Rethinking "Gnosticism"

Rethinking

Author: Michael Allen Williams

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 1999-04-12

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 1400822211

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Most anyone interested in such topics as creation mythology, Jungian theory, or the idea of "secret teachings" in ancient Judaism and Christianity has found "gnosticism" compelling. Yet the term "gnosticism," which often connotes a single rebellious movement against the prevailing religions of late antiquity, gives the false impression of a monolithic religious phenomenon. Here Michael Williams challenges the validity of the widely invoked category of ancient "gnosticism" and the ways it has been described. Presenting such famous writings and movements as the Apocryphon of John and Valentinian Christianity, Williams uncovers the similarities and differences among some major traditions widely categorized as gnostic. He provides an eloquent, systematic argument for a more accurate way to discuss these interpretive approaches. The modern construct "gnosticism" is not justified by any ancient self-definition, and many of the most commonly cited religious features that supposedly define gnosticism phenomenologically turn out to be questionable. Exploring the sample sets of "gnostic" teachings, Williams refutes generalizations concerning asceticism and libertinism, attitudes toward the body and the created world, and alleged features of protest, parasitism, and elitism. He sketches a fresh model for understanding ancient innovations on more "mainstream" Judaism and Christianity, a model that is informed by modern research on dynamics in new religious movements and is freed from the false stereotypes from which the category "gnosticism" has been constructed.


Book Synopsis Rethinking "Gnosticism" by : Michael Allen Williams

Download or read book Rethinking "Gnosticism" written by Michael Allen Williams and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 1999-04-12 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most anyone interested in such topics as creation mythology, Jungian theory, or the idea of "secret teachings" in ancient Judaism and Christianity has found "gnosticism" compelling. Yet the term "gnosticism," which often connotes a single rebellious movement against the prevailing religions of late antiquity, gives the false impression of a monolithic religious phenomenon. Here Michael Williams challenges the validity of the widely invoked category of ancient "gnosticism" and the ways it has been described. Presenting such famous writings and movements as the Apocryphon of John and Valentinian Christianity, Williams uncovers the similarities and differences among some major traditions widely categorized as gnostic. He provides an eloquent, systematic argument for a more accurate way to discuss these interpretive approaches. The modern construct "gnosticism" is not justified by any ancient self-definition, and many of the most commonly cited religious features that supposedly define gnosticism phenomenologically turn out to be questionable. Exploring the sample sets of "gnostic" teachings, Williams refutes generalizations concerning asceticism and libertinism, attitudes toward the body and the created world, and alleged features of protest, parasitism, and elitism. He sketches a fresh model for understanding ancient innovations on more "mainstream" Judaism and Christianity, a model that is informed by modern research on dynamics in new religious movements and is freed from the false stereotypes from which the category "gnosticism" has been constructed.

What is Gnosticism?

What is Gnosticism?

Author: Karen L. King

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 9780674017627

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A study of gnosticism examines the various ways early Christians strove to define themselves in a pluralistic Roman society, while questioning the traditional ideas of heresy and orthodoxy that have previously influenced historians.


Book Synopsis What is Gnosticism? by : Karen L. King

Download or read book What is Gnosticism? written by Karen L. King and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of gnosticism examines the various ways early Christians strove to define themselves in a pluralistic Roman society, while questioning the traditional ideas of heresy and orthodoxy that have previously influenced historians.

Paradise Reconsidered in Gnostic Mythmaking

Paradise Reconsidered in Gnostic Mythmaking

Author: Tuomas Rasimus

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2009-10-31

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 9047426703

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This book offers a new understanding of Sethianism and the origins of Gnosticism by examining the mythology in and social reality behind a group of texts to which certain leaders of the early church occasionally attached the label ‘Ophite.’ In the unique Ophite mythology, which rewrites the Genesis paradise story and is attested, for example, in Irenaeus’ Adversus haereses 1.30, The Apocryphon of John and On the Origin of the World, the snake’s advice to eat of the tree of knowledge is considered positive, the creator and his angels are turned into demonic beasts and the true Godhead is presented as an androgynous heavenly projection of Adam and Eve. It is argued that Hans-Martin Schenke’s influential model of the ‘Sethian system’ only reveals part of a larger whole to which the Ophite material belongs as an important and organic component.


