|
Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Alternative belief systems > Syncretist & eclectic religions & belief systems > Gnosticism
The Naming of St. John Baptist; The Parables in St. Matthew; The
Mathematical Symbolism of the Gnosis; Words of Power used with the
Miracles; Vision of St. Peter and the Geometrical Symbol of the
Church; Epistle of Apollos to the Hebrews; Examples from the Holy
Scriptures; Gematria of the Greek Scriptures; plus more!
Volume 3 of Boris Mouravieff's Gnosis contains ancient keys to a
tradition of Christian esotericism that was necessarily hermetized
1800 years ago and has since remained unpublished, surviving to the
present only in unwritten form.
A new translation and commentary on the extracanonical Coptic text
that describes Judas' special status among Jesus' disciples Since
its publication in 2006, The Gospel of Judas has generated
remarkable interest and debate among scholars and general readers
alike. In this Coptic text from the second century C.E., Jesus
engages in a series of conversations with his disciples and with
Judas, explaining the origin of the cosmos and its rulers, the
existence of another holy race, and the coming end of the current
world order. In this new translation and commentary, David Brakke
addresses the major interpretive questions that have emerged since
the text's discovery, exploring the ways that The Gospel of Judas
sheds light on the origins and development of gnostic mythology,
debates over the Eucharist and communal authority, and Christian
appropriation of Jewish apocalyptic eschatology. The translation
reflects new analyses of the work's genre and structure, and the
commentary and notes provide thorough discussions of the text's
grammar and numerous lacunae and ambiguities.
Women Waldensians have been almost written out of studies of the
heretical sect, but are here shown to have played a full role
within it, regardless of gender. Agnes and Huguette were two
Waldensian women who were interrogated by the inquisitional court
of Pamiers, in southern France, in 1319 and subsequently burnt at
the stake for their heretical beliefs. Shahar uses the records of
their inquisition as a basis for an examination of the Waldensian
sect's attitude towards its women members, and their role within
the sect, comparing their lives with women in the Catholic church
and in other sects. She finds that ina persecuted voluntary group
such as the Waldensians, gender was largely immaterial, subordinate
to the fervent religious commitment of the members; nor did the
court of inquisition distinguish between male and female,
subjectingheretics of either sex to the same horrible punishment.
This is the first book-length treatment of women Waldensians, who
have been almost written out of studies of the sect, but are here
shown to have played a full role within it. It throws light on
women and gender in medieval society as well as on one of the main
heretical movements in France in the early fourteenth century.
SHULAMITH SHAHAR is Professor Emeritus of Medieval History, TelAviv
University.
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.
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.
Building on critical work in biblical studies, which shows how a
historically-bounded heretical tradition called Gnosticism was
'invented', this work focuses on the following stage in which it
was "essentialised" into a sui generis, universal category of
religion. At the same time, it shows how Gnosticism became a
religious self-identifier, with a number of sizable contemporary
groups identifying as Gnostics today, drawing on the same
discourses. This book provides a history of this problematic
category, and its relationship with scholarly and popular discourse
on religion in the twentieth century. It uses a critical-historical
method to show how and why Gnosis, Gnostic and Gnosticism were
taken up by specific groups and individuals - practitioners and
scholars - at different times. It shows how ideas about Gnosticism
developed in late nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholarship,
drawing from continental phenomenology, Jungian psychology and
post-Holocaust theology, to be constructed as a perennial religious
current based on special knowledge of the divine in a corrupt
world. David G. Robertson challenges how scholars interact with the
category Gnosticism, and contributes to our understanding of the
complex relationship between primary sources, academics and
practitioners in category formation.
The people we've come to call gnostics were passionate advocates of
the view that salvation comes through knowledge and personal
experience, and their passion shines through in the remarkable body
of writings they produced over a period of more than a millennium
and a half. Willis Barnstone and Marvin Meyer have created a
translation that brings the gnostic voices to us from across the
centuries with remarkable power and beauty--beginning with texts
from the earliest years of Christianity--including material from
the Nag Hammadi library--and continuing all the way up to
expressions of gnostic wisdom found within Islam and in the Cathar
movement of the Middle Ages. The twenty-one texts included here
serve as a compact introduction to Gnosticism and its principal
ideas--and they also provide an entree to the pleasures of gnostic
literature in general, representing, as they do, the greatest
masterpieces of that tradition.
A long-awaited illumination of the mystical movement that teaches
'Gnosis' - knowledge of God as opposed to unquestioning
faithAcclaimed author Andrew Phillip Smith delves into the myths
and practices of this ancient movement, exploring its early
popularity, its subsequent decline under the weight of orthodoxy in
the Church, and its present-day resurgence.Gnosticism has travelled
a fascinating path, from the Manichaeans in Persia between the 3rd
and 7th centuries, to the triumphs and tragedies of the Cathars in
southern Europe between the 12th and 14th centuries, to, finally,
today's Mandaeans in Iraq. However the revival of Gnosticism
extends further than these sects, offering inspiration to a legion
of literary figures, including Dan brown and Philip Pullman.
Gnostcisim's emphasis on personal over organized religion, in
keeping with the doctrine of the early Christian era during which
it thrived, has found particular resonance with today's
multicultural world.The Secret History of the Gnostics is not
simply an authoritative account of one sect's practical beliefs and
customs - it is, in effect, a manifesto, an appeal to those
inspired by or drawn to the Gnostic faith not to forget its
origins.
|
You may like...
The Gnostic World
Garry W. Trompf, Gunner B. Mikkelsen, …
Paperback
R1,484
Discovery Miles 14 840
Myth Analyzed
Robert A. Segal
Hardcover
R4,134
Discovery Miles 41 340
|