I find Pagel’s title, The Secret Gospel of Thomas, to be interesting.  It’s no longer a secret, it’s not really a gospel at all (but a collection of sayings), and it’s probably not written by Thomas.

As for it’s content, all of the "good stuff" that people feel was pushed to the side by the councils you will often find in other parts of the NT.  For example, the movie Stigmata, tries to say that "the kingdom of God is within you" is why these collected sayings were pushed under a rock.

Look no further than the gospel of Luke and you’ll find "the kingdom of God is among you."  Of course, "among" can also be translated "within." 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not for a top-down proclamation of what goes and where we can find God (e.g. Constantine).  However, the so-called gnostic writings don’t seem to me to contain any good and true "knowledge" of God that we can’t already find in the 66 writings the Bible contains.

I would offer here what I offered at another thread.  The Bible itself is not the Word of God, but only a witness to the Word, Jesus Christ (see Barth).  It is by far the best witness we have, but not the only witness.  The Bible is the pair of glasses (Calvin says spectacles) that help us to "see" God.  Where the Spirit of Christ shines through the pages of the Bible we have encountered the Word of God.  Many of the concerns in the arguments about the Bible find their root in some kind of idolatry or Bibliolatry.