Man, Temple of the Living God
Review
The Gospel of Thomas is a collection of sayings of Jesus many of which are also to be found in the canonical Gospels. As is well known, the Gospels (including the so-called apocrypha) can be interpreted from various angles, the most common of which are the historical, moral and religious points of view. But all interpretations depend on and are subsumed under the unity of the spiritual or metaphysical key, which encompasses and crowns them. This is precisely the key that Roberto Pla (1915-2004) has used with exceptional mastery to explain the essence of early Christianity (and also of the Jewish tradition). While this book comments on and unravels the Gospel of Thomas, the correspondences and “hidden” interpretations Pla discerns in the canonical Gospels are noteworthy. This makes his work one of the most accurate and luminous interpretations of the original doctrine of Jesus Christ, so that reading it becomes a voyage of discovery and delight. Many passages show clear signs that this is a work written by one who knew his true nature. Given Master Roberto’s Advaita connection, he may at times have had to resist the temptation to record certain similarities between early Christianity and Vedanta. In short, the resonance of Roberto’s book is angelic.
Javier Alvarado Planas
Professor of History of Institutions at UNED Corresponding Member of the Royal Academies of History and of Law
Purpose of the author
Our one and only real purpose in writing this work has been to awaken love for the whole Christ, and when we speak of the whole Christ, we are referring both to the Christ who died for mankind in Jerusalem more than two thousand years ago, love for whom has been encouraged by manifest exegesis since the beginning of the Christian era, and at the same time, to the Christ preexisting and eternal. Although both are one and the same being, if we speak of the whole Christ, we cannot disregard the inseparable Christ who, from the beginning, has lain forgotten, unknown, crucified within every man, and who is only waiting to reveal his immortal, divine presence, invoked by love and faith. Then the true beatitude of his resurrection will arise in every man. (Pag.38)
The purpose of this work is to awaken in some men awareness that the canonical New Testament texts express a dual hermeneutic, and exegesis makes it possible, once one has assimilated a first reading, which we shall call manifest, to undertake a second reading, one that will be more difficult to apprehend, in order to find through it a new meaning which the Christian hagiographers called hidden, or secret. (Pag.28)
In regard to the passage proclaiming the Good News, the time which Jesus tells has come is that for publicly teaching that God and the essential Man are not two separate and distinct entities but share a single identity which must be discovered and acknowledged. The time for knowing that the Being of the world is not plural, is not a duality, has indeed come for knowers of the Gospel. It came twenty centuries ago and has held true to this day for all those who are and have been alive to the knowledge. The time has come. God and man’s essence are one, and this is the paramount knowledge taught by the Gospel, the knowledge that opens the gates of the soul to the transformations of redemption. (pag.773)
As stated in the introduction, we felt that this book, Man, Temple of the Living God, a hidden exegesis of Christ´s religion based on the Gospel of Thomas must be published in English and have prepared a translation from the original Spanish. The book is now available in Google Books and below:
If interested, you can receive a free printed copy of the book by asking for it in CONTACT.