimited consciousness. The Jesus of Thomas invites us to drink deeply from the well of knowledge that lies within, not so that we may become good Christians, but so that we may attain the self-knowledge that will make each of us, too, a Christ."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved