Elaine Pagels

Tron på en styrande, övergripande, himmelsk princip har följt människan genom historien. Mer än 80 procent av världens befolkning har idag en religiös tillhörighet och även i sekulära stater fortsätter religionen att spela en viktig roll. Det går inte att förstå politik och internationella relationer idag utan att inkludera religionen som en aspekt av det kulturella sammanhanget. Essäerna i denna antologi, som härrör från Engelsbergsseminariet 2014, spänner över en mångfald ämnen i dagens såväl som gårdagens samhällen. De utforskar religionen i relation till människans villkor och skildrar hur den manifesterar sig i individens egna upplevelser. För att förstå oss själva behöver vi också förstå religionen.

Vem var han egentligen, den fattige mannen som inspirerade en ny religion och stöpte om världen? Frågorna kring världshistoriens mest omtalade människa är fler än svaren, men religionshistorikern Elaine Pagels har ägnat sitt liv åt att komma så nära sanningen det är möjligt. Jesus – Ett historiskt mysterium markerar kulmen på resan. Hon ger sig ut för att teckna bilden av den sociala och politiska kontexten i Judéen där Jesus verkade, och av huvudpersonen själv. Och för att lösa ett historiskt mysterium. Inte minst utgör Jesus en analys av hans roll i våra liv. Hur har Jesus förändrats genom tid, och i olika kulturer? Varför har han inte trängts undan av andra människor eller gudar? Kort sagt: varför är vi fortfarande så intresserade av Jesus?

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 is a brilliant and necessary book. Sober, wise, respectful, and fearless." --Jon Meacham, author of The Soul of America "Pagels's 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 Review Early 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.

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. Early 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.

I Gamla Testamentet är han närvarande som en av många antagonister, en fallen ängel bland flera andra. Så hur kom det sig då att just Satan blev evangeliets mörkerfurste, ansvarig för Jesu korsfästelse som en del av en aldrig sinande kamp mellan gott och ont? Och varför identifierade Jesu efterföljare i allt högre grad Satan med sina mänskliga fiender först judar, sedan hedningar och till sist kättare?I och med att kristna i allmänhet identifierar sig med Jesus och lärjungarna, ser de i förlängningen icke-kristna som det motsatta, som antagonisten, enligt Elaine Pagels. I Satans ursprung (The Origin of Satan, 1995), ett banbrytande religionshistoriskt verk med Satans sociala bakgrund i fokus, uppmanar hon läsaren att betrakta Satan som en reflektion av hur vi uppfattar oss själva och vår syn på andra. Hon sätter fingret på sambandet mellan de händelser i evangelierna som handlar om Jesus, hans anhängare och fiender å ena sidan, och myten som dess författare hänvisade tillför att tolka dessa händelser å den andra. Detta utgör kampen mellan Gud och Satan. Pagels visar med imponerande expertis hur det har varit möjligt för Guds kärlek att samexistera med irrationellt hat i två tusen år.Denna utgåva har ett nyskrivet förord av Per Faxneld, docent i religionsvetenskap vid Södertörns högskola.Elaine Pagels är Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion vid Princeton University. Hon har tidigare undervisat vid Barnard College, Columbia University, och är mest känd för sin forskning och texter om de gnostiska evangelierna. Förutom Satans ursprung har hon bland annat skrivit böckerna The Gnostic Gospels(1989); Reading Judas: the Gospel of Judas and the shaping of Christianity(2007); och Revelations: visions, prophecy, and politics in the Book of Revelation(2012).

La referencia indiscutible sobre los evangelios gn sticos.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 gn sticos. En l, 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 ense anzas o a la forma que deb a adoptar su Iglesia, y describe las doctrinas gn sticas que niegan la resurrecci n de Cristo y rechazan la autoridad sacerdotal, explicando por qu y c mo la ortodoxia que finalmente se impuso declar her ticos a los gn sticos y trat de eliminar todos los textos que conten an sus doctrinas. Estos evangelios gn sticos, sorprendentes y reveladores, nos obligan a reconsiderar profundamente la imagen establecida de los or genes y el significado del cristianismo.

New York Times bestsellerOne of PW's Best Books of the YearOne 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.

New York Times bestsellerOne of PW's Best Books of the YearOne 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.

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.

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.

The discovery of Judas's Gospel has caused great controversy among biblical scholars, and in this detailed work, two experts of the Gnostic gospels approach many questions resulting from this important find. "How could a Christian imagine that Judas, the traitor, was Jesus's favorite?""Why is the author of this gospel full of anger towards the other disciples?""What vision of God does the author offer?" The answers to these questions introduce Christianity's vibrant and tumultuous beginnings and approach themes as polemic as the nature of God, the meaning of Jesus's death, and the suffering of the martyrs--questions that are of as much interest today as they were 19 centuries earlier. "El descubrimiento del Evangelio de Judas ha suscitado una gran controversia entre los eruditos biblicos, y en esta obra detallada, dos expertas en los evangelios gnosticos abordan muchos interrogantes planteados por este importante hallazgo. "Como podria un cristiano imaginar que Judas, el traidor, fue el favorito de Jesus? Por que el autor de este evangelio esta lleno de rabia hacia los otros discipulos? Que vision de Dios ofrece el autor?" Las respuestas a estas preguntas introducen los vibrantes y tumultuosos inicios de la cristiandad y abordan temas tan polemicos como la naturaleza de Dios, el significado de la muerte de Jesus y el sufrimiento de los martires--cuestiones de un enorme interes tanto hoy como 19 siglos atras."

As discussed in The Da Vinci Code... Long buried and suppressed, the Gnostic Gospels contain the secret writings attributed to the followers of Jesus.

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."

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.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER - NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE WINNER - SELECTED BY THE MODERN LIBRARY AS ONE OF THE 100 BEST NONFICTION BOOKS - The landmark study exploring alternative perspectives of early Christianity as revealed through the Nag Hammadi texts that could have shaped the religion differently if included in the Christian canon - " Pagels] is always readable, always deeply informed, always richly suggestive of pathways her readers may wish to follow out for themselves."--Harold Bloom, The Washington Post " Pagels] writes with the instincts of a novelist, the skill of a scholar, and the ability to sort out significances that many writers lack."--Chicago Tribune - "An intellectually elegant, concise study . . . The economy with which Pagels] evokes the world of early Christianity is a marvel."--The New Yorker The Gnostic Gospels is 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. 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 and stunning in its implications, The Gnostic Gospels is a radical, eloquent reconsideration of the origins of the Christian faith.

Deepens and refreshes our view of early Christianity while casting a disturbing light on the evolution of the attitudes passed down to us.