Why Religion?
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 Download [ Why Religion? ] author [ Elaine Pagels ] – kino-fada.fr This memoir in addition to being of an account of overcoming personal tragedy, adds the unique dimension of insights of a respected historian of religion Elaine Pagels is not only knowledgeable of the historical circumstances under which early scriptures were written, she found personal solace in those ancient words by identifying with the emotions and feeling that may have motivated those early writers This book tells the story of how her personal and academic life combined to provide a uniqu This memoir in addition to being of an account of overcoming personal tragedy, adds the unique dimension of insights of a respected historian of religion Elaine Pagels is not only knowledgeable of the historical circumstances under which early scriptures were written, she found personal solace in those ancient words by identifying with the emotions and feeling that may have motivated those early writers This book tells the story of how her personal and academic life combined to provide a unique reservoir of spiritual wisdom when facing the death of her 6 year old son followed a year later by the death of her husband while mountain climbing Elaine Pagels participated in the translation of the Nag Hammadi library and provided insights into them with her books, The Gnostic Gospels 1979 and Beyond Belief 2003 Her other books, including Adam, Eve and the Serpent, The Origin of Satan, and Revelations, have contributed additional understandings of early Christiani...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 After that Job like run of tragedies, no one would have blamed Pagels if she had decided to curse God and die But she held on Through rage and terror and despair so overwhelming that it made her faint, she held on I had to look into that darkness, she says at the opening of her new memoir, Why Religion I could not continue to live fully while refu 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 After that Job like run of tragedies, no one would have blamed Pagels if she had decided to curse God and die But she held on Through rage and terror and despair so overwhelming that it made her faint, she held on I had to look into that darkness, she says at the opening of her new memoir, Why Religion I could not continue to live fully while refusing to recall what happened Pagels acknowledges that no one escapes terrible loss, but as the country s most popular historian of religion, she brings a unique reservoir of spiritual wisdom to bear on the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to A MacArthur genius and a professor at Princeton University...In 1945, two years after Elaine Pagels was born in northern California, an Arab farmer on the other side of the world made a stunning discovery In a cave near the village of Nag Hammadi in Egypt, he found a six foot long jar containing 52 secret texts They were gospels in Coptic Egyptian, which presented mystical sayings, beliefs, and ideas of Jesus that were quite different from those found in the New Testament Deemed heretical at the time of their transcription, the scripts were apparently In 1945, two years after Elaine Pagels was born in northern California, an Arab farmer on the other side of the world made a stunning discovery In a cave near the village of Nag Hammadi in Egypt, he found a six foot long jar containing 52 secret texts They were gospels in Coptic Egyptian, which presented mystical sayings, beliefs, and ideas of Jesus that were quite different from those found in the New Testament Deemed heretical at the time of their transcription, the scripts were apparently buried by defiant monks, who d been ordered by religious authorities to destroy them About a millennium and a half later, Pagels, now a ...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 After that Job like run of tragedies, no one would have blamed Pagels if she had decided to curse God and die But she held on Through rage and terror and despair so overwhelming that it made her faint, she held on I had to look into that darkness, she says at the opening of her new memoir, Why Religion I could not continue to live fully while refu 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 After that Job like run of tragedies, no one would have blamed Pagels if she had decided to curse God and die But she held on Through rage and terror and despair so overwhelming that it made her faint, she held on I had to look into that darkness, she says at the opening of her new memoir, Why Religion I could not continue to live fully while refusing to recall what happened Pagels acknowledg...I ve been reading Elaine Pagels since 1990, the summer after my sopho year in college I remember stealing little reading breaks while canvassing for Greenpeace in Kansas City I d sit on the grass and read 10 20 pages of The Gnostic Gospels, and feminist theologian Carol P Christ s Laughter of Aphrodite, and Catherine Keller s From a Broken Web A few weeks later I d begin Adam, Eve, and the Serpent I was finding such intellectual excitement in these