Fast Note on Nag Hammadi (DaVinci and so on)
The big idea behind the Da Vinci Code book is that the scriptures were edited by Constantine in 325 A.D. Other gospels could have been included and weren't for chauvinist reasons. This is the main motif behind all of Elaine Pagels work on the Gnostic Gospels. There are some very good reasons that the Nag Hammadi gospels were NOT included in the canon of scripture (or what we know now as the New Testament):

1. The canon of scripture (what books would be included) was FIXED by as early as 150 A.D. In other words the books we know as the New Testament were pretty much fixed in place much, much earlier than 325. Most of the Gnostic Gospels can be dated as 3rd or late 2nd century. Far to late to be part of the legitimate record of Jesus.

2. The nature of the Nag Hammadi gospels is distinctly NOT historical. They consist of sayings and proverbs. There is NO historical information such as when Mary and Joseph went to be counted in the census of Tiberias at Bethlehem. The book of Acts can be considered an accurate diary of the early church. Places, people and dates can be fixed accurately for the most part. You have no such ability with a book of proverbs.

3. History IS dictated by consensus. It is not something that can be affirmed or denied 100%. It isn't like a hard science that you can measure. What I mean by that is suppose you had 1000 reports of a helicopter flying over a neighborhood at night and 3 that say it was a UFO. Which side would you believe? You COULD say that the UFO reports were suppressed by the government. But a little common sense would say it was most likely a helicopter. We find the same case with the Gnostic "Gospels". There are THOUSANDS of copies of all the portions of the New Testament as we know it, dated early enough to be valid, and only FEW copies of the Gnostic Gospels (with references to them by Iraneus) that are dated LATER. You can make the call that a suppressive, authoritarian, chauvinist Roman church DESTROYED all the copies to make their point, and you can believe every light that passes over your house at night is a UFO.

What does all this point out? Are all evangelicals like me just in denial? Or is it that Academics are victims of their own "Political Correctness"? Feminism, the Mother Goddess religion, new thought in spirituality are all in vogue in this culture. But it is intellectually unsound to impose our views of the world on another time and culture. If the gnostic literature is examined closely enough it is far more misogynist than our current day.

You be the judge! (As for me, I ain't believing in any UFO's till they land and show me their registration and proof of insurance.)