You might also like

More about What Is Gnosticism?

• Book details
• Synopsis
• Trending among others

You get 90 loyalty points

Book 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.

Book details

Book category Books in English Humanities Religion & beliefs Alternative belief systems

• Full title: What Is Gnosticism?
• Author: Karen L. King
• Language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368
• EAN: 9780674017627
• ID: 04634702
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Weight: 510 g
• Dimensions: 233 × 156 × 24 mm
• Date of publishing: 06. May 2005

Trending among others

---

---

---