GNOSTICISM / MYSTICISMGnosticism was a contemporary of early Christianity whose demise can be traced to Christianity's efforts to silence its teachings. The Gnostic message, however, was not destroyed but simply went underground. Starting with the first emergence of Gnosticism, the author shows how its influence extended from the teachings of Neoplatonists and the magical traditions of the Middle Ages to the beliefs and ideas of the Sufis, Jacob Bohme, Carl Jung, Rudolf Steiner, and the Rosicrucians and Freemasons. In the language of spiritual Freemasonry, "gnosis" is the rejected stone necessary for the completion of the Temple, a temple of a new cosmic understanding that today's heirs to Gnosticism continue to strive to create.The Gnostics believed that the universe embodies a ceaseless contest between opposing principles. Terrestrial life exhibits the struggle between good and evil, life and death, beauty and ugliness, and enlightenment and ignorance: "gnosis" and "agnosis." The very nature of physical space and time is an obstacle to humanity's ability to remember its divine origins and recover its original unity with God. Thus the preeminent Gnostic secret is that we are God in potential, and the purpose of bona fide Gnostic teaching is to return us to our godlike nature.TOBIAS CHURTON is a filmmaker and the founding editor of the magazine "Freemasonry Today." He studied theology at Oxford University and created the award-winning documentary series and accompanying book "The Gnostics," as well as several other films on Christian doctrine, mysticism, and magical folklore. He lives in England.

If Jesus Christ is not God, of the same essence with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, having all the attributes of the Trinity while on earth as well as while He reigned in Heaven, then we, of all men, are most miserable. And how do we know that He is, and always has been, God from eternity? It is written in the Holy Scriptures.

But what if the version of the Bible we read is ambivalent, in one place saying He is co-equal with God, and in another place denying Him one or more of the attributes that are essential to God? Read this book and you will see that all but three of the new versions are guilty of denying Christ's goodness, sinlessness, omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence, and a dozen more of the attributes of God. You will see it written in black and white, with exact quotations from eight of the new versions.

This important challenge to the trend so evident in the new versions (the despising of the words God-breathed out through the prophets and apostles, and the mixing in of the corrupt wisdom of men), ought to be supported by every one of you who love God and His Word as HB wrote it.

The inspiration and insight of these Gnostic writings can become a companion on your own spiritual journey.

Just what is a soul, exactly? Where did the idea come from? How do we experience our souls? Two ancient Gnostic texts "The Exegesis on the Soul "and "The Hymn of the Pearl, " both presented here in all-new translations hold important clues to the development of the soul as a concept and reveal inspiring ways your own soul can remember and return to its unique, divine purpose.

"The Exegesis on the Soul" depicts the soul as a feminine figure who has fallen into the corrupted world and must find her way back to the Divine. It is the story of the soul s struggle and redemption that will embolden your own spiritual pilgrimage. "The Hymn of the Pearl" is an allegorical story about a prince sent to retrieve a precious pearl but who soon forgets his purpose and falls asleep. It is a moving tale of the importance of remembering your soul s identity and calling and knowing that only you can fulfill your destiny.

Accessible facing-page commentary explains the Gnostic writings for you even if you have no previous knowledge of Gnosticism or early Christianity. Additional material draws on ancient religions, Platonism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam and modern philosophical and psychological notions of the soul to place the Gnostic teachings in a clear historical context. By following the development of this concept through time, you will more clearly perceive and respond to the divine spark found in your own soul.

This expanded edition of "The Gnostic Bible" includes the "Gospel of Judas" - the recently discovered and translated Gnostic text that was an instant best seller on its original appearance in 2006 - in its most accessible translation yet. Also included in this work are such important and topical texts as the "Gospel of Mary Magdalene" and the "Gospel of Thomas". Religious thinkers engaged in the quest for wisdom and knowledge, the Gnostics proclaimed that salvation could be found through mystical knowledge and intuition. Dating from the first to the thirteenth centuries, the texts in "The Gnostic Bible" represent Jewish, Christian, Hermetic, Mandaean, Manichaean, Islamic, and Cathar forms of Gnostic spirituality, and they derive from Egypt, the Greco-Roman world, the Middle East, Syria, Iraq, China, France, and elsewhere.

Who were the Gnostics? And how did the Gnostic movement influence the development of Christianity in antiquity? Is it true that the Church rejected Gnosticism? This book offers an illuminating discussion of recent scholarly debates over the concept of "Gnosticism" and the nature of early Christian diversity. Acknowledging that the category "Gnosticism" is flawed and must be reformed, David Brakke argues for a more careful approach to gathering evidence for the ancient Christian movement known as the Gnostic school of thought. He shows how Gnostic myth and ritual addressed basic human concerns about alienation and meaning, offered a message of salvation in Jesus, and provided a way for people to regain knowledge of God, the ultimate source of their being. Rather than depicting the Gnostics as heretics or as the losers in the fight to define Christianity, Brakke argues that the Gnostics participated in an ongoing reinvention of Christianity, in which other Christians not only rejected their ideas but also adapted and transformed them. This book will challenge scholars to think in news ways, but it also provides an accessible introduction to the Gnostics and their fellow early Christians.

