Gnosticism
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Gnosticism and Its Metamorphoses
Dynamics of Development and Reworking of Gnostic Texts and Motifs from Antiquity to the Twentieth Century
The complex and multifaceted religious phenomenon called Gnosticism continues to fascinate both specialists and the wider audience. This volume explores the “metamorphoses” of Gnosticism through the analysis of selected examples. Late antique Gnostic groups and schools of thought developed and even changed their ideas when interacting with other religious groups and with various sources. Confrontation and polemics with the so-called “Great Church” and with other Christian groups were crucial to doctrinal elaboration of all parties involved. On a different side one can trace the metamorphoses of Gnostic ideasthrough the centuries as these ideas influenced and were reinterpreted by other religious and cultural traditions and currents from Manichaeism to medieval dualistic movements modern esotericism and even contemporary literature.
The essays gathered in this volume focus on two main topics namely how ancient Gnostic groups developed their doctrines by interpreting and reworking their wide range of sources (Jewish early Christian Platonic ones etc.) and how ancient Gnostic ideas and motifs survived – with new forms – in later philosophical religious and literary works up to the twentieth century.
The volume consists of three sections the first being dedicated to early anti-Gnostic controversy in texts embedding Jewish-Christian and Petrine traditions and using Gnostic motifs for polemical purposes; the second to some treatises from the Nag Hammadi corpus and other Gnostic manuscripts (plus Epiphanius’ Panarion) so as to provide fresh insights into late antique Gnostic texts and groups; and the third to three case studies of the modern reception and reworking of Gnostic writings and ideas.
Du créateur biblique au démiurge gnostique
Trajectoire et réception du motif du blasphème de l’Archonte
L’auteur de ce livre propose la comparaison critique de toutes les utilisations attestées du motif gnostique du blasphème de l’Archonte et l’étude de la transformation de la citation du texte d’Isaïe dans les textes gnostiques en examinant les particularités de chaque attestation. Cette approche permet entre autres de bien distinguer les différentes versions du blasphème de l’Archonte et de retracer autant que possible les différentes étapes de sa diffusion dans la littérature gnostique. Toutes ces variantes sont précieuses car elles permettent de préciser les destinataires visés par les différentes œuvres et les contextes socioreligieux spécifiques à chacune de celles-ci. L’Archonte apparaît tantôt comme un modèle de conversion à imiter tantôt comme un anti-modèle à rejeter comme le type de l’impiété religieuse. Ces présentations impliquent des destinataires et des situations communautaires différents si bien que les origines du motif du blasphème de l’Archonte sont diverses mais doivent être situées à l’intérieur du cadre de la construction du discours interreligieux. Le blasphème de l’Archonte apparaît alors comme un des volets de la crise identitaire du christianisme au ii ème siècle qui s’est cristallisée entre autres autour de la question de la véritable connaissance de Dieu.
Revealing Women
Feminine Imagery in Gnostic Christian Texts
Revealing Women offers a detailed and textually oriented investigation of the roles and functions of female characters in Gnostic Christian mythologies. It answers questions such as: to what end did Gnostic Christian theologians employ feminine imagery in their theology? What did they want to convey through it?
This book shows that feminine imagery was a genuine concern for Gnostic theologians and it enquires about how it was employed to describe the divine through a contextual reading of Gnostic Christian texts presenting Ophite Sethian Barbeloite and Valentinian mythologoumena and theologoumena. Overall it argues that feminine imagery ought to be acknowledged as an important theological framework to investigate and contextualize Gnostic works by showing that these theologians used feminine imagery to exemplify those aspects of the Godhead which they considered paradoxical and yet essential. The claims made in the first chapters are later substantiated by an in-depth investigation of understudied Gnostic texts such as the so-called Simonian Gnostic works the Book of Baruch of the Gnostic teacher Justin and the Nag Hammadi treatise known as Exegesis of the Soul.
