Best Selling Books by Elaine Pagels

In Beyond Belief, renowned religion scholar Elaine Pagels continues her groundbreaking examination of the earliest Christian texts, arguing for an ongoing assessment of faith and a questioning of religious orthodoxy. Spurred on by personal tragedy and new scholarship from an international group of researchers, Pagels returns to her investigation of the “secret” Gospel of Thomas, and breathes new life into writings once thought heretical. As she arrives at an ever-deeper conviction in her own faith, Pagels reveals how faith allows for a diversity of interpretations, and that the “rogue” voices of Christianity encourage and sustain “the recognition of the light within us all.”

Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time The Gnostic Gospels is a landmark study of the long-buried roots of Christianity, a work of luminous scholarship and wide popular appeal. First published in 1979 to critical acclaim, winning the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, The Gnostic Gospels has continued to grow in reputation and influence over the past two decades. It is now widely recognized as one of the most brilliant and accessible histories of early Christian spirituality published in our time. In 1945 an Egyptian peasant unearthed what proved to be the Gnostic Gospels, thirteen papyrus volumes that expounded a radically different view of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ from that of the New Testament. In this spellbinding book, renowned religious scholar Elaine Pagels elucidates the mysteries and meanings of these sacred texts both in the world of the first Christians and in the context of Christianity today. With insight and passion, Pagels explores a remarkable range of recently discovered gospels, including the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, to show how a variety of “Christianities” emerged at a time of extraordinary spiritual upheaval. Some Christians questioned the need for clergy and church doctrine, and taught that the divine could be discovered through spiritual search. Many others, like Buddhists and Hindus, sought enlightenment—and access to God—within. Such explorations raised questions: Was the resurrection to be understood symbolically and not literally? Was God to be envisioned only in masculine form, or feminine as well? Was martyrdom a necessary—or worthy—expression of faith? These early Christians dared to ask questions that orthodox Christians later suppressed—and their explorations led to profoundly different visions of Jesus and his message. Brilliant, provocative, and stunning in its implications, The Gnostic Gospels is a radical, eloquent reconsideration of the origins of the Christian faith.

From the National Book Award-winning and National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author of The Gnostic Gospels comes a dramatic interpretation of Satan and his role on the Christian tradition. "Arresting...brilliant...this book illuminates the angels with which we must wrestle to come to the truth of our bedeviling spritual problems." —The Boston Globe With magisterial learning and the elan of a born storyteller, Pagels turns Satan’s story into an audacious exploration of Christianity’s shadow side, in which the gospel of love gives way to irrational hatreds that continue to haunt Christians and non-Christians alike.

A National Book Award winner and New York Times bestselling author deepens and refreshes our view of early Christianity while casting a disturbing light on the evolution of the attitudes passed down to us. "Confirms her reputation as both a scholar and a popular interpreter.... Continuously rewarding and illuminating." —The New York Times How did the early Christians come to believe that sex was inherently sinful? When did the Fall of Adam become synonymous with the fall of humanity? What turned Christianity from a dissident sect that championed the integrity of the individual and the idea of free will into the bulwark of a new imperial order—with the central belief that human beings cannot not choose to sin? In this provocative masterpiece of historical scholarship Elaine Pagels re-creates the controversies that racked the early church as it confronted the riddles of sexuality, freedom, and sin as embodied in the story of Genesis. And she shows how what was once heresy came to shape our own attitudes toward the body and the soul.

The instant New York Times bestseller interpreting the controversial long-lost gospel The recently unearthed Gospel of Judas is a source of fascination for biblical scholars and lay Christians alike. Now two leading experts on the Gnostic gospels tackle the important questions posed by its discovery, including: How could any Christian imagine Judas to be Jesus'' favorite? And what kind of vision of God does the author offer? Working from Karen L. King''s brilliant new translation, Elaine Pagels and King provide the context necessary for considering its meaning. Reading Judas plunges into the heart of Christianity itself and will stand as the definitive look at the gospel for years to come.