Gnosticism, together with alchemy, was for C. G. Jung the chief prefiguration of his analytical psychology. Jung did not simply interpret Gnostic texts psychologically but also cited them as confirmation of his psychology. An authority on theories of myth and Gnosticism, Robert Segal has searched the Jungian corpus to bring together in one volume Jung's main discussions of this ancient form of spirituality. Included in this volume are both Jung's sole work devoted entirely to Gnosticism, "Gnostic Symbols of the Self," and his own Gnostic myth, "Seven Sermons to the Dead." The book also contains key essays by two of the best-known writers on Jungian psychology and Gnosticism: Father Victor White and Gilles Quispel, whose "C. G. Jung und die Gnosis" is here translated for the first time. In his extensive introduction Segal discusses Jung's fascination with Gnosticism, the parallel for Jung between ancient Gnostics and modern Jungian patients, the Jungian meaning of Gnostic myths and of the Seven Sermons, Jung's possible misinterpretation of Gnosticism, and the common characterization of Jung himself as a contemporary Gnostic.

Augustine's Early Thought on the Redemptive Function of Divine Judgement considers the relationship between Augustine's account of God's judgment and his theology of grace in his early works. How does God use his law and the penal consequences of its transgression in the service of his grace, both personally and through his 'agents' on earth? Augustine reflected on this question from different perspectives. As a teacher and bishop, he thought about the nature of discipline and punishment in the education of his pupils, brothers, and congregants. As a polemicist against the Manichaeans and as a biblical expositor, he had to grapple with issues regarding God's relationship to evil in the world, the violence God displays in the Old Testament, and in the death of his own Son. Furthermore, Augustine meditated on the way God's judgment and grace related in his own life, both before and after his conversion. Bart van Egmond follows the development of Augustine's early thought on judgment and grace from the Cassiacum writings to the Confessions. The argument is contextualized both against the background of the earlier Christian tradition of reflection on the providential function of divine chastisement, and the tradition of psychagogy that Augustine inherited from a variety of rhetorical and philosophical sources. This study expertly contributes to the ongoing scholarly discussion on the development of Augustine's doctrine of grace, and to the conversation on the theological roots of his justification of coercion against the Donatists.

The world has often heard of the adventures of the great heros such as Aeneas, Hercules, and Parsifal - but for the first time, the meaning of those famous stories is made clear. The founder of the modern Gnostic Movement provides a deeply spiritual and psychological exploration of the ancient symbols hidden in Virgil's Aeneid, Richard Wagner's Parsifal, and more. Excerpts from these tales are interwoven with a series of practical exercises from the ancient Nordic Runes that help the serious student awaken their consciousness so they too can enter into their own direct experience of the parallel universes that we have long forgotten. "The human being, or better if we say, the poor intellectual animal mistakenly called man, has his consciousness completely asleep. Therefore, he certainly is incapable of vividly experiencing that which is not of time, that which is the Reality. "To consciously work within the distinct parallel universes, to travel by will in a lucid, clear, and brilliant way through all of those supra-sensible regions, is only possible by transforming the sub-consciousness into consciousness. "A judo of the Spirit exists; we are referring to the Runic exercises. These are formidable in order to attain the awakening of the consciousness."

Prolegomena to a History of Islamicate Manichaeism provides an annotated anthology of primary sources highlighting Manichaeism, a dualist religion emerging in Mesopotamia in the third century and which spread rapidly throughout the Roman and Sasanian empires until it was violently suppressed by both polities. It nevertheless continued to flourish - largely clandestinely - in the Near East, Central Asia, and China until it finally disappeared at the beginning of the seventeenth century. This book translates and assesses the importance of a number of Arabic, Persian, Syriac, and even Hebrew language testimonies for a better understanding of the cultural importance of what many scholars characterize as the first 'world religion'.

'This book is a masterpiece. I haven't been this excited or awakened by a book for a decade. This is what it looks like when an artist follows her heart and her passion instead of the crowd.' - Glennon Doyle From the author of REVEAL and How to Love Yourself (and Sometimes Other People) comes a shocking new exploration of the long-lost Gospel of Mary Magdalene. A gospel, as old and authentic as any that now make up the Bible, was buried deep in the Egyptian desert after an edict was sent out in the 4th century to have all copies of it destroyed. Fortunately, some rebel monks refused, and thanks to their disobedience we have several ancient manuscripts of the only gospel that was written in the name of a woman: The Gospel of Mary Magdalene. It speaks of a message quite different from the one that has been spread by Christian leaders for the past two millennia. Mary Magdalene's gospel says that we are not sinful, but that humans too, are made of the divine - and that divinity is not something you can receive through confession or absolution, but by turning inward and tuning in to the radical presence of love within.