Faith of our fathers

The faith of my childhood left me feeling that God, Christ, and Spirit were very distant (and not necessarily distinct) entities, and that faith was a difficult path, only accessible for those who were particularly skilled, equipped, and trained; an impossible journey into a very black and white world, where one misstep could send you hurtling to eternal death.

I became aware, over time, that there was in fact a loving presence in the world, much closer than the fearsome angry God of my childhood. But that awareness -- and I think there are many of us who find this to be true -- was hard to reconcile with what I knew of church and Christianity. If I were to follow my instincts toward worship and prayer, I wanted to worship and pray to that loving presence, not the powerful distant being worshipped in so many congregations.

That, I think, was the gift of the Gospel of Thomas, and why it's still so important to me: here, in these words, I found a transformed image of Christ, a Christ I could believe in; a Christ for whom -- and through whom -- that loving Presence was very much here, and now...