The Serpent's Gift: Gnostic Reflections on the Study of Religion

by Jeffrey J. Kripal

“Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field.” With those words in Genesis, God condemns the serpent for tempting Adam and Eve, and the serpent has shouldered the blame ever since. But how would the study of religion change if we looked at the Fall from the snake’s point of view? Would he appear as a bringer of wisdom, more generous than the God who wishes to keep his creation ignorant? 

Inspired by the early Gnostics who took that startling view, Jeffrey J. Kripal uses the serpent as a starting point for a groundbreaking reconsideration of religious studies and its methods. In a series of related essays, he moves beyond both rational and faith-based approaches to religion, exploring the erotics of the gospels and the sexualities of Jesus, John, and Mary Magdalene. He considers Feuerbach’s Gnosticism, the untapped mystical potential of comparative religion, and even the modern mythology of the X-Men. 

Ultimately, The Serpent’s Gift is a provocative call for a complete reorientation of religious studies, aimed at a larger understanding of the world, the self, and the divine.

Genres: Religion, Gnosticism, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Mysticism

232 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Jeffrey J. Kripal, Ph.D. (History of Religions, The University of Chicago, 1993; M.A., U. Chicago; B.A., Religion, Conception Seminary College, 1985), holds the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University, where he serves as Associate Dean of Humanities, Faculty and Graduate Studies. He also has served as Associate Director of the Center for Theory and Research of the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California.

Reviews

[Garrett Maxwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of those academic books I couldn't put down.

Kripal is blunt, iconoclastic, witty, and penetrating as usual here. His voice is quite distinct, and he tells you up front that he is about to attempt something unorthodox (to put it lightly and ironically). Though he employs the usual ten thousand footnotes of academia, he's really attempting to shock the reader into gnosis; like the shock of stumbling into a snake.

My experience reading was indeed, if I may term it so, a dislocative gnosis. He provides sophisticated ways of approaching the gordian knots that are the study of religion and, secondarily, the theology of religions (his approach is, quite frankly, an axe). I've always been allergic to the tendency to reduce theology to anthropology but Kripal's unique contribution is to radically expand what we mean by 'human' which makes the reduction more palatable.

Though I am unwilling to follow his conclusions all the way to their own stated endpoint, interacting with his work has been (disorientingly) fruitful, if only for the fact that I recognized in this book an image of my own personal gnostic journey.

The serpent bears gifts indeed.

[Kaberoi Rua · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this book to anyone with a serious interest in studying and understanding religion. The author offers a vision of religious studies as a form of gnostic or mystical practice capable of revealing the largely untapped human potential for extra-ordinary capabilities. The author seeks not so much to communicate a rational message (reason) or undergird a particular system of belief (faith) as to transmit a sudden shock (gnosis), rather like what happens when you stumble upon a snake...talking to you through hissing whispers of your own secret mind.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

As good as "roads of excess" "Kali's Child" & "esalen" ... everything i've read by Kripal has been amazing.