A profound exploration of the Bible''s most controversial book—from the bestselling author of Beyond Belief and The Gnostic Gospels The strangest book of the New Testament, filled with visions of the Rapture, the whore of Babylon, and apocalyptic writing of the end of times, the Book of Revelation has fascinated readers for more than two thousand years, but where did it come from? And what are the meanings of its surreal images of dragons, monsters, angels, and cosmic war? Elaine Pagels, New York Times bestselling author and "the preeminent voice of biblical scholarship to the American public" (The Philadelphia Inquirer), elucidates the true history of this controversial book, uncovering its origins and the roots of dissent, violence, and division in the world''s religions. Brilliantly weaving scholarship with a deep understanding of the human needs to which religion speaks, Pagels has written what may be the masterwork of her unique career.

In this highly original work, Elaine Pagels demonstrates how evidence from gnostic sources may challenge the assumption that Paul writes his letters to combat "gnostic opponents" and to repudiate their claims to secret wisdom. Drawing upon evidence from the gnostic exegesis of Paul, including several Nag Hammadi texts, the author examines how gnostic exegetes cite and interpret key passages in the letters they consider Pauline-1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Hebrews. Besides offering new insight into controversies over Paul in the second century, this analysis of gnostic exegesis suggests a new perspective for Pauline study, challenging students and scholars to recognize the presuppositions-hermenuetical and theological-involved in their own reading of Paul''s letters. Elaine H. Pagels is the Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University. She is the author of The Gnostic Gospels, which won the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, The Johannie Gospel in Gnostic Exegesis, Adam, Eve, and the Serpent, and the best-selling Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas.

New York Times bestseller One of PW’s Best Books of the Year One of Amazon’s Best Books of the Month Why is religion still around in the twenty-first century? Why do so many still believe? And how do various traditions still shape the way people experience everything from sexuality to politics, whether they are religious or not? In Why Religion? Elaine Pagels looks to her own life to help address these questions. These questions took on a new urgency for Pagels when dealing with unimaginable loss—the death of her young son, followed a year later by the shocking loss of her husband. Here she interweaves a personal story with the work that she loves, illuminating how, for better and worse, religious traditions have shaped how we understand ourselves; how we relate to one another; and, most importantly, how to get through the most difficult challenges we face. Drawing upon the perspectives of neurologists, anthropologists, and historians, as well as her own research, Pagels opens unexpected ways of understanding persistent religious aspects of our culture. A provocative and deeply moving account from one of the most compelling religious thinkers at work today, Why Religion? explores the spiritual dimension of human experience.

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.

Este libro fue distinguido en Estados Unidos con el premio del National Book Critics Circle y con el National Book Award y, desde entonces, se ha convertido en obra de referencia indiscutible sobre los evangelios gnósticos. En él, la profesora Pagels revela las numerosas discrepancias que separaban a los cristianos primitivos en torno a los hechos mismos de la vida de Cristo, el sentido de sus enseñanzas o a la forma que debía adoptar su Iglesia, y describe las doctrinas gnósticas que niegan la resurrección de Cristo y rechazan la autoridad sacerdotal, explicando por qué y cómo la ortodoxia que finalmente se impuso declaró heréticos a los gnósticos y trató de eliminar todos los textos que contenían sus doctrinas. Estos evangelios gnósticos, sorprendentes y reveladores, nos obligan a reconsiderar profundamente la imagen establecida de los orígenes y el significado del cristianismo.

Nel dicembre 1945, a Nag Hammadi, nell''Alto Egitto, un contadino arabo trovò seppellita nella sabbia una giara di terracotta rossa contenente tredici volumi di papiro rilegati in cuoio. Erano i testi sacri di quell''ala gnostica del Cristianesimo primitivo che, fiorita tra il I e II IV secolo d.C. dall''Iraq all''Egitto, da Roma a Lione, era stata soffocata dall''ortodossia organizzata. Solo da poco si è cominciato a capire l''importanza di questi scritti. Da essi appare, fra l''altro, che già nei primi secoli si sentiva la necessità di affrontare problemi finora ritenuti più recenti: la resurrezione di Gesù è un fatto storico o simbolico? Qual è la vera Chiesa, quella "celeste o quella "terrestre"? Dio è solo Padre o anche Madre?

