What is Gnosticism? - Hardcover

King, Karen L

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 067401071X ISBN 13: 9780674010710

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 2003

Synopsis

A distinctive Christian heresy? A competitor of burgeoning Christianity? A pre-Christian folk religion traceable to "Oriental syncretism"? How do we account for the disparate ideas, writings, and practices that have been placed under the Gnostic rubric? To do so, Karen King says, we must first disentangle modern historiography from the Christian discourse of orthodoxy and heresy that has pervaded - and distorted - the story. Exciting discoveries of previously unknown ancient writings are challenging historians of religion to rethink not only what we mean by Gnosticism but also the standard account of Christian origins. King shows how historians have been misled by ancient Christian polemicists who attacked Gnostic beliefs as a "dark double" against which the new faith could define itself. Her book is thus both a thorough and innovative introduction to the twentieth-century study of Gnosticism and a revealing exploration of the concept of heresy as a tool in forming religious identity.

About this title

Review:

Hers is the pithiest and fairest overview to date of the subject. -- Times Literary Supplement, 21 November 2003

About the Author:

KAREN L. KING is Professor of the History of Ancient Christianity at the Divinity School, Harvard University.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 067401071X
• ISBN 13: 9780674010710
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352