Gnosticism: Beliefs and Practices

Gnosticism: Beliefs and Practices

John Glyndwr Harris

1. The World of Gnosticism. Gnosis and gnosticism. Gnosis and faith. The true gnostic. Gnosis and revelation. Gnosis and experience. Gnosis and initiation. Presenting gnosis -- 2. Gnostic Communities: Origins and History. The east and gnosis. The Iranian experience. Hellenism. The Jewish dimension. Apocalyptic writings. Gnosticism and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Gnosticism in the early Christian centuries. Why did gnosticism disappear? Bogomil. Cathars. Jacob Boehme (1575-1624). Goethe's Faust. William Blake (1757-1827). Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) -- 3. Gnosticism and its Literature. The Church Fathers. Apocryphal works. Mandaean literature. Manichaean literature. Hermetic literature. The Bruce Codex and Codex Askew. The Nag Hammadi texts. Censorship and tolerance -- 4. Beliefs and Practices. Deity. Christology. Anthropology. Cosmology. Soteriology. Eschatology. Practices -- 5. Orthodoxy and Heresy. Simon Magus, Father of Heresy. Cerinthus, gnostic teacher. Marcion, gnostic reformer.

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