Cosmology and Fate in Gnosticism and Graeco-Roman Antiquity

Under Pitiless Skies
Erscheinungsjahr 2013
ISBN: 978-90-04-24548-8
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 81, 206 Seiten, Format (B × H): 159 mm x 241 mm, Gewicht: 470 g

Reihe: Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies

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.

Zielgruppe

Those interested in placing Gnosticism within the context of the intellectual history of the Roman Empire and scholars of emergent Christianity and the religions of Graeco-Roman antiquity.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Denzey, Nicola F

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte Religionen der Antike
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Were the Gnostics Cosmic Pessimists?

2. Nag Hammadi and the Providential Cosmos

3. This Body of Death: Cosmic Malevolence and Enslavement to Sin in Pauline Exegesis

4. Heimarmene at Nag Hammadi: The Apocryphon of John and On the Origin of the World

5. Middle Platonism, Heimarmene, and the Corpus Hermeticum

6. Ways Out I: Interventions of the Savior God

7. Ways Out II: Baptism and Cosmic Freedom

8. Astral Determinism in the Gospel of Judas

9. Conclusions, and a New Way Forward

Über Autor(innen)

Denzey, Nicola F
Nicola Denzey Lewis, Ph.D (1998), Princeton University, is Visiting Associate Professor in Religious Studies at Brown University. A specialist in Gnosticism, her publications include Introduction to 'Gnosticism': Ancient Voices, Christian Worlds (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012).