Book Review: The Gospel of Thomas

Non-fiction/Spiritual

The Gospel of Thomas: A Blueprint for Spiritual Growth

David F. Capps

The Gnostic Wisdom Foundation

2008

Soft cover

138 pages

The secret sayings of Jesus Christ reportedly recorded by Didymos Judas Thomas are interpreted by author David F. Capps in The Gospel of Thomas: A Blueprint for Spiritual Growth. Capps clarifies the Gnostic perspective of knowing God by developing spirituality from the inside out.

Capps discusses the Coptic (Egyptian) and Greek versions of many of the sayings and provides a brief history of how the text was discovered. The author explains the human and divine components that exist in all of us and how true knowledge of God comes when these battling factors are reconciled.

"We do not have to have faith, for we are living the experience day after day. It is not what we think; it is what we know as a result of our direct experience with God (5)." Capps , whose own spiritual journey began in 1970, stresses throughout the book that knowing God takes place internally. He also insists that outside expressions of faith, religious rituals and practices, will not allow a person to completely know God. The human component of man is represented by the ego, which is expressed outwardly while the divine is manifested in the spirit. The war that every person searching for God must win is the one in which the spirit overcomes the ego.

Capps' interpretations challenge some of the basic tenets of many religions, from the assertion that Satan is not an "evil spirit" to the nature of our relationship with Jesus: "In the outer form you can believe, you can worship, but you can't become. In the inner experience there is only one becoming. Jesus didn't ask us to worship him, he asked us to follow him-to become as he has become (26)."

Forgiveness is also a focal point of this work which includes meditation and visualization exercises that are intended to assist with the inner battle.

The Gospel of Thomas: A Blueprint for Spiritual Growth is a well-structured, tightly written, and well researched piece that offers an expanded view of religion and spirituality with the aim of helping people to truly know God.

Melissa Levine

for

Independent Professional Book Reviewers

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