Gnostic Religion in Antiquity
Roelof van den Broek, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013
Description
Gnostic religion is the expression of a religious worldview which is dominated by the concept of Gnosis, an esoteric knowledge of God and the human being which grants salvation to those who possess it. Roelof van den Broek presents here a fresh approach to the gnostic current of Late Antiquity within its historical and religious context, based on sources in Greek, Latin and Coptic, including discussions of the individual works of preserved gnostic literature. Van den Broek explores the various gnostic interpretations of the Christian faith that were current in the second and third centuries, whilst showing that despite its influence on early Christianity, gnostic religion was not a typically Christian phenomenon. This book will be of interest to theologians, historians of religion, students and scholars of the history of Late Antiquity and early Christianity, as well as specialists in ancient gnostic and hermetic traditions.
(Text from the publisher)
Table of contents
Preface page vii
List of abbreviations viii
1 Gnosis and gnostic religion 1
2 Gnostic literature I: tradition 13
The Greek tradition 13
The Coptic tradition 16
3 Gnostic literature II: texts 25
Classification 25
Non-gnostic or hardly gnostic writings in gnostic collections 29
The Gospel of Thomas and related texts 37
The Barbelo myth and the gnostic exegesis of Genesis 44
The Barbelo myth and heavenly journeys 71
Valentinian texts 91 Polemical texts 108
Other mythological traditions 116
4 Anti-gnostic literature 126
Irenaeus 126 Hippolytus 129
Epiphanius 132
Plotinus and his pupils 133
5 Gnosis: essence and expressions 136
The gnostic experience 136
God and his world 150
Mankind and its world 168
Salvation 184
6 Backgrounds
206 The quest for the source
206 Greek philosophy (Platonism)
207 Judaism 211
Christianity 220
The spirit of the age 226
Bibliography 232
Index of ancient sources 248
Index of names and subjects 253
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