Miracles and Wonder
The Historical Mystery of Jesus
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4.1 • 17 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From a renowned National Book Award–winning scholar, an extraordinary new account of the life of Jesus that explores the mystery of how a poor young man inspired a religion that reshaped the world.
“This a brilliant and necessary book. Sober, wise, respectful, and fearless." —Jon Meacham, author of The Soul of America
"Pagels’ story is for believers and non-believers alike.” —Tara Westover, author of Educated
"The depth of spirituality she uncovers is profound.” —The New York Times Book Review
Early in her career, Elaine Pagels changed our understanding of the origins of Christianity with her work in The Gnostic Gospels. Now, in the culmination of a decades-long career, she explores the biggest subject of all, Jesus. In Miracles and Wonder she sets out to discover how a poor young Jewish man inspired a religion that shaped the world.
The book reads like a historical mystery, with each chapter addressing a fascinating question and answering it based on the gospels Jesus's followers left behind. 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 does Jesus comes to life but his desperate, hunted followers do as well. We realize that some of the most compelling details of Jesus's life are the explanations his disciples created to paper over inconvenient facts. So Jesus wasn't illegitimate, his mother conceived by God; Jesus's body wasn't humiliatingly left to rot and tossed into a common grave—no, he rose from the dead and was seen whole by his followers; Jesus isn't a failed messiah, his kingdom is a metaphor: he lives in us. These necessary fabrications were the very details and promises that electrified their listeners and helped his followers' numbers grow.
In Miracles and Wonder, Pagels does more than solve a historical mystery. She sheds light on Jesus's enduring power to inspire and attract.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this rigorous study, National Book Award winner Pagels (Why Religion?) digs into persistent questions about the historical Jesus. Devoting each chapter to a major sticking point, she discusses Jesus's virgin birth, suggesting that Matthew and Luke revised the gospel of Mark to deflect harmful rumors "ridiculing Jesus as a bastard," and gospel writers' efforts to blame Jewish leaders for Jesus's crucifixion and deemphasize Pontius Pilate's role—a framing that helped believers sidestep fears of being associated with a figure crucified for anti-Roman "insurrection." Elsewhere, she unpacks the debate over whether the resurrection was physical or spiritual (as Paul claimed). Pagels's analysis is most captivating when she's excavating the complex motivations of the gospel writers, who were often reacting to historical and cultural developments to formulate new ways of attracting followers. Less successful are her detours into personal anecdotes (in a chapter on the resurrection, for instance, she mentions being "shaken by" personally experiencing "the presence of people who had died" without elaborating further) and analyses of Jesus in movies and art. Still, curious believers will find much to chew on.
