Thanks for link to Pagels-crit
Teresa, thank you. I'll go to this site. In the meantime I have also come upon other scholars' assessment of Elaine Pagels, even in a book called
The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Gnostic Gospels, a gift from a friend last Xmas. According to this author, who is a Christian of more orthodox leanings it seems, Pagels did a lot to make the general public aware of the Nag Hammadi texts and Gnosticism, but he finds that she has her own personal "spiritual" agenda and some serious wishful thinking in her exposition and advertisement for movements such as Gnosticism. So --I'm looking forward to the insights at the site you've posted above. I have read her
Adam, Eve and the Serpent many years ago.
Coming back to National Geographic: I don't know if their programme schedules are the same in all countries, but tonight at 21h00 South Afr.time another documentary hits the screen which will concentrate apparently on other Messianic figures... Probably an old documentary that everyone has seen already, but I haven't. Very weird how they zoom in on stuff that basically tries to diminish the Christian faith. I've asked two orthodox theologian friends to view tonight's "show" which they will do with a critical eye and more background knowledge than I have, of course.