Overview

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 ReviewEarly 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.

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[T]his title is notable not just for the depth and breadth of Pagel's scholarship but for the way she becomes part of the story. There is almost a yearning to her quest for answers that personalizes her writing. . . . Part history, part mystery, all enlightening.-- ""Booklist (starred review)"" Pagels, rehabilitating aspects of Christianity on terms that a secular scholar can respect, revels in the contradictions and the inconsistencies not as flaws to be explained away but as signs of the faith's capaciousness.-- ""Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker""The 'quest' for Jesus . . . has taken on many forms. Pagels takes the historical approach. . . . The depth of spirituality she uncovers is profound."" Pagels's book advances a refreshingly honest reminder about why the stories of Jesus . . . haven't gone away.-- ""Los Angeles Review of Books"" 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"" 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"" 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"" ""No matter how familiar readers are with the gospels, the stories Pagels has woven together offer new takes on who Jesus was and what it means to bring facts to faith with clarity and curiosity.-- ""Library Journal"" ""Miracles and Wonder explores mysteries about Jesus with detective zeal. . . . illuminating and essential work.-- ""Los Angeles Times"" ""Explores mysteries about Jesus with detective zeal."" -- ""Los Angeles Times"" ""Part history, part mystery, all enlightening."" -- ""Booklist (starred review)"" ""Recontextualizing the old stories gives them an unexpected poignancy."" -- ""The Atlantic"" ""The 'quest' for Jesus...has taken on many forms. Pagels takes the historical approach...The depth of spirituality she uncovers is profound."" -- ""New York Times Book Review"" ""The stories Pagels has woven together offer new takes on who Jesus was and what it means to bring facts to faith with clarity and curiosity."" -- ""Library Journal"" 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"" 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""

Author Information

Elaine Pagels is a preeminent academic whose impressive scholarship has earned her international respect. The Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University, Pagels was awarded the Rockefeller, Guggenheim, and MacArthur Fellowships in three consecutive years. She is the author of The Gnostic Gospels, Beyond Belief, and Revelations. Eunice Wong is a Juilliard-trained, award-winning actor and narrator. She's recorded for Penguin Random House, Audible, Tantor, Harper, and others, and performed professionally across the US. Director Paul Ruben calls her ""an exceptionally talented, intuitive actress & storyteller [who] connects the listener to every emotional nuance in the author's words."" Born in Toronto, with parents from Hong Kong, she's ""audiobook-fluent"" in Cantonese, French, and Mandarin. She's always open to books that aren't ethnically specific. (Her Canadian accent was poonded oot of her at Juilliard, but still available on request.) She's taught poetry in a men's super-max prison, lived in Kyrgyzstan with nomads, and swum with stingrays. Eunice lives in Princeton, New Jersey, with her family and two lazy greyhounds.

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