A distinctive Christian heresy? A competitor of burgeoning
Christianity? A pre-Christian folk religion traceable to "Oriental
syncretism"? How do we account for the disparate ideas, writings,
and practices that have been placed under the Gnostic rubric? To do
so, Karen King says, we must first disentangle modern
historiography from the Christian discourse of orthodoxy and heresy
that has pervaded--and distorted--the story.
Exciting discoveries of previously unknown ancient
writings--especially the forty-six texts found at Nag Hammadi in
1945--are challenging historians of religion to rethink not only
what we mean by Gnosticism but also the standard account of
Christian origins. "The Gospel of Mary" and "The Secret Book of
John," for example, illustrate the variety of early Christianities
and are witness to the struggle of Christians to craft an identity
in the midst of the culturally pluralistic Roman Empire. King shows
how historians have been misled by ancient Christian polemicists
who attacked Gnostic beliefs as a "dark double" against which the
new faith could define itself. Having identified past distortions,
she is able to offer a new and clarifying definition of Gnosticism.
Her book is thus both a thorough and innovative introduction to the
twentieth-century study of Gnosticism and a revealing exploration
of the concept of heresy as a tool in forming religious
identity.
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