Just by chance, the History Channel had a program this evening on
books which were popular in the period from the death of Christ
up to the time when the canon of the modern Bible was selected
(4th century), including the Gospel of Mary, of Nicodemus, of
Thomas, the book of Enoch, the Apocalypse of Peter, and so on.
Some were preserved in Ethiopia and became part of the bible
of Ethiopian Orthodox church, some became part of the Koran, some
showed up among the Dead Sea Scrolls, and there were almost
certainly some that vanished completely and may or may not be
found somewhere sometime. Various scholars interviewed on the
program gave their opinions why some text did or did not make
the final cut, but whatever the reason, it demonstrates that
the Bible as we have it today is a *selection* from many books
on the life of Jesus, based on some human beings' opinion.
I can't regard it as, by itself, the final word on anything.

There's also been a lot of new interest lately in the Celtic
tradition in Christianity and a re-thinking of the views
of Pelagius, the early British theologian who wrote some very
modern-sounding comments about God's self-expression in the
natural world and in animals. I heard J. Philip Newell give
a talk on his book about this, _Listening For The Heartbeat
of God_. You might be interested in looking up information
on him. He used to be Warden of Iona Abbey.

I think someone mentioned you live in Ireland? Or am I
mistaken on that?


Thanks again for the information you posted.

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