ENGLISH

Practicing Gnosis: Ritual, Magic, Theurgy and Liturgy in Nag Hammadi, Manichaean and Other Ancient Literature. Essays in Honor of Birger A. Pearson

By John D. Turner , Gregory Shaw , April DeConick

Book information

Publisher
BRILL
Year
2013
ISBN
9004256296, 9789004256293
ISSN
0929-2470
Google Books ID
iaOwAAAAQBAJ
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
4 MB (4158225 bytes)
Series
Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 85
Pages
x+572\583
Topic
Religion Orthodoxy
Orientation
yes
Paginated
yes
Scanned
portrait
Time added
2013-11-22 22:12:16
Религиоведение;Религиоведение христианства;История

Description

Ritual, magic, liturgy, and theurgy were central features of Gnosticism, and yet Gnostic practices remain understudied. This anthology is meant to fill in this gap and address more fully what the ancient Gnostics were doing. While previously we have studied the Gnostics as intellectuals in pursuit of metaphysical knowledge, the essays in this book attempt to understand the Gnostics as ecstatics striving after religious experience, as prophets seeking revelation, as mystics questing after the ultimate God, as healers attempting to care for the sick and diseased. These essays demonstrate that the Gnostics were not necessarily trendy intellectuals seeking epistomological certainities. They were after religious experiences that relied on practices. The book is organized comparatively in a history-of-religions approach with sections devoted to Initiatory, Recurrent, Therapeutic, Ecstatic, and Philosophic Practices. This book celebrates the brilliant career of Birger A. Pearson.

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