Miracles & Wonder by Elaine Pagels

Read the full post at - Miracles & Wonder by Elaine Pagels I was a Religion minor at UGA, grew up in the Bible Belt, and have never really stopped being fascinated by the history of Christianity and the ancient world. So when Elaine Pagels publishes something new, I pay attention. Pagels is one of the original researchers of the Nag Hammadi manuscripts and a lot of the Coptic and Gnostic texts that scholars are still working through today. She’s been doing serious, primary-source work in this space for decades. I did not know she was still actively publishing so it’s genuinely impressive to see her add another strong book to an already massive bibliography. The Territory She’s Working In Part of what makes ancient religious history so endlessly interesting is that we exist in this strange middle ground of knowing a lot and knowing exactly what we don’t know. Think about it on a spectrum. On one end, you have civilizations like the Mississippians — I’ve visited Ocmulgee in Georgia —…