Why Religion?: A Personal Story Kindle Edition

Many years ago when I first learned of Dr. Pagel's husband death, I was at the time a subscriber to the Sciences magazine and his obituary was part of an editorial, I thought to my self, bad things do happen to good people. As I read this book, Why Religion? I became more and more intrigued by the continual questioning of personal misfortunes by the author. Through it all—the frightening aspect of being the sole provider, becoming accustom to loneliness, and the slow passing of time, became too real to this reader. Afterward, I stood and questioned my beliefs in good and evil and what those concepts meant to me. I could not put down the book as I was drawn into Dr. Pagel's narrative and wanted to know the end result. But like a cushioned landing I was let down gently and walked away knowing all humans share the same questions. At the end, I immediately remembered the Pilgrims Mass at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compestla, Spain and that part of the mass where the expression of peace is shared by the attendees...suddenly, the words, "May peace be with you," are expressed in Spanish, French, Portualgese, German, Japanese, Italian, so many other languages but all conveying the same sentiment. I feel enlighten by the book and the fact that humans believe in hope and in a better tomorrow. Thank you, Dr. Pagel for sharing.

There is reading a book, and there is drinking up a book as if you are unexpectedly thirsty for precisely its taste, for what it is. This is a drinking book. It offers much to readers who have been moved by Dr. Pagels' previous works, to those who have found their way independently to the Gnostic Gospels, to any for whom the question "Why Religion?" is vivid. In a time when there is so much idiocy, this book represents the height of intelligence, not only of mind but of heart.

The first half of the book tells the story of the death of her son and then her husband. As horrid as this story was and is, it was not what I expected. Just as I was growing weary (?) of this terrible sequence of events and its effect on her, she layers on the texture provided by the Bible and the Gnostic Gospels and the entire story begins to fall in place. This book is different than her other books. I am a loyal fan and, in the end, this book added knowledge and perspective. The answers to our questions may lie, in part, in ourselves. And finally, Fr. Barbour, faith is a gift.

I logged onto my Amazon account to purchase this book - but find that the ebook for the Kindle (my preferred format) is more expensive than the hardback copy! That makes no sense to me and I won't support the illogic of the pricing structure.

A moving personal story written beautifully and with depth. In asking universal questions about suffering and weaving in her quest for meaning, Dr. Pagel shows us a way to understand the imponderables of life. A must read for anyone who cannot find the answers in dogmatic religion—and for anyone dealing with grief. As poetic and impactful as Joan Didion’s Year of Magical Thinking, but perhaps with more hope. It moved me to tears, and I could not put it down!

Brilliantly written, without dogma, exposition of why religion persists in the face of the onslaught of rational thinking. Dr Pagels includes the story of her own terrible personal losses to illustrate her need for finding some deeper meaning in life thru her research on Christianity. I found this book when I was most in need of it.

Religious scholar Elaine Pagels memoir about her life including how she was personally brought to religious faith after the death of her 6 year old son and, the following year, the death of her husband famous physicist Heinz Pagels in a mountaineering accident. Extremely honest, raw and ultimately uplifting, a beautifully written book about surviving the worst life can dish out. Highly recommend.

I have read most all of Elaine Pagel's works and they along with Joseph Campbell's works (especially Tho Art That) have aided me on a journey to seek the truth of my being. Here she bares her soul to the breaking point and through it al comes out the other side with grace and dignity.The only downgrade is when Ms. Pagels becomes somewhat political in the last chapter. One quick example is stating President Bush wanted to wage a war on Muslims. To be fair he stated he would protect us from Radical Muslim terrorists wherever they resided. Outside of that minor quibble I thoroughly enjoyed her latest book as I have her other's works.FR Bailey

Pagels had written several books on Gnosticism. She had long rejected Christianity, and for a long time, religion itself. Then tragedy struck her, not once, but twice – her lovely son, Mark, whose photographs appear in the book, died. She was devastated, and not long after, her husband, Heinz, died. She has two other children, David and Sarah, but two great loves in her life had been extinguished. Pagel’s love for Mark and Heinz is touchingly made clear in this book. In it, she tells about how she struggled to understand their deaths, and how to overcome her grief. She revisits Christianity and other forms of spiritualism. Eventually, settling on a form of Christianity through her own interpretation of Paul’s words. Her interpretation, of course, was gleaned from her long-study of Gnosticism. At page 261, she asks, ‘What, then is the true gospel? Fascinated, I realized that the anonymous author of ‘The Gospel of Truth’ writes to answer that question, and to reveal that secret wisdom – or, at least, his version of it. He begins with the words “The true gospel is joy, to those who receive from the Father the grace of knowing him!” Plunging into that mystery, he says that the true gospel, unlike the simple message, doesn’t begin in human history. Instead, it begins before this world was created.’ Although this is a thoughtful, personal, and sincere book, the point that comes through mostly clearly is that when we cannot overcome grief through reason, we have to overcome it with another emotion. We are individuals and have to pick our choices. Those who can overcome grief through reason will not need religion even if that may, from some viewpoint depict them as cold. The second option, the one Pagels chose, was to overcome grief through the feeling of another emotion – in her case, she calls it ‘grace’ through God, not necessarily the Christian God, though. There is a third option, which is to overcome grief (and the fear of death) not through reason or emotion. It is the Buddhist way of staring at death without a need to rationalise its purpose nor to feel grief or dread. It is to meet death and grief with plain equanimity.