Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Pagels, Elaine - Judith Ochshorn (review date April 1989)

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Judith Ochshorn (review date April 1989)

SOURCE: "The Triumph of Pessimism," in Women's Review of Books, Vol. VI, No. 7, April, 1989, pp. 21-2.

[In the review below, Ochshorn considers Adam, Eve, and the Serpent a fascinating account but finds some of Pagels's arguments troubling.]

Elaine Pagels' new book [Adam, Eve, and the Serpent] describes, in rich historical detail, "how certain ideas—in particular, ideas concerning sexuality, moral freedom, and human value—took their definitive form during the first four centuries as interpretations of the Genesis creation stories, and how they have continued to affect our culture and everyone in it, Christian or not, ever since."

Some of these ideas expressed new attitudes toward gender roles, sexuality, marriage, divorce, procreation, family and celibacy, making for "a revolution in sexual attitudes and practices" as Christianity spread. And as Christianity moved from...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. B. Cobbey Crisler (review date 3 December 1979)
   2. Raymond E. Brown (review date 20 January 1980)
   3. Hyam Maccoby (review date June 1980)
   4. Kathleen McVey (essay date January 1981)
   5. Robin Lane Fox (review date 21 August 1988)
   6. Thomas D'Evelyn (review date 14 September 1988)
   7. Judith Ochshorn (review date April 1989)
   8. James Finn Cotter (review date Spring 1989)
   9. Henry Chadwick (review date 21 March 1990)
   10. Leslie Houlden (review date 18 June 1995)
   11. Mary Gordon (review date 26 June 1995)
   12. John P. Meier (review date 9 July 1995)
   13. Rockwell Gray (review date 30 July 1995)
   14. Norman Cohn (review date 21 September 1995)
   15. Mary Troychak (review date September-October 1995)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright