1861. The growing power of the infant Gnosticism acting with inspiration upon the quick warm nature of the Jordan Nazarenes laid the seed which, nourished by the accumulated wisdom of the illustrious teachers of the Pharisees, ultimately ripened into the New Testament - the priceless pearl of the Jewish conception. The earliest Gnosticism in Irenaeus extends a hand to the Gnosticism of the Kaball. Irenaeus's Gnostica, the Codex Basareus, the oldest parts of the Kabbala, the first three chapters of Genesis, the New Testament theology, Hippolytus, and some extracts from the Rabbins, are all brought together. See other works by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.

An endeavor to systematize and elucidate the Corpus Hermeticum. This volume emphasizes the more primary and fundamental truths of the Pymander so the reader may gain a comprehensive survey of the entire field it covers.

Early Christian mystical groups were called Gnostics, meaning those who know, because of their spiritual knowledge. Their teachers were persecuted and most documents destroyed because the Church desired a uniform set of beliefs to operate under. "Pistis Sophis" was the most important Gnostic work until the discovery and publication of "The Nag Hammadi Library." It remains an important milestone in Gnostic research and should be part of any serious study. It is the story of how we, as spiritual beings, have fallen into the physical world. The soul is asleep, unaware of its true nature, but the purpose of this gospel is to help awaken us.

Peter Wilberg presents a political history of the subversive 'gnostic' theologies of the first century, and with it, a theo-political critique of the ruling god-concepts of the 21st century. 'From New Age to New Gnosis' is spiritual Marxism and a powerful spearhead aimed at the 'New World Order' of economic 'liberalism', neo-conservatism and military imperialism. It challenges all four faces of its famous dollar pyramid - the 'i-dollartry' of new technologies, the reduction of the human being to a genetic machine, the politically illiterate platitudes of New Age 'spirituality' - and the spiritual illiterate 'literalism' of Christian biblical fundamentalism and racist Zionazism - which now see their own zealotry mirrored and confronted by militant Islam. What Peter Wilberg's recognises is that what our divided world now calls for is not a revival of fundamentalisms of any sort but a New Gnostic spirituality that understands the "wordless knowledge within the word" (Seth).

This fascinating book presents for the first time a complete introduction to Mandaeanism, a branch of Gnosticism that has survived to the present day.

In an engaging style that mirrors the interesting nature of his subject, Edmondo Lupieri portrays the traditional way of life of the Mandaeans, still found living today in Iraq and Iran, and introduces readers to the world of Mandaean ideas -- including the view that they are the only ones on earth who possess the true and oldest faith.

Lupieri reconstructs the history of the interaction between Mandaeanism and the Western world, beginning with Ricoldo da Montecroce, a thirteenth-century Italian monk who is the first known European to write about the Mandaeans, and continuing on to present scholarship. He also offers a critical analysis of the Mandaean written and oral traditions concerning their origin, history, and self-understanding.

The book is made even more valuable by the inclusion of an extensive anthology of translated Mandaean texts, complete with notes. This collection of writings presents the spiritual world of Mandaeanism with fragments of mythicaltheological texts and pages of ethical and historical meditations.

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!

Modern interpretation of the Manichaean religious tradition requires a firm foundation in the sober and meticulous reconstruction of highly fragmentary sources. The studies collected in this volume contribute to such a foundation by bringing new primary texts to the public for the first time, extracting new data from previously known sources, and defining and delimiting important but previously neglected sets of material. The studies are authored by an international group of leading scholars in the fields of ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern studies, comparative religion, early Christianity, patristics, art history, Turkic studies and Coptology. The textual and art historical materials examined possess distinctive histories, character and significance representing the broad geographical range of Manichaeism from Algeria to China. By elucidating these essential remains of the Manichaean religion, the comprehensive treatments contained in "Emerging from Darkness" provide a provocative picture of Manichaeism as a diverse and productive tradition in a variety of settings and media. The volume will be foundational for future scholarly studies on the sources presented and for studies in Manichaeism and late antique religions in general.

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 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.

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.