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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Alternative belief systems > Syncretist & eclectic religions & belief systems > Gnosticism
![Christian Gnosis (Hardcover): Ferdinand Christian Baur](//media.loot.co.za/images/x80/344796308305179215.jpg) |
Christian Gnosis
(Hardcover)
Ferdinand Christian Baur; Edited by Peter C. Hodgson; Translated by Robert F. Brown
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R1,803
Discovery Miles 18 030
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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Given the degree of popular fascination with Gnostic religions, it
is surprising how few pay attention to the one such religion that
has survived from antiquity until the present day: Mandaism.
Mandaeans, who esteem John the Baptist as the most famous adherent
to their religion, have in our time found themselves driven from
their historic homelands by war and oppression. Today, they are a
community in crisis, but they provide us with unparalleled access
to a library of ancient Gnostic scriptures, as part of the living
tradition that has sustained them across the centuries. Gnostic
texts such as these have caught popular interest in recent times,
as traditional assumptions about the original forms and cultural
contexts of related religious traditions, such as Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam, have been called into question. However,
we can learn only so much from texts in isolation from their own
contexts. Mandaean literature uniquely allows us not only to
increase our knowledge about Gnosticism, and by extension all these
other religions, but also to observe the relationship between
Gnostic texts, rituals, beliefs, and living practices, both
historically and in the present day.
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