Practicing Gnosis : ritual, magic, theurgy, and liturgy in Nag Hammadi, Manichaean and other ancient literature : essays in honor of Birger A. Pearson /
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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.
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1 online resource (ix, 571 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004248526 :
0929-2470 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Nag Hammadi Bibliography 1970-1994 /
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This is a sequel to the immensely useful Nag Hammadi Bibliography 1948-1969 , which was the first volume to appear in the Nag Hammadi Studies series. The volume provides a complete integration of Supplements I-XXIV to the Bibliography as published in Novum Testamentum 1971-1997, with additions and corrections. In total the update contains over 6092 entries. Nag Hammadi and Gnostic studies continue to be of critical importance for the study of ancient religions in the Graeco-Roman world and for the study of the world of early Christianity, and the present bibliography provides an indispensable reference tool for work in these fields.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004439641
9789004094734
Cosmology and fate in Gnosticism and Graeco-Roman antiquity : under pitiless skies /
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In Cosmology and Fate in Gnosticism and Graeco-Roman Antiquity , Nicola Denzey Lewis dismisses Hans Jonas' mischaracterization of second-century Gnosticism as a philosophically-oriented religious movement built on the perception of the cosmos as negative or enslaving. A focused study on the concept of astrological fate in "Gnostic" writings including the Apocryphon of John, the recently-discovered Gospel of Judas, Trimorphic Protennoia, and the Pistis Sophia, this book reexamines their language of "enslavement to fate (Gk: heimarmene)" from its origins in Greek Stoicism, its deployment by the apostle Paul, to its later use by a variety of second-century intellectuals (both Christian and non-Christian). Denzey Lewis thus offers an informed and revisionist conceptual map of the ancient cosmos, its influence, and all those who claimed to be free of its potentially pernicious effects.
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Title from PDF title page (viewed on May 14, 2013). :
1 online resource (xiii, 206 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004245761 :
0929-2470 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Studies in Gnosticism and Hellenistic religions : presented to Gilles Quispel on the occasion of his 65th birthday /
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Text in English, French, and German. :
1 online resource (xiv, 622 pages) : portrait. :
"List of Professor Quispel's publications": pages 1-12.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004295698 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Christen und Sethianer : ein Beitrag zur Diskussion um den religionsgeschichtlichen und den kirchengeschichtlichen Begriff der Gnosis /
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In Christen und Sethianer. Ein Beitrag zur Diskussion um den religionsgeschichtlichen und den kirchengeschichtlichen Begriff der Gnosis versucht Herbert Schmid zu zeigen, dass es vermutlich keine Vorform der Gnosis an den Rändern des antiken Judentums gegeben hat. Sowohl Schenkes Sethianismus, als auch der Valentinianismus und andere frühe Ausprägungen der Gnosis sind vermutlich als frühe Versuche christlicher Theologie zu begreifen. In diesem Zusammenhang erweist sich der Begriff Gnosis als eine durchaus brauchbare Kategorie, um antike Religionsgeschichte zu beschreiben. In Christen und Sethianer. Ein Beitrag zur Diskussion um den religionsgeschichtlichen und den kirchengeschichtlichen Begriff der Gnosis , Herbert Schmid argues that there are no hints for a more primitive and independent form of Gnosticism which developed on the fringes of ancient Judaism. Not only the Valentinian school, but also Hans-Martin Schenkes Sethianism and other early manifestations of Gnosis are probably best understood as early attempts to phrase Christian theology. In this context, the term Gnosticism is a useful category to describe ancient religious history.
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1 online resource (x, 474 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004355378 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Plotinus in dialogue with the Gnostics /
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The point of view put forth in the following pages differs greatly from the common perspective according to which the treatises 30 to 33 constitute a single work, a Großschrift , and this single work, Plotinus' essential response to the Gnostics. Our perspective is that of an ongoing discussions with his "Gnostic"-yet Platonizing-friends, which started early in his writings (at least treatise 6), developed into what we could call a Großzyklus (treatises 27 to 39), and went on in later treatises as well (e. g. 47-48, 51). The prospect of an ongoing discussion with the Gnostics bears an additional virtue, that of allowing for a truly dynamic understanding of the Plotinian corpus.
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1 online resource (viii, 152 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004216396 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Nag Hammadi Codex VIII /
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Codex VIII from Nag Hammadi contains two tractates, Zostrianos and The Letter of Peter to Philip . This volume presents a critical edition of those texts, and includes regarding each separate text a transcription with notes, an introduction, and a translation. In addition it includes an introduction to the Codex itself, and several sets of indices. The tractate Zostrianos recounts a heavenly journey of a gnostic mystic who gains and brings back with him the saving gnosis. That gnosis is most closely related to Middle Platonism and the document intends to be part of that tradition. As such it was refuted by Plotinus and his pupil Amelius. Much of the manuscript is poorly preserved. The Letter of Peter to Philip is a gnostic revelatory discourse in letter form with Peter as its hero. The Risen Christ reveals a gnostic view of the universe and of human existence.
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English translation with Coptic text, translated from a lost Greek original, of Zostrianos and the Letter of Peter to Philip. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004438965
9789004094772
The Nag Hammadi scriptures /
: "Based on the work of the Berliner Arbeitskreis für koptisch-gnostische Schriften, the Bibliothèque copte de Nag Hammadi, Université Laval, and the Coptic Gnostic Library Project, Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, Claremont Graduate University." : xiii, 844 pages ; 24 cm. : Includes bibliographical references (pages [803]-826) and index. : 0060523786