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. Found inside – Page 20Sex and Politics in Early Christianity Elaine Pagels. Now a bishop must he above reproaeh, the husband of one wife. . . . He must manage his own household ... After that Job-like run of tragedies, no one would have blamed Pagels if she had decided to "curse God and die.". As a child, religion scholar Elaine Pagels had very little exposure to religion. One gets the impression that studying herself in the crucible of grief was often the lone activity that kept her sane. This volume also features introductory essays and extensive notes to help readers understand the context and significance of these texts that have revolutionized the study of early Christianity and ancient religious thought. But she held on. Modern Library named it as one of the 100 best books of the twentieth century. 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. Her controversial professional triumphs and critical discoveries are recounted with head-spinning speed. The programme triggered a national furore, and marked a significant moment in the changes that religious broadcasting was already undergoing at that time. In theory and practice, her life demonstrates the freedom that comes from breaching the boundaries of orthodoxy and accepting insight wherever it might be hiding. Elaine Pagels, a professor of religion at Princeton, is the author of the bestselling Beyond Belief and The Gnostic Gospels. ELAINE PAGELS earned a B.A. A Personal Story, the award-winning religious scholar Elaine Pagels weaves together a story of heart-breaking personal loss with an examination of the relevance of religious traditions in modern times. presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution Elaine Pagels, who canceled her Nov. 11 appearance in Dallas because of illness, will speak 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 6 at a sold-out Arts & Letters Live event. But these professional triumphs have been shadowed by the anguish of private grief. One of the bedrocks of her philosophy is that "what we imagine is enormously consequential." In the depths of her sorrow, she recalls uncanny coincidences, acts of precognition, ghostly visitations and even a confrontation with a demon one night in the hospital. Harvard University told her they already had too many women in their religion program — Why waste openings on the flighty sex — but if she were still interested a year later, she could apply again. Then, 15 months later, Ms. Pagels's husband, Heinz, a physicist, was killed in a climbing accident, leaving her with their two other children, Sarah, 2, and David, 3 months, both of whom the . Her new book draws upon the perspectives of science, history, and her own research, as well as the insight she . Found inside" Two hundred years after his birth, and two generations after the last full-scale biography, Walls renews Henry David Thoreau for us in all his profound, inspiring complexity. Terry spoke to Elaine Pagels last year. provides some ideas for your consideration. [17][18] Pagels married law professor Kent Greenawalt from Columbia University in June 1995. [14], She married theoretical physicist Heinz Pagels in 1969,[15] with whom she had a son and adopted two children. And no ray of divine inspiration eventually illuminates a greater good in their deaths. These episodes are never submitted as factual evidence of supernatural intervention. But in her 20s, while studying modern dance with Martha Graham, she was interested in many things. The case of Jesus: The Evidence", "Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation", Faceted Application of Subject Terminology, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Elaine_Pagels&oldid=1035526700, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from December 2018, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 26 July 2021, at 05:52. Found insideTells how a renowned preacher left her ministry to rediscover the authentic heart of her faith. A moving reflection on keeping faith amidst the relentless demands of modern life. 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. After that Job-like run of tragedies, no one would have blamed Pagels if she had decided to "curse God and die.". When that ray of happiness finally pierces the gloom in her life, "Why Religion?" She mentions that she started reading Greek the way one of us might mention that we started watching "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt." In this collection, Remnick's gift for character is sharper than ever, whether he writes about Gary Hart stumbling through life after Donna Rice or Mario Cuomo, who now presides over a Saturday morning radio talk show, fielding questions ... R. Aha of the school of R. [3] After joining an Evangelical church at the age of 13, she quit when the church announced that a Jewish friend of hers who had been killed in a car crash would go to hell because he had not been "born again". Elaine Pagels and her husband, Heinz, lost their 6-year-old son to a rare, untreatable heart illness in 1987 and a year later Heinz was killed in a mountain climbing accident. Elaine Pagels looks to her own life to help address these questions. Follow me. Huston Smith, the author of the classic bestseller The World's Religions, delivers a passionate, timely message: The human spirit is being suffocated by the dominant materialistic worldview of our times. PAGELS: The day before, my husband and I had been at the Babies Hospital up at Columbia Presbyterian. Elaine