Elaine Pagels
Historian of religion
Elaine Pagels is an American historian of religion who has researched early Christianity and Gnosticism. Her book The Gnostic Gospels was a bestseller.
1 summary 24 min of listening
American Born 1943 in Palo Alto, United States
About Elaine Pagels
Pagels was born in 1943 and earned her doctorate at Harvard University in 1970. She went on to teach at Barnard College, part of Columbia University, and led its religion department. She later became the Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University, and is now professor emeritus there. The Gnostic Gospels (1979) is her best-selling book. It won the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and Modern Library placed it among the 100 best nonfiction books of the twentieth century. She was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 1981, and in 2016 she received the National Humanities Medal. Her other books include The Origin of Satan and Adam, Eve, and the Serpent. Our catalog features her book Why Religion?