Join the Westar Institute for an evening with Elaine Pagels, one of the world’s most influential historians of early Christianity, as she discusses her new book, Miracles and Wonder: The Historical Mystery of Jesus.
In this online event, Pagels explores how stories of miracles, signs, and wonders shaped the earliest gospel traditions and why these stories mattered so deeply to the communities that told them. Rather than asking whether miracles “really happened,” she invites us to consider how memory, scripture, and historical circumstance worked together to form the stories that still shape Christian imagination today.
Elaine Pagels will speak for approximately 30 minutes, followed by extended audience Q&A.
Questions are welcome on Miracles and Wonder as well as on her earlier, influential books.
No reading is required. Come with your questions and your curiosity!
Miracles and Wonder: The Historical Mystery of Jesus (2025)
In Miracles and Wonder, Elaine Pagels examines the gospel stories that have fascinated readers for centuries, from the virgin birth to healings, signs, and divine encounters. Drawing on historical research, close readings of biblical texts, and deep knowledge of early Jewish and Christian traditions, Pagels shows how these stories were shaped by memory, scripture, and the lived experiences of Jesus’ earliest followers.
Rather than treating the gospels as either literal history or mere fiction, Pagels invites readers into the historical mystery itself, asking what these stories reveal about how early Christians understood Jesus and why such narratives carried enduring power. The result is a thoughtful, accessible exploration of the gospels that speaks to scholars, seekers, and anyone interested in how religious meaning takes shape.
Elaine Pagels
Elaine Pagels is Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University and one of the most respected scholars of early Christianity in the world. She is best known for her groundbreaking book The Gnostic Gospels, which won both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
Her many other influential works include Beyond Belief, Adam, Eve, and the Serpent, Revelations, and Why Religion? Across her career, Pagels has been widely praised for bringing rigorous historical scholarship into conversation with contemporary questions about meaning, belief, and human experience.
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