Download or read book Gnosticism Through the Prism of the Third Millennium written by Alexander Maistrovoy and published by Partridge Publishing Singapore. This book was released on 2018-04-27 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the epoch of the late antiquity, Gnostic schools gave their own exhaustive answers for the eternal questions of humankind: Who are we? Where did we come from, and why do we exist? What gives rise to endless and inescapable evil and suffering? Jorge Borges describes the Gnostic view of lifethat we are a careless or criminal blunder, the fruit of engagement of the flawed deity and crude material. Thus, the Gnostic answers to these questions were radically different from those espoused by traditional religions of the time. Gnosticism through the Prism of the Third Millennium explores this Gnostic view of life and how they viewed a material world as a distortion of celestial spheresand how in humanity they saw a being doomed to suffering yet carrying inside the spark of the supreme, divine world. Author Alexander Maistrovoy offers a history of Gnosticism and its confrontation with the church, showing how despite the crash of Gnostic schools, its teachings and its questions did not disappear. Today we can make sense of Gnostic philosophy not through the prism of mysticism or mythology, but from the point of view of rationalism, scientific knowledge, and historical experience. And what we will discover is that Gnostic thought has meaning and relevancy today, shedding light on fundamental questions about the universe, ourselves, and the divine.
Download or read book Gnosis written by Todd C. Settimo and published by . This book was released on 2005-01-01 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With durable leather-like cover
Download or read book The Gnostic New Age written by April D. DeConick and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2016-09-27 with total page 515 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gnosticism is a countercultural spirituality that forever changed the practice of Christianity. Before it emerged in the second century, passage to the afterlife required obedience to God and king. Gnosticism proposed that human beings were manifestations of the divine, unsettling the hierarchical foundations of the ancient world. Subversive and revolutionary, Gnostics taught that prayer and mediation could bring human beings into an ecstatic spiritual union with a transcendent deity. This mystical strain affected not just Christianity but many other religions, and it characterizes our understanding of the purpose and meaning of religion today. In The Gnostic New Age, April D. DeConick recovers this vibrant underground history to prove that Gnosticism was not suppressed or defeated by the Catholic Church long ago, nor was the movement a fabrication to justify the violent repression of alternative forms of Christianity. Gnosticism alleviated human suffering, soothing feelings of existential brokenness and alienation through the promise of renewal as God. DeConick begins in ancient Egypt and follows with the rise of Gnosticism in the Middle Ages, the advent of theosophy and other occult movements in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and contemporary New Age spiritual philosophies. As these theories find expression in science-fiction and fantasy films, DeConick sees evidence of Gnosticism's next incarnation. Her work emphasizes the universal, countercultural appeal of a movement that embodies much more than a simple challenge to religious authority.
Download or read book The Gnostics written by Andrew Phillip Smith and published by Watkins Media Limited. This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: According to the ancient Gnostics—the early Christians who wrote such controversial texts as the recently discovered Gospel of Judas—we are all capable of gnosis, or direct knowledge of the true reality that lies behind the material world. Andrew Phillip Smith, author of respected works on the lost sayings of Jesus, the Gospel of Philip, and other Gnostic subjects, now offers a highly accessible layman’s introduction to this long-suppressed philosophy that offers an intriguing alternative to accepted Christian beliefs. With references to The Da Vinci Code, The Matrix, and other fictions inspired by the Gnostic worldview, this is an eye-opening, and possibly life-changing book meant to revive forgotten traditions, and perhaps even allow readers to experience gnosis themselves.
Download or read book The New Testament and Gnosis written by Alastair Logan and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-01-29 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Important essays on Gnosis and Gnosticism. Contributors include Rudolph, Pagels, Grant, and Barrett.
Download or read book Gnosis written by Kurt Rudolph and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2001-06-20 with total page 438 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Translated by R. McL. WilsonA full-scale study based on the documents of the Coptic Gnostic library found at Nag Hammadi providing a comprehensive survey of the nature, the teachings, the history and the influence of this religion.
Download or read book Pre Christian Gnosticism written by Edwin M. Yamauchi and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2003-10-14 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most important issues facing New Testament scholarship today is the issue of Gnosticism. So wrote the author in 1973 in the first edition. With the publication since then of the entire Nag Hammadi library, this observation has become even more incisive. Was there a pre-Christian Gnosticism? Did Gnosticism directly or indirectly influence nascent Christianity? Many modern scholars argue that Gnosticism preceded the emergence of New Testament Christianity and constituted the raw material from which the apostles formed their message about Jesus. The author here analyzes the evidence used to support this thesis. He notes a series of methodological fallacies in the use of this evidence and concludes that clearly Gnostic materials are late and pre-Christian materials are not clearly Gnostic. A new chapter in this paperback edition brings the discussion up to date.
Download or read book Gnosticism and the New Testament written by Pheme Perkins and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The gnostic writings found at Nag Hammadi have stimulated much controversy about the relationship between early Christians and the diverse religious movement of the first three centuries. Perkins fills the New Testament student's need for a guide to recent developments in scholarship with a helpful survey that addresses the origins of Gnosticism, its relationship to Judaism, Redeemer myths and New Testament hymns, and other relevant topics.