books At school, I recalled hearing I ve been reading Elaine Pagels since 1990, the summer after my sopho year in college I remember stealing little reading breaks while canvassing for Greenpeace in Kansas City I d sit on the grass and read 10 20 pages of The Gnostic Gospels, and feminist theologian Carol P Christ s Laughter of Aphrodite, and Catherine Keller s From a Broken Web A few weeks later I d begin Adam, Eve, and the Serpent I was finding such intellectual excitement in these books At school, I recalled hearing that Pagels s husband, Heinz, a renowned physicist, had died in a tragic hiking accident I wondered about her story.This is sort of two types of memoir in one Pagels describes her family, youth she hung out with with Jerry Garcia in the Bay Area as a teenager , early attraction to ev...3.5 Pagels is a religion scholar best known for her work on the Gnostic Gospels of the Nag Hammadi library, such as the Gospel of Thomas She grew up in a nonreligious Californian household, but joined a friend s youth group and answered the altar call at a Billy Graham rally Although she didn t stick with Evangelicalism, Christianity continued to speak to her, and spirituality provided a measure of comfort in the hard times ahead infertility, followed by the illness and death of her long aw 3.5 Pagels is a religion scholar best known for her work on the Gnostic Gospels of the Nag Hammadi library, such as the Gospel of Thomas She grew up in a nonreligious Californian household, but joined a friend s youth group and answered the altar call at a Billy Graham rally Although she didn t stick with Evangelicalism, Christianity continued to speak to her, and spirituality provided a measure of comfort in the hard times ahead infertility, followed by the illness and death of her long awaited son, Mark, who underwent heart surgery as an infant and died of pulmonary hypertension at age six Littlethan a year later, Pagels s physicist husband Heinz fell to his death on a hike in Colorado.The author doesn t gloss over the horror of these events, the...Elaine Pagels is clearlycomfortable addressing her chosen field of study than she is writing about her own personal struggles While she outlines the horrific tragedies of losing her young son and husband within a year of each other, she never does a deep dive into her agony and any ramifications it may have had on her own religious experience or faith.To say it s A Personal Story is only partially true She gives us the physical details but, unlike most successful memoir, there s too mu Elaine Pagels is clearlycomfortable addressing her chosen field of study than she is writing about her own personal struggles While she outlines the horrific tragedies of losing her young son and husband within a year of each other, she never does a deep dive into her agony and any ramifications it may have had on her own religious experience or faith.To say it s A Personal Story is only partially true She gives us the physical details but, unlike most successful memoir, there s too much telling and too little showing We understand the events and can imagine their devastation, but that s all we can do is imagine because Pagels keeps the reader at arm s length We are not drawn into her raw emotion on a deep, personal level We are moved because of our own empathy and not because she strips herself bare and invites us in.We learn nothing of the childhoods of the two children she adopted and suddenly we re at the end of ...Elaine Pagels is fairly well known for her writing about early Christianity, especially the Gnostic Gospels and the Gospel of Thomas This memoir doesn t so much answer the question of Why have religion as it does the question her not yet husband asked her with the two title words, which was Why study religion, of all possible subjects Pagels was brought up in an atheist family But she was drawn into evangelical Christianity as a teen when she attended a Billy Graham rally where he preac Elaine Pagels is fairly well known for her writing about early Christianity, especially the Gnostic Gospels and the Gospel of Thomas This memoir doesn t so much answer the question of Why have religion as it does the question her not yet husband asked her with the two title words, which was Why study religion, of all possible subjects Pagels was brought up in an atheist family But she was drawn into evangelical Christianity as a teen when she attended a Billy Graham rally where he preached a fiery socialist message that sounded very different from what evangelical Christian leaders seem to preach these years She then lost her specifically Christian faith after the death of a close Jewish friend, when her Christian friends insisted that he could not enter Heaven on account of having the wrong religion But she never lost her fascination with why people have religion at all Then, with the discovery of the Nag Hammadi scrolls in Egypt and their delivery to Harvard when she...You might be put off by the authors focus on her biography in the beginning It may come off as boomer navel gazing that may annoy some readers Be patient The book gets much better as it goes on it explores