Question & Answer

Q: By A Reader

What have we learned and can apply today from the Nag Hammadi Scriptures?

A: By Toni Anne Reynolds

Dear Reader,

As you can imagine, the Nag Hammadi Scriptures are full of many relevant lessons for life today. Despite being thousands of years late to the biblical literature game, this group of books is a well spring of lessons. What I love most about your question is that we need not dive into any particular book to find a powerful lesson to apply to today. The mere fact that an entire corpus of sacred writings was found not even 80 years ago tells us that we don’t know as much about ourselves as we think we do.
 
Along with poetic repetitions of familiar lessons about God, the Nag Hammadi texts are precious to people for different reasons. Friends with more monastic persuasions live with the Gospel of Thomas, slowly chewing on each saying over the course of several weeks. At least five artistic friends are using Thunder: Perfect Mind as the framework for originally composed songs, opera, and performance art. I am partial The Secret Revelation of John and the ways it points to a connection with Kemetic/Afrikan cosmology. In short form, the Nag Hammadi Scriptures are as diverse as the experiences each of us is having with the Divine.
 
Similar to the way people have found out long hidden truths about their family lineage, the general Christian history has been incomplete without this special group of holy texts. Now that the long lost relative of the Nag Hammadi Scriptures has been introduced to the wider family, the sacred work of reorienting our identity can begin. Soon enough, it is a reorienting that we will get to do as more texts are unearthed and translated from the ancient world. Namely, the continuous discoveries made at Oxyrhynchus. We simply have no idea how nuanced and intricate the early Christian understandings of God were. Nor do we have a vast sense of how those understandings influenced practical applications of belief outside of canonized spaces.
 
To my mind, the most important lesson to be learned from this collection of texts is: there will always be more to learn about where we come from, stay flexible.

~ Toni Anne Reynolds

This Q&A was originally published on Progressing Spirit – As a member of this online community, you’ll receive insightful weekly essays, access to all of the essay archives (including all of Bishop John Shelby Spong), and answers to your questions in our free weekly Q&A. Click here to see free sample essays.

About the Author
Minister Toni Anne Reynolds is committed to singing flesh onto the bones of the Christian tradition by incorporating recently found texts of the ancient world into liturgy, sermons, and poetry. Toni’s Christianity forms a holy trinity with the psychological medicine of Tibetan Buddhism and the eternal Life found in Yoruba traditions. Balanced in an eclectic faith and focused in theology, Toni’s ministry offers a unique perspective on life, theology, and spirituality.