and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Modern Library named it one of the 100 best books of the twentieth century. She follows the well-known thesis that Walter Bauer first put forth in 1934 and argues that the Christian church was founded in a society espousing contradictory viewpoints. A review of the book in the UK newspaper, "The Sunday Times", led to the UK broadcaster, Channel 4, commissioning a major three-part series inspired by it, called "". The programme triggered a national furore, and marked a significant moment in the changes that religious broadcasting was already undergoing at that time. As a movement Gnosticism was not coherent and there were several areas of disagreement among the different factions. According to Pagels's interpretation of an era different from ours, Gnosticism "attracted women because it allowed female participation in sacred rites".