English Bible History

In Why Religion?: A Personal Story, the award-winning religious scholar Elaine Pagels weaves together a story of heart-breaking personal loss with an examination of the relevance of religious traditions in modern times. The book relates how she found solace in the insights discovered in these “secret” texts and offers the reader a deeper understanding of how Christian folklore continues to shape Western cultural attitudes centuries later.

Today's story is about a man many people didn't like. They called him a sinner, which is funny because aren't we all sinners? Don't we all make mistakes and do things we shouldn't?

The use of intercessory beings in prayer hasn't always been the normal accepted practice. As Christianity and paganism began to merge under the rule of the Byzantine Empire, many elements that existed within paganism were "Christianized" and adapted for use by the Church. This article will trace a possible origin for the use of intercessory beings in Christian prayer and will use evidence from the scriptures and noncanonical Christian books to weigh the use of intercessory beings against prayer.