The transition from a Pagan civilization of great antiquity to our Christianized one is historically denoted as “The Dark Ages.” Why “dark”? What was lost?

Not in His Image tells the story of that loss. It exposes the most massive campaign of cultural genocide in human history. It probes—as no other book before it—the hidden roots of the ecological crisis that now threatens life on the planet. This investigation leads deep into the realm of the predator reality in which we now live, engulfed and lost to the point of either denial or impotent fury. And it shows how predators and prey have become locked into a vicious cycle of collusion.

Not in His Image describes the rich spiritual world of pre-Christian classical Europe—the Pagan Mysteries, the Great Goddess, Gnosis, the myths of Sophia and Gaia—and its future as a force for rebalancing our lives and reconnecting to the earth. In his riveting account of who the Gnostics really were and what they were protesting against, John Lash identifies who we once were, and what has become of our original genius. He describes the decisive arc of history from the dawn of the Christian Era to the present moment of global terror, a trajectory driven faith-based violence and fundamentalist politics. No scholar has yet plumbed the depths of the Nag Hammadi Library for the profound cosmological myth of our origins and our intimate bond with Gaia, the living planet.

The Gnostic story of the Wisdom Goddess, Sophia, is directly counterpoised to the one Christianity and other monotheistic religions teach us. It explains why a species made in the image of the Father God cannot live peacefully on earth. In Sophia we discover the true foundations of deep ecology. For those of us perplexed by the state of the world and the plight of the planet, Not in His Image gives us back our true story, a myth to guide us beyond faith-based violence toward a sacred ecological path for the future.

John Lamb Lash, a true heir to Mircea Eliade, is the foremost exponent of the power of myth to shape our lives and history itself. He is a cofounder and principal author of Metahistory.org, a site sponsored by the Marion Institute. He has written a number of books including The Seeker’s Handbook (Crown), Twins and the Double (Thames & Hudson), The Hero—Manhood and Power (Thames & Hudson), and Quest for the Zodiac (Starhenge Books). The author lives in Europe.

Chelsea Green Publishing
October 2006
Hardcover | 5 5.8 x 8 5.8 | 320 pages
ISBN 1-931498-92-X
World Rights
Bibliography, Index
RELIGION/PHILOSOPHY
• National radio tour
• National media interviews
• Reveals deep history behind The Da Vinci Code
• Off-the-book-page features