The LA Times interviews Princeton scholar Elaine Pagels on her work on Gnosticism, secret gospels, and the controversies surropunding them. From the article:

"From your study of Gnosticism, what really matters?

Some of these texts are powerful and practical today. In the Gospel of Thomas, for example, Jesus says: "If you bring forth what is within you, what you have will save you. If you do not have that within you, what you do not have within you will kill you."