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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Alternative belief systems > Syncretist & eclectic religions & belief systems > Gnosticism
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.
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.
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.
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.
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