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Revelations
- Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation
- Narrated by: Lorna Raver
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
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Publisher's summary
Elaine Pagels explores the surprising history of the most controversial book of the Bible. In the waning days of the Roman Empire, militant Jews in Jerusalem had waged an all-out war against Rome’s occupation of Judea, and their defeat resulted in the desecration of the Great Temple in Jerusalem. In the aftermath of that war, John of Patmos, a Jewish prophet and follower of Jesus, wrote the Book of Revelation, prophesying God’s judgment on the pagan empire that devastated and dominated his people. Soon after, Christians fearing arrest and execution championed John’s prophecies as offering hope for deliverance from evil. Others seized on the Book of Revelation as a weapon against heretics and infidels of all kinds.
Even after John’s prophecies seemed disproven - instead of being destroyed, Rome became a Christian empire - those who loved John’s visions refused to discard them and instead reinterpreted them - as Christians have done for 2,000 years. Brilliantly weaving scholarship with a deep understanding of the human needs to which religion speaks, Pagels has written what may be the masterwork in her unique career.
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Critic reviews
"Revelations is a slim book that packs in dense layers of scholarship and meaning . . . One of [Elaine Pagels's] great gifts is much in abundance: her ability to ask, and answer, the plainest questions about her material without speaking down to her audience . . . She must be a fiendishly good lecturer." (The New York Times)
"One of the significant benefits of Pagels's book is its demonstration of the unpredictability of apocalyptic politics . . . The meaning of the Apocalypse is ever malleable and ready to hand for whatever crisis one confronts. That is one lesson of Pagels's book. Another is that we all should be vigilant to keep some of us from using the vision for violence against others." (The New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice)
"Pagels is an absorbing, intelligent, and eye-opening companion. Calming and broad-minded here, as in her earlier works, she applies a sympathetic and humane eye to texts that are neither subtle nor sympathetically humane but lit instead by fury." (Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker)
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Full of larger-than-life characters, stunning acts of bravery, and heart-rending sacrifice, Tried by Fire narrates the rise and expansion of Christianity from an obscure regional sect to the established faith of the world's greatest empire with influence extending from India to Ireland, Scandinavia to Ethiopia, and all points in between.
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Best history of Christianity I've read
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David Lynch
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At once a pop culture icon, cult figure, and film industry outsider, master filmmaker David Lynch and his work defy easy definition. Dredged from his subconscious mind, Lynch's work is primed to act on our own subconscious, combining heightened, contradictory emotions into something familiar but inscrutable. No less than his art, Lynch's life also evades simple categorization, encompassing pursuits as a musician, painter, photographer, carpenter, entrepreneur, and vocal proponent of Transcendental Meditation.
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Essential listening for Lunch fans
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A Little History of the World
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E. H. Gombrich's world history, an international best seller now available in English for the first time, is a text dominated not by dates and facts but by the sweep of experience across the centuries, a guide to humanity's achievements, and an acute witness to its frailties.
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an enlightening book; very well read
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Understanding the Koran
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- Narrated by: Don Reed
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A quick non-technical introduction to the Koran designed to help Christians understand a hidden book revered by 1.3 billion Muslims, covering the background on its writing, a summary of its contents, a perspective on how it’s used and viewed by Muslims, a comparison of differences and similarities to the Bible, and some suggestions on how it should and should not be used in conversations with Muslims.
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Favors Christianity
- By Dianne on 12-18-15
By: Mateen Elass
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When the Church Was Young
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Marcellino D'Ambrosio dusts off what might have been just dry theology to bring you the exciting stories of great heroes such as Ambrose, Augustine, Basil, Athanasius, John Chrysostom, and Jerome. These brilliant, embattled, and sometimes eccentric men defined the biblical canon, hammered out the Creed, and gave us our understanding of sacraments and salvation. It is they who preserved the rich legacy of the early Church for us.
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Masterful summary of the early Church Fathers
- By Mike C on 08-22-14
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The Jesus Dynasty
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Based on a careful analysis of the earliest Christian documents and recent archaeological discoveries, The Jesus Dynasty offers a bold new interpretation of the life of Jesus and the origins of Christianity. The story is surprising, controversial, and exciting as only a long-lost history can be when it is at last recovered.
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Provocative book
- By Dan on 08-27-06
By: James D. Tabor
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The Truth About Muhammad
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In The Truth about Muhammad, New York Times best-selling author and Islam expert Robert Spencer offers an honest and telling portrait of the founder of Islam - perhaps the first such portrait in half a century - unbounded by fear and political correctness, unflinching, and willing to face the hard facts about Muhammad's life that continue to affect our world today.
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Enlightening
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“Jesus - the Jesus we might discover if we really looked,” explains Wright, “is larger, more disturbing, more urgent than we had ever imagined. We have successfully managed to hide behind other questions and to avoid the huge, world-shaking challenge of Jesus’s central claim and achievement. It is we, the churches, who have been the real reductionists. We have reduced the kingdom of God to private piety; the victory of the cross to comfort for the conscience; Easter itself to a happy, escapist ending after a sad, dark tale. Piety, conscience, and ultimate happiness are important...."