El descubrimiento del Evangelio de Judas ha suscitado una gran controversia no sólo entre los estudiosos de la Biblia sino también en todas las personas educadas en la asunción de que Judas fue el gran traidor. A partir de la nueva traducción de Karen King del incompleto Evangelio de Judas, Elaine Pagels y King aportan los elementos necesarios para comprender su significado. No se trata de denunciar la marginación del Evangelio de Judas, así como el Evangelio según Tomás y el Evangelio de María Magdalena. Efectivamente, estos textos no pertenecen al canon, pero tampoco a la papelera, sino que aportan una nueva visión sobre el Cristianismo. De esta manera, "El Evangelio de Judas" nos introduce en los vibrantes y tumultuosos inicios de la Cristiandad y aborda temas tan polémicos como la naturaleza de Dios, el significado de la muerte de Jesús y el sufrimiento de los mártires, cuestiones de un enorme interés tanto hoy como diecinueve siglos atrás.

«Die Offenbarung des Johannes gibt viele Rätsel auf: Was bedeutet die Zahl 666? Wer ist die große Hure Babylon? Wie kündigt sich das Weltende an? Und wer hat das Buch überhaupt geschrieben? Elaine Pagels betrachtet die Schrift im Vergleich mit anderen frühchristlichen Apokalypsen, erklärt ihre einzigartige politische Bedeutung und bietet so einen neuen Schlüssel zum Verständnis des geheimnisvollsten Buches der Bibel.» Das Buch mit den sieben Siegeln und die Apokalyptischen Reiter, die Synagoge des Satan und das Lamm Gottes, das Tausendjährige Reich, der kosmische Endkampf und das Jüngste Gericht: Was wäre das Christentum ohne diese Bilder, Hoffnungen und Ängste, die sich alle in der Offenbarung des Johannes finden? Und doch galt dieses ursprünglich jüdische Buch lange als häretisch. Elaine Pagels zeigt, wie es am Ende des ersten Jahrhunderts entstanden ist, wer die Anhänger der unterschiedlichen frühchristlichen Offenbarungen waren und warum ihre Schriften unterdrückt und bis zu ihrer Wiederentdeckung im 20.Jahrhundert vergessen wurden. Was die Johannes-Apokalypse als einzige rettete, war ihre flexible politische Einsetzbarkeit: Die «Bösen» waren ursprünglich die Anhänger des Apostels Paulus, konnten aber auch die Juden, Römer, Häretiker oder Heiden sein. Krieg, Verfolgung und Katastrophen erhalten durch die Apokalypse plötzlich einen Sinn. Aber gerade das macht sie bis heute zum allergefährlichsten Buch der Bibel.

Il Vangelo di Tommaso, rinvenuto con altri manoscritti gnostici nel 1945 a Nag Hammadi, nell''Alto Egitto, ha un valore storico e teologico inestimabile. Perché allora fu condannato alla distruzione? Elaine Pagels istituisce un appassionato confronto fra il Vangelo di Tommaso (di cui fornisce una nuova traduzione) e quello di Giovanni, scorgendovi due diverse interpretazioni della presenza di Dio nel mondo. La lettura dei testi apocrifi, infatti, i più vicini alla predicazione di Gesù, suggerisce verità alternative e apre nuovi percorsi di ricerca, sia religiosa sia storico-scientifica. Questo libro, ricco di spiritualità, ci rivela la grande lezione di umanità e di antidogmatismo presente nell''insegnamento "negato" di Tommaso, suggerendo una nuova chiave di lettura di pagine di storia cristiana rimaste troppo a lungo celate.