Author: Personal Website, Wikipedia

Contents:

	Dedication
	Author's Note
	Introduction
	1 The Virgin Birth: What Happened?
	2 Who Is Jesus? Miracles and Mysteries
	3 What Is the "Good News"?
	4 The Crucifixion: What Happened, and What Could It Mean?
	5 Ressurrection: What Did People Say Happened-and What Can Be Known?
	6 How Did Jesus "Become God"?
	7 Who Is Jesus-to New Converts Artists and Filmmakers Engaging Him Today?
	Conclusion
	Illustrations
	Acknowledgments
	Notes
	Bibliography
	Index
	Illustration Credits
	About the Author

Description: »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.« (Source: Doubleday)

Interviews: Garfinkel, Renee, int. »Miracles and Wonder: The Historical Mystery of Jesus.« Van Leer Jerusalem Series on Ideas. New Books Network 2025. - Bibliographic Entry: Info

Reviews:
- Ashcroft, Rachel. History Today 75(6) (June 2025). - Full Text: History Today (Free Access)

- Duncan Jr., Teddy. Washington Independent Review of Books (April 2, 2025). - Full Text: Washington Independent Review of Books (Free Access)

- Farrell, Thomas J. New Explorations: Studies in Culture and Communication 5(2) (2026). - Full Text: University of Toronto Libraries (Free Access)

- Gopnik, Adam. »Do You Know Jesus?« The New Yorker (March 31, 2025). - Full Text: The New Yorker (Restricted Access)

- Haber, Leigh. Los Angeles Times (March 28, 2025). - Full Text: Los Angeles Times (Free Access)

- Owchar, Nick. »Jesus in the Fun House.« Los Angeles Review of Books (April 2, 2025). - Full Text: Los Angeles Review of Books (Free Access)

- Rollens, Sarah E. Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus 24 (2026): 99-101. - Full Text: Brill (Restricted Access)

- West III, Thomas J. Omnivorous (May 3, 2025). - Full Text: Omnivorous (Free Access)

Wikipedia: Ancient history: Ancient Rome / Roman Empire | Ancient history: Ancient Israel and Judah / Judaea (Roman province) | Bible: New Testament / Mary, mother of Jesus | Military: Military of ancient Rome / Tiberius Iulius Abdes Pantera | Sex and the law: Rape / History of rape