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As you may know, I am a mega Elaine Pagels fan. Her books on religious history and faith have reshaped the way I see the world. Elaine is a professor of religion at Princeton University. In 2015, she received the National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama. Throughout her truly extraordinary career, beginning with the publication of The Gnostic Gospels in 1979—which won both the National Book Critics Circle Award and the National Book Award—Elaine has been known for discovering things that have altered the historical landscape of Christian religion. Her newest book is called Miracles and Wonder: The Historical Mystery of Jesus. And it is fascinating.
Today we talk about the surprising things she’s learned about Jesus and his followers, and what his most radical teaching was. We talk about why Jesus, this essentially unlikely traveling rabbi, emerged as the figure he did in our culture. And why this all still matters today.
We talk about Elaine’s own story, and her personal spiritual pull; as well as a vortex I went down in boarding school that made me understand how susceptible we all are to constraints that explain the world in overly reductive and simple ways.
Perhaps not surprisingly, we also reflect on how natural it is for us to want some sense of connection with a transcendent being. And how this has shaped the way Elaine approaches her work: Not with the intention of destroying a framework, but looking for ways to expand it.
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