Miracles and Wonder

 I do occasionally read Christian theology, particularly if a woman wrote it.  I don't recall when I read author Elaine Pagels previously because it was a pre-computer read.  I'm pretty sure that it was The Gnostic Gospels, and that I was impressed with it.  Since I have no record of reading it, I don't have any further remarks.

 I recently finished reading Pagels' book Miracles and Wonder.  I received a copy from Net Galley for review.  So I'm reviewing it here and will post an excerpted version of the review on Goodreads as I am in the habit of doing. 

                                     

                                           

Each chapter addresses a theological question based on the gospels.  Pagels thinks that Jesus' followers were "papering over inconvenient facts".  One problem was Jesus being regarded as "illegitimate". So the early Christians decided that his mother was made pregnant by God.  Other problems  were Jesus being tossed into a common grave and his rising from the dead.  He also shouldn't be seen as a failed Jewish messiah who never established a kingdom in Israel, as the Jewish messiah is expected to do.  Yet Pagels' Jesus really needs no actual kingdom because he lives within us.

She tells us that when she quotes Greek translations of the Christian Gospels, they are her own translations.  They literally are Greek to me.  I know no Greek, and would therefore have no way of checking or confirming Pagels' translations.

This author believes that people are continually being attracted to Jesus because his stories are revised to respond to whatever the current issues are in each era.

One of my issues is egalitarianism.  In this book, there are numerous quotes from Psalms that focus on egalitarianism and justice.  Though I do have to say that Psalms is attributed to a King.  Monarchy is not an egalitarian institution, nor a particularly just one.

Pagels points out that if Jesus was the son of Mary and Joseph, he can't be the son of God.  I actually don't care about Jesus' parentage myself.

Pagels thinks that Jesus called himself "the Son of Man" in order to avoid calling himself either the son of God or a messiah.  Pagels says that "Son of Man" is a cover for his true identity, like Clark Kent was for Superman.

It piqued my interest when Pagels said that the Kingdom of God might be "an earthly kingdom with divine values".   To me, this description points right at Tibet.   I'm a fan of novels that take place in Tibet--most notably by Eliot Pattison.  I'd like to call my readers' attention to a review of Pattison's Bones of the Earth that I posted to this blog here.

But let's get back to Jesus.  Some of Jesus' miracles can be explained.  Pagels tells us about an instance from the Gospel of Mark in which Jesus brought back a girl from the dead. Yet she may have been in a coma.  Coma comes from the Greek word meaning "to sleep".  Jesus tells her in Aramaic "Little girl, get up."  She rises immediately and begins to walk.  

 Jesus would often tell people, "Your faith has healed you." Pagels wonders if these healings happened as a result of the placebo effect.  That seems likely to me. 

Sometimes Pagels makes statements that I know to be inaccurate or confused. For example, she says that the Romans re-named Israel as Judea.   

After the reign of King Solomon, the Jews had two kingdoms.  They were the Kingdom of Judea and the Kingdom of Israel.  They were two different territories geographically.  The Kingdom of  Judea's capital was Jerusalem, and the Kingdom of Israel's capital was Samaria. This comes from the biblical Books of Prophets. 

 Later, when the people of the Kingdom of Judea went into exile in Babylon, the people of the Kingdom of Israel stayed in Palestine. The practices of the Judeans evolved in Babylon by becoming much more codified.  The practices of the Kingdom of Israel became more polytheistic, and therefore no longer recognizable as Jewish.  The Kingdom of Israel was eventually conquered by the Assyrians.  Its people became thoroughly assimilated by their conquerors.                                                                   
When the Persians conquered Babylon, the Jews living in Babylon were encouraged to return to where they had lived in Judea.  Many of them did so, though a great many remained in Babylon. 

The four paragraphs above this one are the historical background that Pagels either didn't know or chose not to include.

I am bemused by Pagels' statement that stories of Jesus feeding people "strips the gospel narratives of meaning".  Generosity may not be a miracle, but it is significant.  Can't Jesus be both a messiah and generous?  It doesn't invalidate the claim of being a messiah, and in fact makes him even more worthy of that title.  

Pagels wonders what is left of the Jesus story when the legends and myths are stripped away.  Well, that's easy.  There have been some really great men who have benefited humanity since Jesus.  Some of them were certainly inspired by Jesus.  The Reverend Martin Luther King comes to mind for both me and Pagels.  His stature needs no miracle stories to assure him a place in history.  I think the same can be said of Jesus.  

I discovered from this book that the artist Marc Chagall painted crucifixions .  Previously,  I'd only seen Jewish identified Chagall paintings.   Pagels specifically mentions The White Crucifixion.  The link provided is from marcchagall.net.

