Early Life and Education
Pagels was born in California, daughter of a research biologist. Pagels began attending an evangelical church as a teenager, attracted by the certainty and emotional power of the group, but ceased attending church after the death of a Jewish friend in a car wreck when her brethren said, unfortunately the friend hadn't been saved and so was in Hell: "Distressed and disagreeing with their interpretation — and finding no room for discussion — I realized that I was no longer at home in their world and left that church." Pagels remained fascinated by the power of Christianity, both for fostering love and for the divisiveness that can shadow the belief that one has received a divinely revealed truth.
She was graduated from Stanford University (B.A. 1964, M.A. 1965). After briefly studying dance at Martha Graham's studio, she began studying for her Ph.D. in religion at Harvard University as a student of Helmut Koester and part of a team studying the Nag Hammadi library manuscripts.
She married the theoretical physicist, Heinz Pagels, in 1969. Upon completing her Ph.D. in 1970, she joined the faculty at Barnard College. She headed its department of religion from 1974 until she moved to Princeton in 1982.She has two children Sarah Pagels DiMatteo married to John D. DiMatteo and David V. Pagels.
Read more about this topic: Elaine Pagels
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