“Pagels has achieved something important.… Thoughtful scholarly works that are also original and adventurous are not common. The Origin of Satan is such a work, and we should be correspondingly grateful.”
—New York Review of Books
“Illuminating and rewarding … a very readable scholarly work … a model of erudition and conciseness.”
—Newsday
“Fascinating and valuable.”
—The Nation
“Lucid and closely reasoned.… Pagels remains always a lively writer who discerns the human implications of esoteric texts and scholarly disputes.”
—Chicago Tribune
“One of today’s leading interpreters of the world of early Christianity.… She brilliantly shows how otherwise arcane theology is related to the social context in which it was conceived.”
—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
“Succeeds wonderfully.”
—San Francisco Chronicle