Why Religion? is, as its subtitle states, a personal story, but it’s also a wide-ranging work of cultural reflection and a brisk tour of the most exciting religion scholarship over the past 40 years ... She is consistently, sometimes hilariously humble. She mentions that she started reading Greek the way one of us might mention that we started watching Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt ... Her controversial professional triumphs and critical discoveries are recounted with head-spinning speed ... As she speaks of profound spiritual and religious matters, I pined for a more poetic and contemplative style, something along the order of Marilynne Robinson or Christian Wiman ... But when the memoir arrives at the death of her little boy, Pagels’s tone feels bracingly appropriate ... One gets the impression that studying herself in the crucible of grief was often the lone activity that kept her sane ... Pagels is as fearless as she is candid. In the depths of her sorrow, she recalls uncanny coincidences, acts of precognition, ghostly visitations and even a confrontation with a demon one night in the hospital. These episodes are never submitted as factual evidence of supernatural intervention. Instead, Pagels offers her subjective experiences to demonstrate the way our lives are molded by ancient stories, consciously and unconsciously ... Why Religion? feels miraculous and yet entirely believable.
... searing and wise ... [Pagels'] account of [her son's] five years of life are tender and wrenching, sketched with exquisite detail ... Loss proves a powerful prod to a fiercely able scholar. [Pagels] is tenacious, prodigious, exhaustive ... Interestingly, the most powerful moments in this narrative are not her arguments with other exegetes, however. They are a series of remarkable visions and mystical experiences Pagels interweaves with her more intellectual journey and that leave her (and the reader) undone. She is strangely transformed by these brief moments, drawn beyond the labyrinth of grief and into a place of grace.
A recounting of [Pagels'] personal story has been a long time coming. Her husband and child died more than 30 years ago, and reading about her life, love, work and unimaginable pain, we can feel how difficult it has been for this reserved scholar of early Christianity to enter the black hole of her feelings. Her account has none of the frenzied and claustrophobic madness of Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking; nor the wild pain and rushing love of Sonali Deraniyagala’s Wave, written in the aftermath of the sudden death of her family in the 2004 tsunami ... Fueled by her intellect, and fortunate to have access to the Gnostic Gospels... Pagels, bravely, forthrightly and with a characteristic minimum of fuss, cracks herself ajar. This is a minimalist work of great majesty, akin to a shimmering Agnes Martin painting, whose stripped-down aesthetic allows light to pour forth from her canvas.
... the story [Pagels] tells is compelling and persuasive, and her nonsectarian perspective means her faith story will resonate with followers of various religious traditions ... Pagels's book is therefore a personal testimony, but it simultaneously reflects her scholarship as a student of the ancient texts. It is that combination that makes her story distinctive and gives it unusual power.
Why Religion? is, as its subtitle states, a personal story, but it’s also a wide-ranging work of cultural reflection and a brisk tour of the most exciting religion scholarship over the past 40 years ... She is consistently, sometimes hilariously humble. She mentions that she started reading Greek the way one of us might mention that we started watching Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt ... Her controversial professional triumphs and critical discoveries are recounted with head-spinning speed ... As she speaks of profound spiritual and religious matters, I pined for a more poetic and contemplative style, something along the order of Marilynne Robinson or Christian Wiman ... But when the memoir arrives at the death of her little boy, Pagels’s tone feels bracingly appropriate ... One gets the impression that studying herself in the crucible of grief was often the lone activity that kept her sane ... Pagels is as fearless as she is candid. In the depths of her sorrow, she recalls uncanny coincidences, acts of precognition, ghostly visitations and even a confrontation with a demon one night in the hospital. These episodes are never submitted as factual evidence of supernatural intervention. Instead, Pagels offers her subjective experiences to demonstrate the way our lives are molded by ancient stories, consciously and unconsciously ... Why Religion? feels miraculous and yet entirely believable.
While most of Why Religion? extends an open hand to believers and nonbelievers alike, stressing our vulnerability to fate and our need to make sense of a chaotic world, occasional passages may baffle some readers ... In the end, though, Why Religion? is not so much an argument to be defended as it is the heartfelt confession of a survivor. Most of the time Pagels writes as one of us, never pretending that her vast learning provides armor against suffering ... Readers of all faiths and none can learn from [Pagels'] brilliance and courage.
Why Religion? invites readers into a house of questioning, offers stories of Pagels’ understanding of grief and death — of a childhood friend, of her only child, and, a year later, of her husband — combined with her deep-seated grasp of the study of religion and human culture. Those well-versed in their own spiritual traditions will likely learn something new here, and those who tend to stay away from religious organizations will appreciate getting the perspective of an academic, a wife, and a mother who uses a balanced tone to dig into questions worth asking.
Unsparingly honest ... [A] brilliant book, which stimulates intellectual curiosity and thought while giving equal weight to Pagel’s emotional life. It is a felicitous mixture that will excite both those familiar with her work and those for whom this volume will be an intriguing introduction.
But Why Religion? is, as the subtitle has it, a personal story—you could call it a dark night of the soul. As harrowing as the opening chapter is... there is much worse to come. At the memoir’s core is an excruciating, unthinkable double tragedy ... Such needy heretics will find much to choose from in Why Religion? It is an uneven book, occasionally perfunctory, and it ends with a thud in Harvard Yard, where Pagels is receiving an honorary degree alongside Oprah Winfrey ... But it is a book entirely free of false comfort. There is no pious uplift in Pagels’s struggle with, and partial triumph over, grief and despair. There is just, sometimes, something she 'can only call grace.'
... beautiful ... Pagels treats readers to the examined life behind her intellectual feats with extreme grace and depth. This luminous memoir strips religion to its elementary particles: love, suffering, and mystery.
The author’s academic pursuits unfold alongside a touching personal life story ... Pagels is a controversial figure in Christianity, heralded by many scholars and modernists yet derided by traditionalists, and her approach to God—amorphous and skeptical—will either offend or resonate with particular readers. The story of her grief, however, will touch all. A meaningful tale of pain and hope on the edges of faith.