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A must read for today's church
- By Joey A. on 03-17-12
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What Jesus Meant
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In what are billed "culture wars", people on the political right and the political left cite Jesus as endorsing their views. Garry Wills argues that Jesus subscribed to no political program. He was far more radical than that. In a fresh reading of the gospels, Wills explores the meaning of the "reign of heaven" that Jesus not only promised for the future but brought with him into this life.
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The best book on Jesus I've read.
- By Jack on 10-29-11
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God in the Qur'an
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Who is Allah? What does he ask of those who submit to his teachings? Pulitzer Prize-winner Jack Miles gives us a deeply probing, revelatory portrait of the world’s second largest, fastest-growing, and perhaps most tragically misunderstood religion. In doing so, Miles illuminates what is unique about Allah, his teachings, and his resolutely merciful temperament, and he thereby reveals that which is false, distorted, or simply absent from the popular conception of the heart of Islam.
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Comparison between the Holy Bible and Holy Qur'an
- By Recession Proof Holdings. L.L.C. (RPH) on 12-29-18
By: Jack Miles
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Paul and Jesus
- How the Apostle Transformed Christianity
- By: James D. Tabor
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Historians know virtually nothing about the two decades following the crucifixion of Jesus, when his followers regrouped and began to spread his message. During this time the man we know as the apostle Paul joined the movement and began to preach to the gentiles. Using the oldest Christian documents that we have - the letters of Paul - as well as other early Christian sources, historian and scholar James Tabor reconstructs the origins of Christianity.
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Paul or Jesus?
- By James on 01-29-13
By: James D. Tabor
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Creating Christ
- How Roman Emperors Invented Christianity
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This explosive work of history unearths clues that finally demonstrate the truth about one of the world's great religions: that it was born out of the conflict between the Romans and messianic Jews who fought a bitter war with each other during the first century. The Romans employed a tactic they routinely used to conquer and absorb other nations: they grafted their imperial rule onto the religion of the conquered.
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life is one big lie
- By Anonymous User on 12-25-19
By: James S. Valliant, and others
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The early Christian Church was a chaos of contending beliefs. Some groups of Christians claimed that there was not one God but two or twelve or thirty. Some believed that the world had not been created by God but by a lesser, ignorant deity. Certain sects maintained that Jesus was human but not divine, while others said he was divine but not human.
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The Early Church(es)
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Understanding Manuscripts
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Another Piece of the Jesus Puzzle
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Throughout much of human history, our most important stories were passed down orally - including the stories about Jesus before they became written down in the Gospels. In this fascinating and deeply researched work, leading Bible scholar Bart D. Erhman investigates the role oral history has played in the New Testament - how the telling of these stories not only spread Jesus' message but helped shape it.
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Insightful, but with limited depth
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Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene
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Bart Ehrman, author of the best sellers Misquoting Jesus and Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code, here takes listeners on another engaging tour of the early Christian church, illuminating the lives of three of Jesus' most intriguing followers: Simon Peter, Paul of Tarsus, and Mary Magdalene.
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A re-write of "Misquoting Jesus"
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What listeners say about Revelations
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- greg
- 09-06-16
Great book
Great book however I would not agree with her conclusions. Very insightful. A must for serious bible students.
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- Diane
- 05-13-12
Revealing "Revelations"
Elaine Pagels' books on early Christianity introduce the lay reader to a concept familiar to almost any seminarian or graduate student of religion--that is, that the development of early Christianity into modern doctrinal mainstream Western Christianity was far from inevitable. Certainly many readers will be aware of much later fissures within the body of Christianity, including the 11th century split between the Western Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church, the 15th century rise of Protestantism, the 19th century birth of Mormonism and the 20th century advent of Pentecostalism. What may not be so well known is the wide diversity of belief and practice that existed within the growing Christian movement during its first few centuries.
Recent archeological discoveries, most notably the Nag Hammadi library and the Dead Sea Scrolls, both discovered in the mid-20th century, have just begun to reveal the diversity within Judaism and the beginnings of Christianity in the centuries immediately preceding and after the time of Christ. Pagels relies on these texts, as well as canonical Christian scripture, to explore in a highly accessible manner the historical context within which the the book of Revelations was written and the choices made at the many forks in the road along the way to the establishment of modern creedal Christianity.
