The Gnostics : identifying an early Christian cult
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Bibliographic Information
The Gnostics : identifying an early Christian cult
T&T Clark, c2006
- : pbk.
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [124]-131) and indexes
Description and Table of Contents
Description
"The Gnostics" demonstrates the existence and explore the character, theology, liturgy and cultic beliefs and practices of the Gnostic movement. Engaging in the current debates engendered by M.A. Williams' 'Rethinking Gnosticism' (1996), Alastair Logan develops the work introduced in his own 'Gnostic Truth and Christian Heresy' (1996), continuing his quest to identify the Gnostics as a cult movement originating in the late first century and arising out of Christianity. He does so first by examining the evidence of the early Christian heresiologists in the light of the Nag Hammadui Library of Coptic Texts, to test the reliability of the heresiological accounts and to attempt to establish the character of the Library as in fact the work of the Gnostic cult movement. He then examines the evidence of the pagan critics with a clear knowledge of the movement (Celsus, Plotinus, Porphyry).
He explores the Gnostics' own sense of identity against the Catholics, seeks to reconstruct the unique Gnostic rite of initiation from "Nag Hammadi" and related texts and, finally, argues that the early third century Hypogeum of the Aurelii in Rome, with its remarkable series of paintings (illustrated), represents a cult centre of Gnostics, where they recalled their initiation and theology and buried their dead.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Chapter One The Nag Hammadi Library and the Heresiologists
- Chapter Two Celsus, Plotinus and Porphyry and the Gnostics
- Chapter Three Gnostics versus Catholics on Christian Idedtity (1)
- Authority and Tradition
- Chapter Four Gnostics versus Catholics on Christian Idedtity (2)
- Initiation and Lifestyle
- Chapter Five Gnostics versus Catholics on Christian Idedtity (3)
- Belief and Knowledge
- Chapter Six Gnostic Initiation Reconsidered
- Chapter Seven A Gnostic Cult Centre in Rome? The Hypogeum of the Aurelii
- Appendix Gnostics and Hermetism.
by "Nielsen BookData"