Elaine Pagels's book, "Adam and Eve and the Serpent" probably is one of the best books to explain how western civilization became totally incapable of understanding nature for at least 1,000 years and how it was only with the rise of the humanists in the Renaissance that western man began the long journey back to the understanding of rational though, nature, freedom and sexuality that was commonplace in the classical period.Every great story must have a villain and while some might assume in a work of this nature, dealing with views of freedom and sexuality in the early Christian church, that this would have to be the serpent in the title. However the real villain is none other than Saint Augustine, the towering landmark author of the Confessions and City of God, by his insistence on the doctrine of original sin and his ability to have all of his opponents branded as heretics set in motion a series of doctrinal innovations that have ensured that sexuality and human freedom are viewed with some suspicion if not hostility in the western tradition.Pagels is an acknowledged expert on the early Christian church and her strength in this book and others is to demonstrate the range and variety of opinions that existed during the period up to the Fifth Century. It is clear in the case of the subject at hand that the "good guys" did not win. Augustine's opponents, the Pelagians were probably more rational and provide a doctrine that is more consistent not only with Bibilical scholarship, but also more intellectually honest. The same is true of Augustine's last opponent, Julian of Eclanum.Augustine and indeed Saint Jerome (who was not above tampering with the text of the Bible in order to further his belief system) were, as Pagels demonstrates, able to seize the high road in their attempts to create a more highly codified Catholic church due in in large part to the stance that they took on human freedom with differed markedly with the Christian church that existed prior to the conversion of Constantine.As an outlawed organization with different perspectives on all aspects of doctrine, the church was a recruiting ground for martyrs who went out of their way to achieve martyrdom (other members did not and successfully hid their beliefs, at least officially). This course of setting oneself in opposition to civic authorities, would be in marked contrast to the beliefs that were advocated by Augustine which proved so very useful in promoting and insisting on an orthodoxy that would calcify and impede the western imagination for the next 1,000 years.Sexuality was a problematic aspect of the Christian tradition, with many, no less than Christ and St Paul taking a dismissive attitude towards it to it. This was because a sexual life was held to distract from matters spiritual. However, marriage and its endorsement by both the founder of Christian and his Apostle did not resolve questions for people longing for a vision of humanity that was devoid of all human experience.Augustine went even further and insisted that sexuality was a reflection of original sin and that passion or as Augustine would have put it, "the sin of lust" was a sign of how the sin of Adam and Eve continued to be conveyed to each succeeding generation. This was done at conception and that all those people who were conceived through the normal process were somehow infected.The ideas of Augustine continue to plague modern society and a continuation of these ideas are likely to provide further problems. As was noted by Julian of Eclanum, that man is very much a part of nature and that things that occur in nature are probably the natural order of things. The picture of man as a person eager to obey church authorities, no matter what nonsense they were spouting, who was also eager to be more free by refraining from sexual activity strikes the modern reader as somewhat unnatural and more reflective of the kinks in Augustine's world view. Strictly speaking, the adjectives "perversion" and "unnatural" could be most readily applied to the beliefs advocated successfully by the author of "City of God" than the most debased libertine.It is interesting to see the work and the mendacity that went into the establishment of many of these doctrinal questions associated with human freedom and sexuality. Pagels shows just how painful these arguments are framed. Augustine even takes the step of arguing that freedom is slavery (anticipating the dystopian vision of George Orwell in 1984). The relevancy of these positions arrived at before the scientific revolution is therefore questionable. Probably the most backward student in an elementary health class has a better understanding of the mechanics of human sexuality than did the most learned person cited by Pagels. That people would and still do insist on these positions demonstrates both a fear of the true nature of man and an insistence of preserving an intellectually bankrupt approach to central facets of the human condition.This book should be required reading since it is part of the vast body of work that has enabled the West to overcome the treacheries of its Dark Age past and to move it closer to a humanist vision for society. A humanist is, as a wit once observed, anyone who believes that there is more to life than chastity, dying of plague and being repressed by unscrupulous church authorities. Augustine would surely be horrified by the notion.