Pagels looks to her own life to help address these questions. A recent (2018) book by Elaine Pagels, Why Religion?, has garnered great reviews. She found it to be "the most spiritual of the four gospels". But the contrarian disciples offer a new take on Christianity, and scholar Elaine Pagels wants their voices heard. Looking for a larger life, Elaine Pagels examines human urge toward religious answers . Dr. Hoeller traces this fascinating story throughout time and shows how Gnosticism has inspired such great thinkers as Voltaire, Blake, Yeats, Hesse, Melville, and Jung. #1. That reference to "imagination" — the first of many laced through this memoir — foreshadows her eventual break from Orthodox Christianity, but it also suggests her determination to think creatively about sacred texts and the influence they wield. Pagels's first child, Mark, was born with a heart condition and died at the age of six from pulmonary hypertension. husband Heinz, died 1988 . Along the way, she describes the terrors of raising a terminally ill child, considers the ethics of futile medical interventions and testifies to the temptation and havoc of denial. The author of the Gospel of Judas wasn't against martyrdom, and he didn't ever insult the martyrs. 235 Pages. When that ray of happiness finally pierces the gloom in her life, "Why Religion?" decades ago, Elaine Pagels is still a rebel-at-heart. Pagels looks at her own life to address questions of the persistence and nature of belief and why religion is still around in the 21st century. In "Why Religion?". Here she interweaves a personal story with the work that she loves, illuminating how, for better and . Here she interweaves a personal story with the work that she loves, illuminating how, for better and . After her son and husband died, Elaine Pagels wondered why religion survives. Those include mystical places that most academics would be reluctant to enter. "It changed my life, as the preacher promised it would — although not entirely as he intended.". [17] Each had been widowed about six years earlier, left with children. Fifteen months later, Heinz Pagels fell to his death while hiking in Aspen, Colorado. Augustine, among others, held this view. 4. As a young scholar, Elaine Pagels breathed new life into the dusty subject of early Christianity in 1979 with the publication of her influential book The Gnostic Gospels. Now I had to divest myself of the illusion that we deserved what had happened; believing it would have crushed us.". Found inside – Page 224... outside world in order to support her husband's political reputation (Helv. 42 Elaine Pagels, “Paul and Women: A Response to a 19.6). 224 Nigh Hogan. 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. With a childlike sense of awe, she applied to five graduate schools in five fields. Pagels' young son had just received a devastating diagnosis, and Elaine and her husband, Heinz, were reeling. That unspeakable experience confirmed her understanding of the influence of the Bible's stories. Pagels writes with clarity, tackling difficult and complex arguments in a logical manner, and writing for the layperson rather than the academic. Pagels (pronounced Paygulls) was born February 13, 1943, in California. Her other books include The Origin of Satan (1995), Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas (2003), Reading Judas: The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity (2007), and Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation (2012).[8]. According to Pagels's interpretation of an era different from ours, Gnosticism "attracted women because it allowed female participation in sacred rites". Elaine Pagels will sit down with Pico Iyer at Campbell Hall, UCSB, on Thursday, January 9, at 7:30 p.m., for what should be a remarkable conversation. Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com. to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about Along the way, she describes the terrors of raising a terminally ill child, considers the ethics of futile medical interventions and testifies to the temptation and havoc of denial. "I can tell only the husk of the story." Here she interweaves a personal story with the work that she loves, illuminating how, for better and . . Others were destroyed for being heretical. $27.99. "I sought to untangle my own responses, while sensing how powerfully our culture shapes them." Made of papyrus, some disintegrated. feels miraculous and yet entirely believable. "I can tell only the husk of the story." In tears, she stepped forward to be saved. Whether working independently or as a team, we take pride in our personalized customer service that garnered us $54 million in sales with 108 transactions and . She found herself a single mother with the two adopted children and took solace in writing "Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of . A rare lung disease killed Elaine Pagels's six-year-old son, and then about a year later her husband fell to his death . Crestfallen and deeply grieving, Pagels and her husband nonetheless went on with their work and they adopted a second son, David. She said yesterday that while at Aspen, she and her husband went walking almost every Saturday but that she was not on Sunday's climb. child Mark, died 1987 . 