Download or read book The Gnostic Scriptures Second Edition written by Bentley Layton and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2021-07-06 with total page 761 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of extra-biblical scriptures written by the gnostics, updated with three ancient texts including the recently discovered Gospel of Judas This definitive introduction to the gnostic scriptures provides a crucial look at the theology, religious atmosphere, and literary traditions of ancient Christianity and Hellenistic Judaism. It provides authoritative translations of ancient texts from Greek, Latin, and Coptic, with introductions, bibliographies, and annotations. The texts are organized to reflect the history of gnosticism in the second through fourth centuries CE. This second edition provides updates throughout and adds three new ancient texts, including the recently discovered Gospel of Judas.
Download or read book The Essence of the Gnostics written by Bernard Simon and published by Arcturus Publishing. This book was released on 2005-03-01 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For what is it that the All lacked, if not the knowledge of the Father?' - Gnostic text from the Gospel of Truth Long before there was a system of belief called Gnosticism there were those who reached for a special intimate knowledge of God and His mysterious ways. The possession of such knowledge, they believed, would bring salvation from suffering. All religious traditions acknowledged that the world is imperfect. Where they differ is in the explanations they offer for this imperfection - and in what they suggest might be done about it. While many religionists hold that humans are to be blamed for these imperfections, the Gnostics believed that the world is flawed because it was created in a flawed manner, thereby implicating the creator. Such a perspective was regarded as blasphemous by fellow-Christians at the dawn of the new religion, and led to the sect's persecution. Equally concerning were the Gnostics' liberal views regarding sex, the role of women, and toleration of other faiths. In The Essence of the Gnostics Bernard Simon offers a fascinating insight into this ancient and yet in many ways surprisingly contemporary faith, and explores the reasons for its current renaissance.
Download or read book PISTIS SOPHIA written by G R S. MEAD and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Rediscovery of Gnosticism written by Bentley Layton and published by BRILL. This book was released on 1981 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Gnostic Religion in Antiquity written by Roelof van den Broek and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-01-24 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book A Dictionary of Gnosticism written by Andrew Phillip Smith and published by Quest Books. This book was released on 2014-03-17 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Dictionary of Gnosticism is a scholarly yet accessible guide that covers the people, mythology, movements, scripture, and technical terms related to this pre-Christian Western religion. It contains nearly 1700 entries, from Aachiaram, an angel in the 'Secret Book of John to Zostrianos', a third-century Gnostic text, and is a reliable reference for the Nag Hammadi library and other Gnostic texts. An introduction explains who the Gnostics were and provides a whirlwind tour through the history of this captivating movement.
Download or read book THE GNOSTIC JESUS written by Edward D. Andrews and published by Christian Publishing House. This book was released on 2021-06-09 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jesus is identified by some Gnostics as an embodiment of the supreme being who became incarnate to bring gnōsis to the earth. In contrast, others adamantly denied that the supreme being came in the flesh, claiming Jesus to be merely a human who attained enlightenment through gnosis and taught his disciples to do the same. Among the Mandaeans, Jesus was considered a mšiha kdaba or “false messiah” who perverted the teachings entrusted to him by John the Baptist. Still, other traditions identify Mani and Seth, the third son of Adam and Eve, as salvific figures. In the course of a century and a half, Gnosticism comes and goes before us like a splendid vision. And yet, its influence upon Christianity was profound and permanent. It gave occasion to a great expansion of Christian thought, to a clearer idea of the historical relation of Christianity to earlier and surrounding religions, and to a better definition of the basis of true faith. Therefore, it deserves a more careful study than it has only recently received.
Download or read book Studies in the New Testament and Gnosticism written by George W. MacRae and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2007-09-01 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: George W. MacRae, SJ (1928-1985) was an internationally known scholar in the field of New Testament studies. He received his doctorate from Cambridge University in New Testament studies, taught New Testament at Weston School of Theology and was Stillman Professor of Roman Catholic Studies at Harvard University, where he was serving as acting dean of the theology faculty at the time of his death. He was a renowned scholar on the Gospel of John. Book jacket.
Download or read book The Beliefnet Guide to Gnosticism and Other Vanished Christianities written by Richard Valantasis and published by Harmony. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From its earliest days, Christianity has been marked by a rich diversity of beliefs and practices. Different interpretations of Jesus’ life and mission, as well as conflicting views about worship and rituals, gave rise to numerous sects in the first centuries C.E. Condemned as heretical by the official Church, these early movements were lost to history until the twentieth century, when the discovery of ancient documents opened a new perspective on the evolution of Christianity. The Beliefnet® Guide to Gnosticism and Other Vanished Christianities is a fascinating look at the diverse strands of the early Christian church. It examines the alternative Christian ideas propagated by the Gnostics, Sethians, Valentinians, Marcionites, Encratites, and Montanists, illuminating the philosophical sources and religious traditions that fostered them. Special attention is given to sects that presented the greatest challenges to the developing orthodoxy: the Hermeticists, the Manicheans, and the Neoplatonists. There are also thought-provoking discussions about the secret Gospel of Mark and the Gospels of Mary and Thomas, and the newly discovered Gospel of the Savior. From the premier source of information on religion and spirituality, the Beliefnet Guides introduce you to the major traditions, leaders, and issues of faith in the world today. This authoritative, fully accessible guide to early Christian movements sheds light on the hidden histories and intriguing mysteries that fueled the extraordinary success of books ranging from Dan Brown’s blockbuster The Da Vinci Code to Elaine Pagels’s critically acclaimed Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas.
