Darrel Bock, research professor of New Testament at Dallas Theological Seminary has a new book coming in August which focuses on early heretical Christian documents being touted today by the media and new school in New Testament scholarship.
Having read some of the work by Bart Ehrman (Lost Christianities) and Elane Pagels (Beyond Belief - The Secret Gospel of Thomas) an evangelical voice in this discussion is a welcomed and needed addition. For those who are interested the work of these two scholars is reviewed - here and here respectively
The book is titled The Missing Gospels - Unearthing the Truth Behind Alternative Christianities and is forthcoming in August from Nelson publishers. It is available for pre-order now from many places including Amazon.
In every age there are those who want to redefined "Christianity" to be all manner of paths. 19th century liberal theologians wanted to demythologize Jesus and the gospels. Now a 21st century school of thought desires to present to us a large buffet of Christianitie"s" based on a smorgasbord of "lost" and "secret" gospels. If one can call oneself a Christian and worship your inner self as divine, choose your own morality, without any sort of holy and just God to whom we must give an account. Many will jump at this - and use a scholarly argument to do so.
Those who believe the Gnostic versions of Christianity in my opinion are sincere people who are following a path. It is however not the path as seen in the earliest of Christian sources - the New Testament. Therefore no matter what is said and marshaled in defense of "other Christianities" we should know that these are not Christian views at all. They are aberrant, discarded heresies that our sisters and brothers left behind in the archaeological dust long ago.
Grab a copy of The Missing Gospels when you can. Just pre-ordered mine...