/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.10059600]

What should I read to begin understanding Gnosticism

[Anonymous No.10059604]

Rethinking Gnosticism by Williams.

[Anonymous No.10059607]

>>10059600
Stop shitting up this board

[Anonymous No.10059610]

>>10059607
This board is already shit.

[Anonymous No.10059617]

>>10059610
All boards are.

[Anonymous No.10059648]

>>10059600
know first, read later

[Anonymous No.10059675]

the nag hammadi manuscripts

[Anonymous No.10059722]

>>10059675
And Mandean texts

[Anonymous No.10060134]

>>10059610
Thanks to you and your peers.
You have no interests.

[Anonymous No.10060376]

>>10060134
I'm obviously interested in learning about Gnosticism, you ass.

[Anonymous No.10060379]

>>10059675
>>10059722
Thanks

[Anonymous No.10060432]

>>10059600

start with familiarity of the bible, specifically the synoptic gospels, revelations and the book of genesis
get a grasp of plato's works and neoplatonism

after that, grab these:

nag hammadi scriptures

pistis sophia, translated by GRS Mead

the mandean, cathar, and alchemical writings

[Anonymous No.10060474]

>>10059600
>We may note that Gnostic eclecticisms have the following features in common. Their religion appeals to the proud rather than the humble in heart, for it claims to sum up the best in other religions and thus castigates adherents of the older faiths. Its appeal is largely to intellectuals and initiates and not to the great under-privileged multitudes of the world. Their philosophy is almost always pantheistic and shares the characteristic weaknesses of that outlook; for example, it despises the body which for the Christian is the temple of the Holy Spirit; it teachers an automatic immortality which makes an end of a moral interpretation of history; it depersonalizes God so taht He becomes an 'essence' or 'principle' and ceases to be the Person; consequently it despises history and the world as illusory, and shows an ostrich-like optimism towards sin, and an unwillingness to change the social conditions, which militate against the full development of personality. Salvation is through identification with God by means of meditation, not by the transformation of the will.

Gnostics BTFO

[Anonymous No.10060603]

>>10059600
The Gnostics: Myth, Ritual, and Diversity in Early Christianity by David Brakke
Neoplatonism by Paulina Remes
The Secret History of Hermes Trismegistus by Florian Ebeling

Plato's Phaedo, Republic, Timaeus
New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha
Nag Hammadi Scriptures by Meyer
Hermetica: The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius by Brian P. Copenhaver
Enneads by Plotinus

>>10060474
>end of a moral interpretation of history
>unwillingness to change the social conditions
this is the opposite of voegelin's reading where he accuses the gnostics of immanentizing the escathon
>an ostrich-like optimism towards sin
as opposed to what, persuading the person of the demiurge to forgive anything?
>Their philosophy is almost always pantheistic
>militate against the full development of personality
lmfao

[Anonymous No.10061009]

>>10060603
>Enneads by Plotinus
Plotinus criticized the Gnostics, though; but yeah , Neoplatonism and Gnosticism blend together pretty smoothly in parts, and Plotinus I suppose is one of the most representative Neoplatonists

[Anonymous No.10061445]

>>10061009
Gnosticism blends with anything because it's just urban mysticism in the vein of modern day new ageisms and shit. Neo-Platonism is an actual thing and has nothing to gain by being blending with gnosticisms.

[Anonymous No.10061771]

>>10061009
they don't blend that well. Gnosticism is grounded in juedeo-christian myth. plotinus only in Plato which gives is it a more philosophical system than the gnostics.

a big part of gnosticism is seeing matter as evil, but in neoplatonism, matter is seen as a reflection of the divine. which is self evident because of some of the structural beauty in nature.