Contesting the Three-Principle Systems of

the Refutation of All Heresies with David Litwa

Vidéo disponible dans le lien : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQg6xzPbK2o

Since the 1960s, scholars have been accustomed to categorize several groups of the Sondergut in the Refutation of All Heresies as “three-principle systems.” These groups include the Naassenes, Peratai, Simonians, Sethians, Doketai, and Monoimus. The purpose of this paper is to show how this classification generally reinscribes the heresiological tendencies of the author of the Refutation. I offer a fresh reading of these Sondergut sources with an eye to their variety and the specifics of their theology. In the end, although scholars can fruitfully speak of “principles” when referring to the theology of these groups, the principles were not always or even frequently triadic.

Conférence donnée dans le cadre du Projet « Les Platonismes de l’Antiquité Tardive » et le cycle de conférences 2022-2023 « Interactions Philosophies et Religieuses : Les Principes ».

Projet pluriannuel de recherches dirigé par Luciana Gabriela Soares Santoprete (CNRS – LEM), Anna Van den Kerchove (IPT), George Karamanolis (Université de Vienne), Éric Crégheur (Université Laval) et Dylan Burns (Université d’Amsterdam).

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