Ritual, magic, liturgy, and theurgy were central features of Gnosticism, and yet Gnostic practices remain understudied. This anthology is meant to fill in this gap and address more fully what the ancient Gnostics were doing. While previously we have studied the Gnostics as intellectuals in pursuit of metaphysical knowledge, the essays in this book attempt to understand the Gnostics as ecstatics striving after religious experience, as prophets seeking revelation, as mystics questing after the ultimate God, as healers attempting to care for the sick and diseased. These essays demonstrate that the Gnostics were not necessarily trendy intellectuals seeking epistomological certainities. They were after religious experiences that relied on practices. The book is organized comparatively in a history-of-religions approach with sections devoted to Initiatory, Recurrent, Therapeutic, Ecstatic, and Philosophic Practices. This book celebrates the brilliant career of Birger A. Pearson.

The reality of business is that increasing and dynamic natural, technological and human induced threats, business complexity, government regulation, corporate governance requirements, and media and public scrutiny demand a comprehensive and integrated approach to business crisis and continuity management (BCCM). Given the lack of a widely accepted framework for an enterprise wide BCCM program with an understanding of functional relationships and an inventory of the program specific competencies necessary for effective job performance, program success can be left to chance in spite of the noblest intentions. This manuscript describes the research methods and the findings that contribute to the understanding of the organizational functions supporting the management of disruptive (crisis) events and the continuity of operations, the inter dependencies of these functions, and a prioritized inventory of competencies required by an executive level individual and/or organizational unit responsible for coordinating the functions into a comprehensive and integrated program supporting the entire organizational enterprise.