Theological Inquiries The Gnostic Dialogue: The Early Church and the Crisis of Gnosticism
Type
Book
Authors
ISBN 10
0809123207
ISBN 13
9780809123209
Category
Gnosticism
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Publication Year
1980
Publisher
Pages
239
Series Name
Description
Recent publication of writings from a Gnostic Christian collection discovered in Egypt has provoked new controversy about the origins and development of Christianity. This study of a major group of those texts, the revelation dialogues, provides an introduction to the issues involved in understanding the new texts. Prof. Perkins makes it possible to see Gnosticism as a response to the religious and intellectual crisis of the second and third centuries. The development, appeal and decline of specifically Gnostic versions of Christianity are shown to be the result of a complex process of cultural, psychological and religious transformation. This study shows the vital role played by Sacred Scripture as mediator of religious experience in the survival of orthodox Christianity, which was thus able to enter the emerging world of reflective thought. A final chapter on "Gnosis and the Modern Spirit" describes contemporary attempts at recovering "Gnostic insight" in literature, psychology and political theory. Careful analysis of specific Gnostic writings in the first part will enable the reader to form his or her own appreciation of Gnosticism. The second part treats the historical and theological significance of this material for our understanding of early Christian views of revelation, Scripture, ecclesiology and Christology. Thus, this book will be of interest to all students of early Christianity.
Dr. Pheme Perkins is Associate Professor of Theology at Boston College. She holds a PhD in New Testament and Christian Origins from Harvard University. In addition to many scholarly articles dealing with the origins of Gnosticism, Prof. Perkins has written several books on the New Testament including Reading the New Testament (Paulist).
Theological Inquiries: serious studies on contemporary questions of Scripture, Systematics and Moral Theology. Also in the series: John Meier, The Vision of Matthew: Christ, Church and Morality in the First Gospel; J Louis Martyn, The Gospel of John in Christian History: Essays for Interpreters;; Frans Jozef van Beeck, Christ Proclaimed: Christology as Rhetoric.
The research for this book was supported by a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1978/79. It represents the first part of a larger project to study the development and transformation of religious consciousness in antiquity.
Taken from the back cover.
Dr. Pheme Perkins is Associate Professor of Theology at Boston College. She holds a PhD in New Testament and Christian Origins from Harvard University. In addition to many scholarly articles dealing with the origins of Gnosticism, Prof. Perkins has written several books on the New Testament including Reading the New Testament (Paulist).
Theological Inquiries: serious studies on contemporary questions of Scripture, Systematics and Moral Theology. Also in the series: John Meier, The Vision of Matthew: Christ, Church and Morality in the First Gospel; J Louis Martyn, The Gospel of John in Christian History: Essays for Interpreters;; Frans Jozef van Beeck, Christ Proclaimed: Christology as Rhetoric.
The research for this book was supported by a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1978/79. It represents the first part of a larger project to study the development and transformation of religious consciousness in antiquity.
Taken from the back cover.
Number of Copies
1
