Beyond the Gnostic Gospels
Subtitle: studies building on the work of Elaine Pagels
By: edited by Eduard Iricinschi, Lance Jenott, Nicola Denzey Lewis and Philippa Townsend
Series: Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum -- 82 = -- Studies and texts in antiquity and Christianity -- 82; Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum -- 82.
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
Published: 2013
Place of publication: Tübingen
Language: eng
Number of pages: 517
ISBN-13: 9783161528347
Copyright date: 2013
Subjects: Primitive and early church; Gnosis; 11.51 early Christianity; History and criticism; Literatur; Historia; Early Christian literature; Church history; Gnosticism; Gnostiska i litteraturen; Frühchristentum
Description: This volume gathers contributions from both junior and senior scholars whose studies have developed in dialogue with Elaine Pagels' work on Nag Hammadi literature and ancient heresiology. Published initially in 1979, Pagels' The Gnostic Gospels represents a landmark of scholarship in religious studies. It not only made the Nag Hammadi writings and Gnosticism popular topics in modern culture, it also invited scholars to rethink early Christianity from new perspectives. What were previously seen as dry theological arguments and intricate Gnostic mythologies received new interpretations in the Gnostic Gospels as echoes of political debates about orthodoxy and heresy, clerical authority, martyrdom and gender. After The Gnostic Gospels, Elaine Pagels extended her research in various directions, from perceptions of sexuality in early Christianity and identity politics in the Christian creation of the "Satan figure" to ancient biblical interpretations, ritual in Nag Hammadi texts, and, recently, the Gospel of Judas and ancient apocalypses. The studies included in this volume engage each stage of Pagels' vast trajectory, and provide critical evaluations of the field of "Gnosticism studies" as it has developed over the past four decades, in the subfields of the "Sethian" and "Valentinian" schools, and beyond. The studies include new interpretations of the Nag Hammadi texts and fresh analyses of ancient heresiological literature.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Explorations at the edges of orthodoxy: Elaine Pagels' study of the early Christian world  -- Philippa Townsend; title: Part I: The social world of early Christians: A Life Full of Meaning and Purpose: Demiurgical Myths and Social Implications  -- Michael A. Williams; title: Rethinking the Diversity of Ancient Christianity: Responding to Suffering and Persecution  -- Karen L. King; title: The Valentinian Materials in James (NHC V,3 and CT,2)  -- Einar Thomassen; title: Part II: Creating orthodoxy and heresy: Irenaeus, the Will of God, and Anti-Valentinian Polemics: A Closer Look at Against the Heresies I.12.1  -- Geoffrey S. Smith; title: Nor is one ambiguity resolved by another ambiguity: Irenaeus of Lyons and the Rhetoric of Interpretation  -- David W. Jorgensen; title: Gnostic Spirituality at the Crossroads of Christianity: Transgressing Boundaries and Creating Orthodoxy  -- April D. DeConick; title: Part III: Ritual and myth: The Problem of Bad Baptisms: Rethinking Early Christian Initiation and Its Implications  -- Nicola Denzey Lewis; title: Baptismal Vision, Angelification, and Mystical Union in Sethian Literature  -- John D. Turner; title: Thought, Forethought, and Afterthought in the Secret Book of John  -- Marvin Meyer; title: Part IV: Christianity in Egypt: Begotten, Not Made, to Arise in This Flesh: The Post-Nicene Soteriology of the Gospel of Philip  -- Hugo Lundhaug; title: Buried and Raised: Gospel of Thomas Logion 5 and Resurrection  -- AnneMarie Luijendijk; title: The Teaching Hidden in Silence (NH II 1,4): Questions, Answers, and Secrets in a Fourth-Century Egyptian Book  -- Eduard Iricinschi; title: Clergy, Clairvoyance, and Conflict: The Synod of Latopolis and the Problem with Pachomius' Visions  -- Lance Jenott; title: Jesus, Mary and Joseph in Egypt  -- Deirdre Good; title: Part V: New Testament studies: How Far Can You Go? Jesus, John, the Synoptics and Other Texts  -- Ismo Dunderberg; title: Plato, Plutarch, and John: Three Symposia about Love  -- Harold W. Attridge; title: Jesus and the Tradition of the Elders: Originalism and Traditionalism in Early Judean Legal Theory  -- Holger M. Zellentin; title: Paul the Zealot, A Man of Constant Sorrow  -- John G. Gager; title: 6 Ezra and Jewish Reception of Revelation -- John W. Marshall.