Description

From acclaimed National Book Award-winning scholar Elaine Pagels comes a fascinating new exploration of the life of Jesus, offering fresh insight into how a poor young man launched a religious movement that transformed the world.

Early in her career, Pagels changed our understanding of Christianity’s origins with her groundbreaking work, The Gnostic Gospels. Now, in Miracles and Wonder, she returns to explore an even greater subject: Jesus himself. This remarkable book seeks to unravel the extraordinary mystery of how a young Jewish man from humble origins became the inspiration behind a religion that profoundly shaped history.

Pagels structures Miracles and Wonder like an engaging historical investigation, with each chapter tackling compelling questions drawn directly from the gospels left behind by Jesus’s early followers: Why do the scriptures insist on his virgin birth? Was his resurrection an actual miraculous event, or something else entirely? What did his alleged miracles represent, and did they really happen?

Pagels vividly reconstructs the dramatic story, bringing to life not just Jesus but also his desperate and persecuted disciples. Along the way, we discover that some of the most captivating details about Jesus are in fact explanations crafted years later by his disciples to smooth over potentially embarrassing details. Jesus wasn’t illegitimate; rather, his mother conceived through divine intervention. He wasn’t left to rot in a common grave after execution; instead, he miraculously rose from the dead and was seen alive and whole. He wasn’t a failed messiah merely because his kingdom never materialized; rather, his kingdom was meant as a spiritual, internal metaphor.

Intriguingly, these carefully constructed interpretations and symbolic narratives grew into powerful messages that electrified listeners, attracted new followers, and fueled the growth of an ambitious movement.

In Miracles and Wonder, Elaine Pagels accomplishes far more than simply unraveling historical mysteries. She shows how Jesus’s legacy has endured for millennia, illuminating his continuing power to captivate, inspire, and profoundly impact generations.