Miracles and Wonder: The Historical Mystery of Jesus

In this rigorous study, National Book Award winner Pagels (Why Religion?) digs into persistent questions about the historical Jesus. Devoting each chapter to a major sticking point, she discusses Jesus’s virgin birth, suggesting that Matthew and Luke revised the gospel of Mark to deflect harmful rumors “ridiculing Jesus as a bastard,” and gospel writers’ efforts to blame Jewish leaders for Jesus’s crucifixion and deemphasize Pontius Pilate’s role—a framing that helped believers sidestep fears of being associated with a figure crucified for anti-Roman “insurrection.” Elsewhere, she unpacks the debate over whether the resurrection was physical or spiritual (as Paul claimed). Pagels’s analysis is most captivating when she’s excavating the complex motivations of the gospel writers, who were often reacting to historical and cultural developments to formulate new ways of attracting followers. Less successful are her detours into personal anecdotes (in a chapter on the resurrection, for instance, she mentions being “shaken by” personally experiencing “the presence of people who had died” without elaborating further) and analyses of Jesus in movies and art. Still, curious believers will find much to chew on. (Apr.)