Among the issues discussed in this book are: the eventual conflation (very probably erroneous) of the author of the book of Revelations with the apostle John; likely sources of the use of imagery in the book; the undercurrent in Revelations of antipathy towards the apostle Paul's inclusion of Gentiles in the Christian movement without requiring Torah obedience on their part; changing understandings of what was meant by "the beast"; the use of the book to suppress perceived heresies in order to consolidate Christianity in a Constantinian world; the controversial nature of the book from the time of its writing and the fact that it only made it into the Christian canon by the narrowest of margins. Pagels explains how John's was only one of many apocalyptic writings extant at the time, analyses the differences and similarities between his and examples of the others, and describes the process which ultimately led to John's book's inclusion in the canon
Pagels, a Christian herself, does not write with the intention of discrediting or diminishing Christianity, but rather to open up our understanding of the faith as a living and dynamic process. Those who have become disillusioned with established Christianity may find new inspiration here and those committed to modern Christian doctrine may find food for thought as well as a new appreciation for the complexities that went into the development of their religion. Whatever one's background, this book offers a fascinating insight into the growth of what was essentially a spiritual movement into the established global religion with which we are familiar today.
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49 people found this helpful
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- Alouiseb
- 04-09-12
Revelations about Revelations
If you could sum up Revelations in three words, what would they be?
Fascinating, informative, well-told
Any additional comments?
Pagels provides the historical context to make this rather different book of the Bible comprehensible. She shows how the creation of this book and its inclusion in the Bible are part of the early development of Christianity. In the process the listener learns some very interesting history. It is surprising how much the conflicts, concerns, and events of those earlier times correspond to what is happening today. The book is very well-written, easy to listen to, with just enough information, but not so much as to overwhelm. The only downside to listening rather than reading is that the written version provides a wealth of footnotes.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Jason Comely
- 06-20-13
Narration is Divine, the Information? Not So Much
First I'll start by saying that Lorna Raver is the best narrator - man or woman - working today. She is incredible, and perfect for this book.
I enjoyed the book itself, immensely at the start and then less so as the author strays into apocrypha that most listeners will likely consider irrelevant.
Still, I enjoyed the listen. The dug up some gem scriptures that I want to follow up on. I'll likely buy the paperback version.
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- Allen A. Watson
- 03-10-17
Great summary of early church history.
I was really struck by the importance of Athanasius and Constantine in the developing history of early Christianity.
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- dbernelle
- 03-31-16
Elaine Pagels does it again!
I always enjoy professor Pegel's books and audiobooks. This book and also the accompanying audiobook is historically detailed and provides very concise background regarding John of Parmos' Book of Revelation, providing social details of that period of human history, and also other religious works from the same time period. It was very interesting to learn the background of what and why we have what we do as the accepted Old and New Testament. The power struggle among the early church leaders explains a lot about how the Roman government stole a religion, how the formation of the early Roman Catholic Church assured women lost their place in early Christianity, and also how a strong-willed clergy can take over nations and gain vast amounts of wealth.
I don't want to seem to throw negative insinuations toward any religion, but the knowledge and comparisons are there to understand and make for yourself. After all, one should remember that the most important thing about Christianity is Christ!
I think it behooves each person truly interested in knowing and understanding the totality of Christianity should study the deeper aspects of Christianity, especially it's early teachings, not just the teachings that someone approximately 1700 years ago decided that you should know about and study.
The full God, the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit are very much alive in this day and age, as they always have been, and always will be. Thank you for reading this review and my views regarding this work by Elaine Pagels.
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- NK
- 10-16-13
Good book to get
Topic was very interesting. Narration was also done well. Interesting to make the connection of what was going on during the period when it was written and some of it's meaning.
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- William T. Averill
- 11-15-22
Excellent info & narrator
Excellent background and highly informative with an emotive and wonderful narrator. Recommend for those seeking historical background on the most divisive book of the new testament.
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- Gary
- 12-04-23
Thought provoking illuminating yet fun
Page turner with arresting insights on almost every page explaining first four centuries of Chriianity and Book of Revelations
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- Tony Loman
- 05-14-12
Historical view of Revelations
In this book, Pagels puts Revelations in its historical context and shows how it lies in the tradition of Jewish prophetic/apocalyptic literature and how it may be related to gnostic-Christian literature. She described, correctly in my opinion, how it was really a rather close thing that the book came to be included in the New Testament--still being debated in the 3rd and 4th centuries, as the canon was solidified. Pagel's book is required reading for anyone who thinks the New Testament and particularly the book of Revelations was simply dropped out of the sky by God one day. She devotes a good deal of space in the book to Athanasius, the bishop of Alexandria. Was he a saint, a villain, or both? Fascinating account--how he co-opted the monasteries, how his Life of Anthony, the book that so influenced later Christians, is likely rather pure fiction to promote Church control of monasteries. Athanasius was responsible for suppressing gnostic writings (and, of course, Arius) and may have been the ultimate cause of the gnostic books being hidden at Nag Hammadi. Since this was the time of Emperor Constantine, Athanasius had to reinterpret the beast in Revelations to refer to Christian heretics rather than its rather obvious original 1st century reference to the Roman Empire. This is but one example, as she points out, of the continuing reinterpretation of the symbolism in this book over subsequent centuries to explain present calamities or to predict future ones. Lots more to the book than I can cover here. I thoroughly enjoyed the it. I also liked the reader--strong female voice for a strong writer.
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11 people found this helpful