Book Synopsis Paradise Reconsidered in Gnostic Mythmaking by : Tuomas Rasimus

Download or read book Paradise Reconsidered in Gnostic Mythmaking written by Tuomas Rasimus and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2009-10-31 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a new understanding of Sethianism and the origins of Gnosticism by examining the mythology in and social reality behind a group of texts to which certain leaders of the early church occasionally attached the label ‘Ophite.’ In the unique Ophite mythology, which rewrites the Genesis paradise story and is attested, for example, in Irenaeus’ Adversus haereses 1.30, The Apocryphon of John and On the Origin of the World, the snake’s advice to eat of the tree of knowledge is considered positive, the creator and his angels are turned into demonic beasts and the true Godhead is presented as an androgynous heavenly projection of Adam and Eve. It is argued that Hans-Martin Schenke’s influential model of the ‘Sethian system’ only reveals part of a larger whole to which the Ophite material belongs as an important and organic component.

Wrestling with Archons

Wrestling with Archons

Author: Jonathan Cahana-Blum

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2018-11-15

Total Pages: 211

ISBN-13: 1498566294

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This book demonstrates that ancient Christian Gnosticism was an ancient form of cultural criticism in a mythological garb. It establishes that, much like modern forms of critical theory, ancient Gnosticism was set on deconstructing mainstream discourses and cultural premises. Strains of critical theory dealt with include the Frankfurt School, queer theory, and poststructural philosophy. The book documents how in both ancient Gnosticism and modern critical theories issues that used to serve as premises for discussion or as concepts relegated to the realms of the “natural” and the “given” in their respective historical contexts, are transformed into objects of contention. The main aim of this book is to salvage the historical category of Gnosticism from its present scholarly disavowal, if only because Gnosticism, when read as a cultural, and not only a religious phenomenon, presents us an ancient form of culture criticism which would be hard to parallel until (post) modernity. While Hans Jonas remarked many years ago that “something in Gnosticism knocks at the door of our Being and of our twentieth-century Being in particular,” by the 21st century global world this something has already entered and lives with us. We can thus still benefit from another perspective, even if it comes from Mediterranean people who lived almost 2,000 years ago.


Book Synopsis Wrestling with Archons by : Jonathan Cahana-Blum

Download or read book Wrestling with Archons written by Jonathan Cahana-Blum and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-11-15 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book demonstrates that ancient Christian Gnosticism was an ancient form of cultural criticism in a mythological garb. It establishes that, much like modern forms of critical theory, ancient Gnosticism was set on deconstructing mainstream discourses and cultural premises. Strains of critical theory dealt with include the Frankfurt School, queer theory, and poststructural philosophy. The book documents how in both ancient Gnosticism and modern critical theories issues that used to serve as premises for discussion or as concepts relegated to the realms of the “natural” and the “given” in their respective historical contexts, are transformed into objects of contention. The main aim of this book is to salvage the historical category of Gnosticism from its present scholarly disavowal, if only because Gnosticism, when read as a cultural, and not only a religious phenomenon, presents us an ancient form of culture criticism which would be hard to parallel until (post) modernity. While Hans Jonas remarked many years ago that “something in Gnosticism knocks at the door of our Being and of our twentieth-century Being in particular,” by the 21st century global world this something has already entered and lives with us. We can thus still benefit from another perspective, even if it comes from Mediterranean people who lived almost 2,000 years ago.

By the Same Word

By the Same Word

Author: Ronald Cox

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 416

ISBN-13: 9783110193428

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This study compares writings from Second Temple Judaism, the New Testament and Gnosticism that adopt the Middle Platonic tri-partite view of reality, with its transcendent One, its cosmologically active intermediary, and its material realm, in their efforts to explain the relationship between the Deity and the physical cosmos. The study shows that these Jewish, Christian and Gnostic writings take up this intermediary doctrine to different ends, reflecting their distinctive views about creation and humanity's place therein.


Book Synopsis By the Same Word by : Ronald Cox

Download or read book By the Same Word written by Ronald Cox and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2007 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study compares writings from Second Temple Judaism, the New Testament and Gnosticism that adopt the Middle Platonic tri-partite view of reality, with its transcendent One, its cosmologically active intermediary, and its material realm, in their efforts to explain the relationship between the Deity and the physical cosmos. The study shows that these Jewish, Christian and Gnostic writings take up this intermediary doctrine to different ends, reflecting their distinctive views about creation and humanity's place therein.

