The Gospel of two Thomases

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What else would you expect? After all, December is the month when Christmas falls, and that means few mass-market magazines will be free of articles telling you how to spend your money and celebrate the holidays.

Interestingly enough, while a number of magazines are featuring articles on intelligent design vs. Darwin this month, only one, unless I'm overlooking something, devotes its cover to the original birthday boy. Harper's December issue offers a partial reproduction of Rembrandt's "Jesus Without the Miracles" to illustrate author Erik Reece's examination of Thomas Jefferson's train of thought 200 years ago when he took a pair of scissors to the King James Bible in order to cut out pages detailing the Virgin Birth, all of the miracles and the Resurrection. Jefferson then pasted together what remained, giving it the title of "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth."

Jefferson claimed his actions revealed the true teachings of Jesus for what they were: "the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man." Mr. Reece launches into a discussion of what is known as the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, "a version of Christianity I could accept." From this discovery, he is moved to state that Jefferson found in "Jesus' teaching an ethic for how we should treat others," and "by pulling the kingdom of God out of the sky and transposing it into this world, Thomas' Jesus returns us, in effect, to Jefferson's agrarian America, where the farmer intuits the laws of God through the laws of nature." Mr. Reece appears to accept the Gospel of Thomas as, indeed, gospel, although he admits he is "not a New Testament scholar."

Speaking of Harper's, the magazine on Tuesday named Roger D. Hodge, 38, to replace departing editor Lewis Lapham, reports Associated Press. Mr. Lapham, 70, will continue to write his "Notebook" column and will remain with the magazine under the title of editor.

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Pages: The Magazine for People Who Love Books," has given its November/December issue over to a demure photograph of author Anne Rice in a red and black checked blouse with the cover line: "The End of the Vampires, The Greatest Story Ever Retold, and The Rebirth of Anne Rice." Yes, Anne Rice, who has sold millions of copies of her novels about the lives and loves of fictional vampires, has returned to the Roman Catholic Church of her youth. Fittingly, her first book in the Christian mode, "Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt" narrates in the first person singular the early years of Christ. It hits bookstores nicely timed for Christmas sales.

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Judging by the covers of magazines currently on the nation's newsstands, there are a number of new films scheduled for release over the holidays that are hardly in the seasonal mood. Entertainment Weekly leads off with "The New Politics of Hollywood" with a bearded George Clooney next to a burning car. The other featured blurb on the cover reads: "George Clooney's 'Syriana' Leads a Pack of Controversial Movies Into the Multiplex. Is This What Viewers Want?" Also, it also looks like we're going to be getting Steven Spielberg's "Munich" in theaters just two days before Christmas. It stars the new James Bond, Daniel Craig, as a Mossad agent assigned to avenge the shocking murders of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games. For a lighter touch, presumably, we'll see a January release of an Albert Brooks comedy "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World." No word whether the producers are planning a release in the Middle East.

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James Fallows in the December Atlantic endeavors to explain "Why Iraq Has No Army: We Can't Leave Until the Iraqis Have One, The Bush Administration says -- And They're Not Even Close. So Now What?" Mr. Fallows goes into the possible options the Bush administration faces in 14 detailed pages. Not the most uplifting holiday reading.

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Vogue hews to tradition, well, in its own trendy fashion, in a portfolio starring Keira Knightley as Dorothy in a very singular "Wizard of Oz" shot by Annie Leibowitz. There are also articles with photographs going behind the scenes of other Christmas movies: "Narnia," "Memoirs of a Geisha" and "Brokeback Mountain." If that's not enough, Vogue promises "100 Glorious Gifts for Every Person on Your List."

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We'll give the New Yorker the last word, as it were. The cover of the current issue represents "The Odd Couple," with a drawing showing Vice President Dick Cheney sprawled in an armchair, cigar in hand, with what looks like crushed beer cans on the floor. Standing over him, holding a feather duster, is a not-particularly-happy-looking George W. Bush.

The lead article featured on the fold-over half page of the cover gives the title of Seymour Hersh's piece, "No Exit?" with the blurb, "Commanders in Iraq look with horror at the out-of-control insurgency, and Republicans nervously anticipate the midterm elections, but Bush is resolute that he is God's instrument in Iraq." In case we were in any doubt to the New Yorker's editorial posture.

Oh, yes, and a very Merry Christmas.