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. How Harvard's atheist chaplain-in-chief fits into the school's long religious tradition. Feeling confused and overwhelmed, she turned to the New Testament, the Gnostic gospels of the Nag Hammadi library, and Buddhism. Photo courtesy of Elaine Pagels. That unspeakable experience confirmed her understanding of the influence of the Bible's stories. in classical studies at Stanford, and holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University.She is the author of Adam, Eve, and the Serpent; The Origin of Satan; and the New York Times bestseller Beyond Belief.She is currently the Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University, and she lives in Princeton, New Jersey, with her husband and . Her book, The Origin of Satan, published in 1995, is dedicated to her two children, David and Sarah, and in 1995 Pagels married Kent Greenawalt, a law professor at Columbia University. That reference to "imagination" — the first of many laced through this memoir — foreshadows her eventual break from orthodox Christianity, but it also suggests her determination to think creatively about sacred texts and their influence. Ecco. Now, 15 years later, she is remarried and joyful. In this he says—she says book, Bishop Joseph Walker and his wife Dr. Stephaine Walker tell you how to know when you're in love and ready to take that next step of commitment. And we heard that our only child had a lung disease that was untreatable, incurable . "Why Religion?" and the National Book Critics Circle Award. A rare lung disease killed Elaine Pagels's 6-year-old son, and then about a year later her husband fell to his death while mountain climbing. But in her 20s, while studying modern dance with Martha Graham, she was interested in many things. "It changed my life, as the preacher promised it would — although not entirely as he intended.". Her notable books included The Gnostic Gospels (1979), The Origin of Satan (1995), Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas (2003), and Why Religion? Religious scholar Elaine Pagels trusted the Gospel of Thomas to get her through the almost unbearably painful years after the death of her six-year-old son -- born with a congenital heart defect -- followed one year later by the unexpected death of her husband.. Thomas was one of many hidden texts discovered in a cave in Egypt in 1945, written around the time of Jesus but omitted from the New . She rediscovered the capacity for joy. She gave two lectures, the first being "What do 'secret gospels' suggest about Jesus and his teaching?" . Still, the facts are as hard as a gravestone: No saint interceded to fill her son's lungs. Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. With the twinned spirits of seeker and scholar, she kept studying the Gospels, the letters of Paul, the Gnostic texts and the insights of Buddhism and Trappist monks until she understood that suffering is an essential and common element of human life. Pagels' study of the Nag Hammadi manuscripts was the basis for The Gnostic Gospels (1979), a popular introduction to the Nag Hammadi library. Doubting Thomas in the Gospel of John. As she speaks of profound spiritual and religious matters, I pined for a more poetic and contemplative style, something along the order of Marilynne Robinson or Christian Wiman. Pagels struggled with these heartbreaking losses as she raised their two adopted children. Elaine Pagels's lifelong search for the sacred. Given Pagels' famously ecumenical approach, it's surprising to hear that her spiritual journey began at a stadium revival preached by Billy Graham. Professor Pagels received her doctorate from Harvard University in 1970 and has taught at Barnard College, where she chaired the Department of Religion, and at Columbia University. He was 6. Dec 23, 2018 at 12:00 AM. : A Personal Story (2018). When the husband is exhorted to love his wife as Christ does the . *INCLUDES AN EXTRACT FROM ORIGIN,THE NEW THRILLER BY DAN BROWN: OUT NOW* --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Harvard professor Robert Langdon receives an urgent late-night ... [2] According to Pagels, she has been fascinated with the Gospel of John since her youth. Now, 15 years later, she is . [7] As a movement Gnosticism was not coherent and there were several areas of disagreement among the different factions. "I had to look into that darkness," she says at the opening of her new memoir, "Why Religion? These episodes are never submitted as factual evidence of supernatural intervention. A year later, when Pagels and her husband received news that they could bring a two-and-a-half-month old girl home, they learned that the caregivers had been calling her Sarah and decided to keep the name she had become used to. When one senses a kind of urgency, a conviction that the Kingdom of . To fill in the gaps, Pagels, a . "I could not continue to live fully while refusing to recall what happened.". expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto : What would Christianity be like if gnostic texts had made it into the Bible? To order She never says so (she's far too modest), but it's clear she could have excelled in any of them. Fortunately, she did, and before long she was working on a "top secret" cache of Egyptian documents discovered in 1945 — heretical gospels long rumoured but considered lost in the sands of time. World-famous acquaintances — Jerry Garcia, Andrei Sakharov, Oprah Winfrey — are noted without a whiff of arrogance. Suddenly, the Bible texts seemed stained with dread: "Working hard to stay steady, or seem to, I could no longer afford to look through a lens that heaps guilt upon grief," she writes. Found insideThe book is a tonic for the ailments of our time.”