Gnostic Wars

Gnostic Wars

Author: Rossbach Stefan Rossbach

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Published: 2019-08-07

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 1474472184

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In this unique exposition of important and yet often neglected developments in the history of Western spirituality, Stefan Rossbach reminds us of the philosophical and spiritual underpinnings of the Cold War era, drawing on the traditions of apocalypticism, millenarianism and 'Gnostic' spirituality.Beginning with the 'Gnostic' systems of late Antiquity, the analysis follows 'lines of meaning' which extend through the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, right up to the present. From the long-term perspective which is thereby established, the spectre of a man-made nuclear apocalypse appears as the latest and most dramatic expression of an outlook on the human condition which refuses to accept limits in the imposition of human designs on the world. The paradoxical continuities that underlie the sense of epoch evoked by the end of the Cold War highlight this work's profound implications for our understanding of contemporary international politics.


Book Synopsis Gnostic Wars by : Rossbach Stefan Rossbach

Download or read book Gnostic Wars written by Rossbach Stefan Rossbach and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2019-08-07 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this unique exposition of important and yet often neglected developments in the history of Western spirituality, Stefan Rossbach reminds us of the philosophical and spiritual underpinnings of the Cold War era, drawing on the traditions of apocalypticism, millenarianism and 'Gnostic' spirituality.Beginning with the 'Gnostic' systems of late Antiquity, the analysis follows 'lines of meaning' which extend through the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, right up to the present. From the long-term perspective which is thereby established, the spectre of a man-made nuclear apocalypse appears as the latest and most dramatic expression of an outlook on the human condition which refuses to accept limits in the imposition of human designs on the world. The paradoxical continuities that underlie the sense of epoch evoked by the end of the Cold War highlight this work's profound implications for our understanding of contemporary international politics.

Surprised by Hope

Surprised by Hope

Author: N. T. Wright

Publisher: Zondervan

Published: 2008-02-05

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 0061551821

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For years Christians have been asking, "If you died tonight, do you know where you would go?" It turns out that many believers have been giving the wrong answer. It is not heaven. Award-winning author N. T. Wright outlines the present confusion about a Christian's future hope and shows how it is deeply intertwined with how we live today. Wright, who is one of today's premier Bible scholars, asserts that Christianity's most distinctive idea is bodily resurrection. He provides a magisterial defense for a literal resurrection of Jesus and shows how this became the cornerstone for the Christian community's hope in the bodily resurrection of all people at the end of the age. Wright then explores our expectation of "new heavens and a new earth," revealing what happens to the dead until then and what will happen with the "second coming" of Jesus. For many, including many Christians, all this will come as a great surprise. Wright convincingly argues that what we believe about life after death directly affects what we believe about life before death. For if God intends to renew the whole creation—and if this has already begun in Jesus's resurrection—the church cannot stop at "saving souls" but must anticipate the eventual renewal by working for God's kingdom in the wider world, bringing healing and hope in the present life. Lively and accessible, this book will surprise and excite all who are interested in the meaning of life, not only after death but before it.


Book Synopsis Surprised by Hope by : N. T. Wright

Download or read book Surprised by Hope written by N. T. Wright and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2008-02-05 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For years Christians have been asking, "If you died tonight, do you know where you would go?" It turns out that many believers have been giving the wrong answer. It is not heaven. Award-winning author N. T. Wright outlines the present confusion about a Christian's future hope and shows how it is deeply intertwined with how we live today. Wright, who is one of today's premier Bible scholars, asserts that Christianity's most distinctive idea is bodily resurrection. He provides a magisterial defense for a literal resurrection of Jesus and shows how this became the cornerstone for the Christian community's hope in the bodily resurrection of all people at the end of the age. Wright then explores our expectation of "new heavens and a new earth," revealing what happens to the dead until then and what will happen with the "second coming" of Jesus. For many, including many Christians, all this will come as a great surprise. Wright convincingly argues that what we believe about life after death directly affects what we believe about life before death. For if God intends to renew the whole creation—and if this has already begun in Jesus's resurrection—the church cannot stop at "saving souls" but must anticipate the eventual renewal by working for God's kingdom in the wider world, bringing healing and hope in the present life. Lively and accessible, this book will surprise and excite all who are interested in the meaning of life, not only after death but before it.