some deep philosophical and religious ideas as she goes on with her journey I assure you she is a deep thinker and she is seasoned with much life experience She understands a great deal about human psychology and how religion expresses some deep things in it and how it is a driver in our You might be put off by the authors focus on her biography in the beginning It may come off as boomer navel gazing that may annoy some readers Be patient The book gets much better as it goes on it explores some deep philosophical and religious ideas as she goes on with her journey I assure you she is a deep thinker and she is seasoned with much life experience She understands a great deal about human psychology and how religion expresses some deep things in it and how it ...I went back and forth about whether or not I should even assign a star rating to this book, but I don t think I m going to What I was expecting was vastly different from what this book offered, and I once read you should review a book based on what it was, and not what you wanted it to be thanks, Pamela Paul , and my star review would not be favorable.That being said, here were my issues I realize the subtitle is A Personal Story, but I did not expect the book to be SO much personal memoir I went back and forth about whether or not I should even assign a star rating to this book, but I don t think I m going to What I was expecting was vastly different from what this book offered, and I once read you should review a book based on what it was, and not what you wanted it to be thanks, Pamela Paul , and my star review would not be favorable.That being said, here were my issues I realize the subtitle is A Personal Story, but I did not expect the book to be SO much personal memoir The marketing begins Why is religion still around in the twenty first century Why do so many still believe And how do various traditions...This is the first Elaine Pagels book I ve read, and I am aware of her other books and general philosophy.For most of the book I struggled with the title Why Religion because the book was about tremendous loss in her life with a bit of history of some of the books she d written I kept wondering when she was going to answer the question.By the end of the book, I realized that she had been looking for something in her beliefs to help her make sense of the tragedies that befell her young son and This is the first Elaine Pagels book I ve read, and I am aware of her other books and general philosophy.For most of the book I struggled with the title Why Religion because the book was about tremendous loss in her life with a bit of history of some of the books she d written I kept wondering when she w...Although I may not agree with all of Elaine Pagels beliefs, I completed this book with a deep respect for the author and her probing and questioning mind Her personal story is told with tenderness, honesty and openness She has my admiration on many levels.This short book may have deserved an extra star I felt I was handicapped by not having read any of her works Book is both a personal and academic memoir Pagels, coming from a non believing family, is a historian of religion, Harvard educated and one of the experts and translators of the Gnostic gospels She talks about what religion has meant to her, particularly as she struggled with Job like tragedies losing her 6 year old son to heart defect and her husband in a climbing accident in a This short book may have deserved an extra star I felt I was handicapped by not having read any of her works Book is both a personal and academic memoir Pagels, coming from a non believing family, is a historian of religion, Harvard educated and one of the experts and translators of the Gnostic gospels She talks about what religion has meant to her, particularly as she struggled with Job like tragedies losing her 6 year old son to heart defect and her husband in a climbing accident in a one year span , and also about her academic scholarship, translating and studying many of the early Coptic gospels as they became available, and writing well known books on the Gospel of Thomas, on the history of...A very moving and well written memoir that doesn t even come close to answering the title questionElaine Pagels is a well known writer about religion In this book, which is in many respects a memoir, she examines her own religious life as a jumping off point to look at what purpose religion serves and why people still turn to religion She examines her own religious experiences, her skepticism about religion, her religious research, and how she experienced religion during the traumatic loss of her son as a young child followed by the unthinkable death of her husband only a year later I fir Elaine Pagels is a well known writer about religion In this book, which is in many respects a memoir, she examines her own religious life as a jumping off point to look at what purpose religion serves and why people still turn to religion She examines her own religious experiences, her skepticism about religion, her religious r...
- 26 March 2017 Elaine Pagels
- ebook
- 256 pages
- 0062368559
- Elaine Pagels
- Why Religion?