Podcasts about three early christian retellings

Within central Gnostic texts, we find a common disturbing storyline: Eve in the Garden of Eden suffers graphic sexual violence at the hands of the Demiurge and his Archons. This narrative of brutal oppression, suppression, and control reveals profound cosmic truths and psychological processes that thunder across history— still relevant in today’s culture. Yet within the harrowing tests of Eve, who is an avatar of Sophia, lies a lesson of restoration, dignity, and healing love. And so much Gnosis. Astral Guest – Celene Lillie, author of The Rape of Eve: The Transformation of Roman Ideology in Three Early Christian Retellings of Genesis, as well as Director of Adult Education and Spiritual Formation at First United Methodist Church in Boulder, Colorado and an adjunct professor at the University of Colorado Boulder. As a bonus, we’ll provide a Trimorphic Paranoia for members. Dr. Joanna Kujawa joins us in a group discussion to relate her views on these Gnostic myths and the Eastern versions of sexual predator deities, among other topics. This is a partial show for nonmembers. For the second half of the interview, please become a member: http://thegodabovegod.com/members/subscription-levels/ More information on Celene: https://www.westarinstitute.org/membership/westar-fellows/fellows-directory/celene-lillie/ Get Celene’s book (and support him and Abraxas): https://amzn.to/2GyHBaA Download these and all other shows: http://thegodabovegod.com/ Become a patron and keep this Red Pill Cafeteria open: https://www.patreon.com/aeonbyte

Leslea Mair is the president and CEO of Zoot Pictures out of Winnipeg, Manitoba. She talks about her latest film,  Losing Our Religion, a feature length documentary about preachers who are not believers, and what atheists do when they miss church. Allowed access to the 600 members of The Clergy Project – a safe haven for preachers from all faiths who no longer believe – the documentary follows ex-members and clergy who are still undercover. The film will be screened in the Portland Metro on November 30th.  David Chandler is the high school physics teacher who made NIST, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, revise their report on the destruction of World Trade Center Building Seven, a 47 story building that collapsed in the late afternoon of September 11th, 2001. David Chandler showed that building seven fell at free fall, that is at the acceleration of gravity. David Chandler lives in Portland and he spoke with John Shuck about what that means, (ie. controlled demolition). His website is www.911speakout.org.  Celene Lillie and Art Dewey, are members of the Westar Institute, a critical thinktank for religious issues, particularly early Christianity. Dr. Lillie is the Director of the Tanho Center in Boulder, Colorado, and the author of The Rape of Eve: The Transformation of Roman Ideology in Three Early Christian Retellings of Genesis.  Arthur Dewey is professor of religion at Xavier University and the author of Inventing the Passion: How the Death of Jesus was Remembered.  They will be speaking about The Political Jesus.  Leslea Mair.  3:00 David Chandler. 17:43 Arthur Dewey and Celene Lillie. 48:00

***Celene Lillie and Arthur Dewey will be at Southminster Presbyterian Church for a Jesus Seminar on the Road, November 10-11, 2017.*** The Nag Hammadi library discovered in 1945 has provided a number of alternative Christian texts.   They were not included in the Bible. They have been dismissed by many orthodox Christians as Gnostic or even heresy.  Yet new scholarship is discovering the complexity of these texts and the value they have for many today. Dr. Celene Lillie discusses three of these texts in her book, The Rape of Eve:  The Transformation of Roman ideology in Three Early Christian Retellings of Genesis. In each of these texts, “On the Origin of the World,” “The Reality of the Rulers,” and “The Secret Revelation of John,” Eve is portrayed as having been humiliated by the cosmic powers but experiences restoration.  She sees these Nag Hammadi stories as affirmation of women’s value and wisdom and as myths of resistance to Roman imperial power and to Rome’s culture of rape and domination. Celene Lillie (Ph.D., Union Theological Seminary) is the Director of the recently established Tanho Center and on the pastoral and adult education staff at First United Methodist Church in Boulder, Colorado. She has collaborated on and coordinated many different research projects, most recently as Director of Translations for A New New Testament edited by Hal Taussig (2013). She is the author of The Rape of Eve: The Transformation of Roman Ideology in Three Early Christian Retellings of Genesis (2017) and the co-author of The Thunder: Perfect Mind: A New Translation (2010). Her research interests include gender, violence, and trauma in early Jesus/Christian literatures ranging from the New Testament to Nag Hammadi. **This is an encore presentation of an episode originally released in June 2017**

The Nag Hammadi library discovered in 1945 has provided a number of alternative Christian texts.   They were not included in the Bible. Dr. Celene Lillie discusses three of these texts in her book, The Rape of Eve:  The Transformation of Roman ideology in Three Early Christian Retellings of Genesis. In each of these texts, “On the Origin of the World,” “The Reality of the Rulers,” and “The Secret Revelation of John,” Eve is portrayed as having been humiliated by the cosmic powers but experiences restoration.    They have been dismissed by many orthodox Christians as Gnostic or even heresy.     New scholarship has discovered that these texts are quite complex, even playful, as they provide alternative myths to the founding myths of Rome.  She sees these Nag Hammadi stories are myths of resistance to Roman imperial power and to Rome’s culture of rape and domination.      Dr. Lillie is the director of the Tanho Center in Longmont, Colorado.  The Tanho Center is dedicated to the exploration of the many discoveries of texts from the earliest Christ movements. The Tanhoe Center incorporates recently discovered texts into contemporary practices.  Dr. Lillie was the Director of Translations for A New New Testament:  A Bible for the 21st Century Combining Traditional and Newly Discovered Texts and the coauthor of The Thunder: Perfect Mind:  A New Translation and Introduction.