Beyond Gnosticism

Beyond Gnosticism

Author: Ismo Dunderberg

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 0231141726

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Valentinus (100-160 C.E.) was an influential Gnostic opposed to the practices that would later become part of the Christian orthodoxy. This text covers Valentinus's interpretation of the biblical creation myth, in which he affirms mankind's original immortality and places a special emphasis on the 'frank speech' afforded to Adam by God.


Book Synopsis Beyond Gnosticism by : Ismo Dunderberg

Download or read book Beyond Gnosticism written by Ismo Dunderberg and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Valentinus (100-160 C.E.) was an influential Gnostic opposed to the practices that would later become part of the Christian orthodoxy. This text covers Valentinus's interpretation of the biblical creation myth, in which he affirms mankind's original immortality and places a special emphasis on the 'frank speech' afforded to Adam by God.

No Spiritual Investment in the World

No Spiritual Investment in the World

Author: Willem Styfhals

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2019-05-15

Total Pages: 333

ISBN-13: 1501731025

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Throughout the twentieth century, German writers, philosophers, theologians, and historians turned to Gnosticism to make sense of the modern condition. While some saw this ancient Christian heresy as a way to rethink modernity, most German intellectuals questioned Gnosticism's return in a contemporary setting. In No Spiritual Investment in the World, Willem Styfhals explores the Gnostic worldview's enigmatic place in these discourses on modernity, presenting a comprehensive intellectual history of Gnosticism's role in postwar German thought. Establishing the German-Jewish philosopher Jacob Taubes at the nexus of the debate, Styfhals traces how such figures as Hans Blumenberg, Hans Jonas, Eric Voegelin, Odo Marquard, and Gershom Scholem contended with Gnosticism and its tenets on evil and divine absence as metaphorical detours to address issues of cultural crisis, nihilism, and the legitimacy of the modern world. These concerns, he argues, centered on the difficulty of spiritual engagement in a world from which the divine has withdrawn. Reading Gnosticism against the backdrop of postwar German debates about secularization, political theology, and post-secularism, No Spiritual Investment in the World sheds new light on the historical contours of postwar German philosophy.


Book Synopsis No Spiritual Investment in the World by : Willem Styfhals

Download or read book No Spiritual Investment in the World written by Willem Styfhals and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2019-05-15 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout the twentieth century, German writers, philosophers, theologians, and historians turned to Gnosticism to make sense of the modern condition. While some saw this ancient Christian heresy as a way to rethink modernity, most German intellectuals questioned Gnosticism's return in a contemporary setting. In No Spiritual Investment in the World, Willem Styfhals explores the Gnostic worldview's enigmatic place in these discourses on modernity, presenting a comprehensive intellectual history of Gnosticism's role in postwar German thought. Establishing the German-Jewish philosopher Jacob Taubes at the nexus of the debate, Styfhals traces how such figures as Hans Blumenberg, Hans Jonas, Eric Voegelin, Odo Marquard, and Gershom Scholem contended with Gnosticism and its tenets on evil and divine absence as metaphorical detours to address issues of cultural crisis, nihilism, and the legitimacy of the modern world. These concerns, he argues, centered on the difficulty of spiritual engagement in a world from which the divine has withdrawn. Reading Gnosticism against the backdrop of postwar German debates about secularization, political theology, and post-secularism, No Spiritual Investment in the World sheds new light on the historical contours of postwar German philosophy.

Images of Rebirth

Images of Rebirth

Author: Hugo Lundhaug

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2010-08-09

Total Pages: 612

ISBN-13: 9004180265

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This book employs Cognitive Literary Theory in an analysis of Conceptual and Intertextual Blending in the Gospel of Philip and the Exegesis on the Soul, read as Christian texts contemporary with the production and use of the Nag Hammadi Codices.


Book Synopsis Images of Rebirth by : Hugo Lundhaug

Download or read book Images of Rebirth written by Hugo Lundhaug and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2010-08-09 with total page 612 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book employs Cognitive Literary Theory in an analysis of Conceptual and Intertextual Blending in the Gospel of Philip and the Exegesis on the Soul, read as Christian texts contemporary with the production and use of the Nag Hammadi Codices.