I also learned from Pagels that the majority of the Dalits of India are Christians.  This isn't surprising since they were vilified as Untouchables in Hinduism for so many centuries.   

I found out from this book that there is a South African movie called The Son of Man.  It interprets the story of Jesus in terms of the struggle against apartheid.  That's a fascinating approach, but Pagels reveals that it depicts Mary Magdalene negatively.  She also discusses a British film called Mary Magdalene but comments I saw online dissuaded me from seeing it.

A book on the bibliography called The Cross and the Lynching Tree drew my interest.  I intend to read it, but I'm not certain when I can get to it. 

I thought that Miracles and Wonder was conceptually interesting, but I was surprised by what Pagels didn't seem to know. So I'm giving it four stars on Goodreads.

 

                                 

 

 

 

 

                                  

 

 

Red Flag Warning: California Wildfires, Evacuations and Climate Change

  I received a review copy of the essay anthology Red Flag Warning from Edelweiss, a website that distributes books to reviewers in advance of publication.                                  
                                     

 Red Flag Warning deals with the ongoing tragedy of California wildfires.  People losing their homes to the fires and having to evacuate is the most important news story for Californians.  Everyone is wondering if their area will be the next to burn.

Some local firefighters watched their own homes burn. 

To learn more about the background of the area described in this book, I looked up Taylorsville which is officially a part of Plumas County, California with a population of 150.  Red Flag Warning mentions that the local tavern displayed a mural of the flag of the proposed state of Jefferson. This implies that at least some of the residents would like to secede from California. 

Below is an image of the Jefferson state flag:

                              

Dan Kearns was regarded as the leader of those in Taylorsville who refused to evacuate in the face of the Dixie Fire and the much smaller  Fly Fire advancing toward the town. It seemed to me that Dan Kearns was being romanticized as a "frontiersman"  from the Wild West, but Kearns didn't make such claims about himself.  He said he was "just a guy" who was a local fire volunteer.  

When I read that those in the evacuation camps were getting sick from smoke inhalation, it seemed to me that the camps were too close to the fires. Admittedly, the Dixie Fire was the largest single source fire in California history.  Yet I really think the camps should have been further away.     

The author of that particular essay thinks that people watch news about their disaster for entertainment.  I watch and am reading about your disaster wondering when I'll have to evacuate myself.  I don't think my area is immune to disaster. I also don't think I'm the only one who has that fear.

I was particularly interested in reading about incarcerated firefighters. Incarcerated firefighters are one third of California's firefighting force.  They earn $2-$5 per day which becomes $1-$2 per hour while they are fighting an active fire.

 I found the interview with formerly incarcerated firefighter Brandon Smith illuminating.  He was from gang territory in Los Angeles County.   Smith was trained to fight fires in prison and became employed as a firefighter after he was released. He was the first formerly incarcerated firefighter to become a professional firefighter.  Brandon Smith initially refused to be a firefighter, but he liked the idea of serving the public when he'd been called a "public nuisance".

                        *******************

3/5/2025 Important Note

I have learned since reading this book that Brandon Smith lost his home in Altadena to the  Eaton Fire.  I think this man is a genuine hero and that he deserves support.  I generally don't put financial solicitations on this blog but I thought that those who are inclined to contribute should be aware that there is a  Go Fund Me Page for Brandon Smith.

                     **********************

  Smith told interviewer Dani Burlison that many localities require that firefighters be certified as Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs).  You can't become an EMT if you have two felony convictions and if you have one felony conviction, you may not be eligible for EMT training until 5-10 years after your sentence is served.

Since there is a shortage of firefighters in California, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation that formerly incarcerated firefighters "without any issues" could apply to have their felony convictions expunged.  I would assume that no issues means that the formerly incarcerated firefighter hadn't committed any crimes, or been charged with any since being released from prison.

As fire swept through Southern California, Margaret Elysia Garcia, the author of that particular essay,  said that she was thinking of  deceased science fiction author Octavia Butler, who grew up in Pasadena and is buried in Altadena which was partly burned.  Her novel Parable of the Sower deals with the impact of climate change, and predicts a similar political situation to the one we have now.  There is a scene in Parable of the Sower in which the protagonist was walking on Highway 20 through Lake County, and both sides of the highway are burning. Garcia was re-reading that scene on the first day of the Valley Fire.  I can imagine the horror that Garcia would have been feeling as fiction was fast becoming fact.                                        

I found a chart of  The Top 20 Most Destructive California Wildfires.  I note that the Eaton and Palisades wildfires,which are listed as the second and third most destructive, were 2025 wildfires.  They are 100% contained, but their causes are still under investigation.

This book is very significant and had a powerful impact on me.  I'm giving it a grade of A +.