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Miracles and Wonder: The Historical Mystery of Jesus
From the award-winning author of The Gnostic Gospels comes a captivating new account of the life of Jesus that explores the mystery of how he inspired a religion that reshaped the world. Elaine Pagels changed our understanding of the origins of Christianity with her work on the Gnostic Gospels. Now, in the culmination of a decades-long career, she explores her most ambitious subject, the life of Jesus himself. Miracles and Wonder unfolds like a historical mystery, with each chapter addressing a fascinating question. Why is Jesus said to have had a virgin birth? Why do we say he rose from the dead? Did his miracles really happen and what did they mean? The story Pagels tells is thrilling and tense. Not just Jesus comes to life, but his desperate, hunted followers as well. They were writing in wartime and under occupation, she reminds us, endangered for spreading the gospel of a man who was executed as an insurrectionist. Some of the most electrifying details in the Gospels, Pagels writes, may have been crafted by his disciples to avoid persecution and explain inconvenient facts. So Jesus wasn't illegitimate; instead, his mother conceived by God. Jesus' body wasn't humiliatingly tossed into a common grave; he was seen alive and whole by his followers. He wasn't a failed messiah; his kingdom lives in us. Drawing on a lifetime of study and Pagels' own personal journey, Miracles and Wonders beautifully depicts this lost world and captures Jesus's enduring power to inspire and attract.
Book Details
- Publisher: Random House Large Print Publishing
- Publish Date: Apr 1st, 2025
- Pages: 504
- Language: English
- Edition: undefined - undefined
- Dimensions: 0.00in - 0.00in - 0.00in - 0.81lb
- EAN: 9798217070107
- Categories: • Religious• Ancient - General• Biblical Studies - History & Culture
About the Author
ELAINE PAGELS is the Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University. In 2015 she received the National Medal for the Humanities from President Barack Obama. The Gnostic Gospels won both the National Book Critic's Circle Award and the National Book Award. Her books include Why Religion, Beyond Belief, and Adam, Eve, and the Serpent. She has been profiled in TIME, The Atlantic Monthly, Vogue, The New Yorker and more.
Praise for this book
"Few scholars on the planet have entranced, enthralled, and educated readers about early Christianity as much as Elaine Pagels. Now she turns her gaze to the very core of the Christian faith, the mysterious life of Jesus himself. Miracles and Wonders will delight readers with Pagels' endless curiosity, keen insights, and poignant reflections."
--Bart D. Ehrman, author of Misquoting Jesus and host of the Misquoting Jesus podcast "This a brilliant and necessary book. Sober, wise, respectful, and fearless, Elaine Pagels' account of her exploration into the history and meaning of Jesus is akin to having a long, rich, and illuminating conversation with a friend who has read everything and is eager to share what she's learned."
--Jon Meacham, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, The Soul of America
"Provocative, gracious, reverent: a great historian of religion gives us an account of the life of Jesus, one of history's most towering figures. Scholarly and inquisitive, but also contemplative and respectful, Pagels' story is for believers and non-believers alike."
--Tara Westover, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, Educated "With her vast learning worn lightly, easily, Elaine Pagels offers a luminous and profound historical meditation on Jesus and the gospels. Interpreting a jumble of ancient sacred stories with utmost care and respect, she discerns the patterns that finally bring hope and even redemption to an afflicted world -- a major reason these stories live and inspire faith."
--Sean Wilentz, George Henry Davis 1886 Professor of American History at Princeton University "With Miracles and Wonder, Elaine Pagels, one of our nation's greatest historians of religion, has penned an intimate and deeply researched history of the life and significance of Jesus. With clarity and care, she unsettles and reorients the reader. She shows us that the enduring power of Jesus rests in the "outburst of hope" that emanates from the stories about him. Hope we so desperately need in our own dark and trying times."
--Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., author of Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own
--Bart D. Ehrman, author of Misquoting Jesus and host of the Misquoting Jesus podcast "This a brilliant and necessary book. Sober, wise, respectful, and fearless, Elaine Pagels' account of her exploration into the history and meaning of Jesus is akin to having a long, rich, and illuminating conversation with a friend who has read everything and is eager to share what she's learned."
--Jon Meacham, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, The Soul of America
"Provocative, gracious, reverent: a great historian of religion gives us an account of the life of Jesus, one of history's most towering figures. Scholarly and inquisitive, but also contemplative and respectful, Pagels' story is for believers and non-believers alike."
--Tara Westover, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, Educated "With her vast learning worn lightly, easily, Elaine Pagels offers a luminous and profound historical meditation on Jesus and the gospels. Interpreting a jumble of ancient sacred stories with utmost care and respect, she discerns the patterns that finally bring hope and even redemption to an afflicted world -- a major reason these stories live and inspire faith."
--Sean Wilentz, George Henry Davis 1886 Professor of American History at Princeton University "With Miracles and Wonder, Elaine Pagels, one of our nation's greatest historians of religion, has penned an intimate and deeply researched history of the life and significance of Jesus. With clarity and care, she unsettles and reorients the reader. She shows us that the enduring power of Jesus rests in the "outburst of hope" that emanates from the stories about him. Hope we so desperately need in our own dark and trying times."
--Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., author of Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own