—Ann Patchett, New York Times bestselling author of Commonwealth Our ego, and its accompanying sense of nagging self-doubt as we work to be bigger, better, smarter, and more in control, ... That morning I had gone for an early morning run while my husband and two-and-a-half-year-old son were still sleeping. Here she interweaves a personal story with the work that she loves, illuminating how, for better and . Pagels was alone with two children under the age of 2. When she stepped into the church, she . It is sure to appeal to Pagels's committed readers and bring her a whole new audience who want to understand the roots of dissent, violence, and division in the world's religions, and to appreciate the lasting appeal of this extraordinary ... Here she interweaves a personal story with the work that she loves, illuminating how, for better and . ELAINE PAGELS: -leave your wife, husband, children, father and mother, you know. Personal Loss and the Religious Imagination of Scholar Elaine Pagels. Those include mystical places that most academics would be reluctant to enter. Elaine Pagels looks to her own life to help address these questions. Her subsequent books, including "Adam, Eve and the Serpent," "The Origin of Satan" and "Revelations," have continued to complicate conventional understandings of Christianity and trace the persistence of ancient attitudes in modern society. The following year her husband . At 15, vaguely curious, she tagged along with some Christian friends to the Cow Palace outside San Francisco. Aided by a MacArthur fellowship (1980–85), she researched and wrote Adam, Eve, and the Serpent, which examines the creation account and its role in the development of sexual attitudes in the Christian West. Her new book combines memoir and biblical scholarship to reflect on loss and faith. Larry Hurtado writes that John portrays Thomas as no worse than, for example, Peter in John 21:15-23 where Peter is discomfited by being asked by Jesus whether he really loved him and Jesus' later admonishment of Peter and that the actions of Thomas in John 11 are portrayed no worse than that of the group of disciples. A fine but flawed book. Elaine Pagels, American educator and scholar of the origins of Christianity. Toward the end, she writes, "My own experience of the 'nightmare' — the agony of feeling isolated, vulnerable, and terrified — has shown that only awareness of that sense of interconnection restores equanimity, even joy.". It was a best seller and won both the National Book Award in one-year category Religion/Inspiration[5][note 1] A rare lung disease killed Elaine Pagels' 6-year-old son, and then about a year later her husband fell to his death while mountain climbing. Religion scholar Elaine Pagels lost her young son to terminal illness and her husband a year later in an accident. A rare lung disease killed Elaine Pagels's six-year-old son, and then about a year later her husband fell to his death . Featuring Elaine Pagels, Ph.D. On October 30, 2019, we hosted Dr. Elaine Pagels as the featured speaker. Elaine Pagels, née Hiesey (born Palo Alto, California, February 13, 1943), is the Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University.The recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, she is best known for her studies and writing on the Gnostic Gospels.Her popular books include The Gnostic Gospels (1979), Adam, Eve, and the Serpent (1988), The Origin of Satan (1995), Beyond Belief . Elaine Pagels looks to her own life to help address these questions. Gnosis means knowledge. Elaine Pagels, Why Religion? So writes the author of the Gospel of Thomas, a third century Christian text found buried in a jar with the 52 other papyrus texts outside Nag . But she held on. 4 Maury totally controls No. Beyond Belief also includes Pagels' personal exploration of meaning during a time of loss and tragedy. A recent (2018) book by Elaine Pagels, Why Religion?, has garnered great reviews. It's a brave book, telling the story of the death of her six-year-old son from a long illness, and then her husband in a hiking accident, both in the space of about a year. just been released in paperback. After that Job-like run of tragedies, no one would . She started to learn Greek when she entered college, and read the Gospels in their original language. Elaine Pagels. Harvard University told her they already had too many women in their religion program but if she were still interested a year later, she could apply again. Her research into the recently discovered Gnostic Gospels took upon a personal meaning after she lost her son and husband within a year of each . Pagels completed her Ph.D. in 1970, and joined the faculty at Barnard College. Indeed, Elaine Pagels' previous books, which are concise to a fault, are not always well served by being so aggressively summarized in this new book. Joyce Wilson-Sanford shares her personal history of bumps and bruises in her life and in her spiritual growth, as well as her own very naked, very funny, very touching prayers. "I had to look into that darkness," she says at the opening of her new memoir, "Why Religion?" [9] These personal tragedies deepened her spiritual awareness and afterwards Pagels began research leading to The Origin of Satan. No angel caught her husband as he fell from Pyramid Peak. [3] She graduated from Stanford University, earning a B.A. Elaine Pagels, "Why Religion?" September 13, 2021. 25 years later, she's finally ready to talk about how her own grief — after the deaths of her young son and husband — shaped her religious imagination.

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