Constructions of Gender in Late Antique Manichaean Cosmological Narrative
Manichaeism emerged from Sasanian Persia in the third century CE and flourished in Persia the Roman Empire Central Asia and beyond until succumbing to persecution from rival faiths in the eighth to ninth century. Its founder Mani claimed to be the final embodiment of a series of prophets sent over time to expound divine wisdom.
This monograph explores the constructions of gender embedded in Mani’s colourful dualist cosmological narrative in which a series of gendered divinities are in conflict with the demonic beings of the Kingdom of Darkness. The Jewish and Gnostic roots of Mani’s literary constructions of gender are examined in parallel with Sasanian societal expectations. Reconstructions of gender in subsequent Manichaean literature reflect the changing circumstances of the Manichaean community.
As the first major study of gender in Manichaean literature this monograph draws upon established approaches to the study of gender in late antique religious literature to present a portrait of a historically maligned and persecuted religious community.
Christianisme des origines
Mélanges en l’honneur du Professeur Paul-Hubert Poirier
À l’occasion du départ à la retraite de Paul-Hubert Poirier de son poste de professeur en patrologie et en histoire de l’Église à la Faculté de théologie et de sciences religieuses de l’Université Laval collègues amis et anciens étudiants se sont réunis pour lui rendre hommage. Les vingt-sept contributions recueillies qui s’illustrent par la variété des thèmes abordés et par leur grande qualité scientifique témoignent de l’étendu des intérêts de Paul-Hubert Poirier pour les domaines touchant de près ou de loin le christianisme des premiers siècles des quatre coins de la Méditerranée. Les articles rassemblés intéresseront tant les spécialistes de l’histoire et de la littérature des premiers siècles chrétiens que ceux du christianisme syriaque copto-égyptien et éthiopien de la philosophie antique du gnosticisme et du manichéisme.
L'Ésotérisme shi'ite, ses racines et ses prolongements
Shi'i Esotericism: Its Roots and Developments
Together with the notion of secrecy the core of Shi'i esotericism gravitates around the ẓāhir/bāṭin dualism. This dialectical relationship between the visible and the hidden which has been inherited from Late Antiquity buttresses the main doctrines of esoteric Shi'ism which include a dualistic worldview doctrines of emanation the contrast between the people of knowledge and of ignorance the soterial nature of knowledge and of the Guide who possesses it the two levels of the Scriptures the need for hermeneutics and initiatory knowledge and practices. It is true that the birthplace of Shi'ism was Iraq which had been the central province of the Sassanid Persian Empire until the advent of Islam. This region and its main cities were home to the many intellectual and spiritual traditions of Late Antiquity including various Jewish Christian Judeo-Christian Mazdean Manichean Neoplatonic and Gnostic movements with these traditions living on for several centuries after the advent of the religion of the Arabs. The articles in this collection written by recognised scholars in the field are divided into three sections covering a very wide period of time: the "prehistory" of these doctrines before Islam early esoteric Shi'ism and its developments in both Shi'i and non-Shi'i Sufism occult sciences and philosophy.
Gnose et manichéisme. Entre les oasis d’Égypte et la Route de la Soie
Hommage à Jean-Daniel Dubois
À l'occasion du départ à la retraite de Jean-Daniel Dubois de la direction d'études « Gnose et Manichéisme » à l'École pratique des hautes études en 2015 plusieurs de ses collègues et amis ont tenu à lui rendre hommage. La diversité des thèmes des écrits et des communautés culturelles et linguistiques étudiés dans les quarante-quatre contributions ici publiées témoigne de la richesse du parcours intellectuel de Jean-Daniel Dubois lequel s'étend des oasis d'Égypte jusqu'à la Route de la Soie.
Ce volume s'adresse aux spécialistes de la Méditerranée du Proche-Orient et de l'Extrême-Orient anciens. Il intéressera les historiens des religions particulièrement ceux des mouvements chrétiens - dont les courants gnostiques - du manichéisme des cultes polythéistes et de l'islam les philologues ainsi que les historiens de la philosophie de l'Antiquité tardive.