{"title":"The Teachings of Silvanus (NHC VII,4) and the Education of the Christian Mind","authors":"P. Ashwin-Siejkowski","doi":"10.1163/2451859X-12340057","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/2451859X-12340057","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This paper examines the Teachings of Silvanus (NHC VII,4) as a specific exhortation to the attainment of wisdom by the Christian disciple. It discusses the significance of the ethical proposal to the mind, virtue, and freedom. Next, it highlights the principle values of the inner life as advocated by the document. Finally, the paper shows the extension of ethics in the sphere of spirituality and mysticism. This examination pays special attention to the Alexandrian theological legacy, which includes some notions borrowed from Jewish wisdom literature, Philo, Christian Scriptures, and two philosophical traditions: Roman Stoicism and Middle Platonism. The paper shows how the text’s rhetoric and pedagogy, although combining various philosophical and Scriptural sources, creatively constructed a unique Christian model of self-transformation suggested by the Teachings of Silvanus.","PeriodicalId":130908,"journal":{"name":"Gnosis: Journal of Gnostic Studies","volume":"18 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115001350","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"On the Utility of Freelance Religious Expert as a Heuristic Category","authors":"Kimberly B. Stratton","doi":"10.1163/2451859X-12340061","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/2451859X-12340061","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":130908,"journal":{"name":"Gnosis: Journal of Gnostic Studies","volume":"43 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129746103","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Text of Marcion’s Gospel, written by Dieter T. Roth","authors":"Ian N. Mills","doi":"10.1163/2451859X-12340063","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/2451859X-12340063","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":130908,"journal":{"name":"Gnosis: Journal of Gnostic Studies","volume":"34 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126644184","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Philosopher-Priests and Other Ritual Experts in Later Antiquity: Some Additional Reflections","authors":"Heidi Marx-Wolf","doi":"10.1163/2451859X-12340060","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/2451859X-12340060","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":130908,"journal":{"name":"Gnosis: Journal of Gnostic Studies","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121339717","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Gnostic Garden: Kabbalistic Motifs in a Modern Jewish Visionary","authors":"Jeffrey J. Kripal","doi":"10.1163/2451859X-12340059","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/2451859X-12340059","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000After relating a dramatic near-death experience of a Houston woman named Elizabeth Krohn, this essay explores some of the themes of her near-death experience, particularly the invisible presence of a being of unconditional love in a paradisiacal garden and various direct transmissions of some traditional religious convictions. The essay then discusses some of the obvious New Age contexts and features of the visionary event and of the subsequent convictions, after which it calls into question these same assumed modern influences with a simple thought experiment. The essay then addresses some of the metaphysical complexities of the soul and soul-time in modern kabbalah as explicated by the contemporary historian of modern kabbalah Jonathan Garb and ends with another final intervention. The result, overall, is a comparative reflection that affirms and performs the traditional phenomenological and historical methods of the study of religion but also calls into serious question the adequacy of these methods and the limiting, even blinding, nature of their philosophical assumptions.","PeriodicalId":130908,"journal":{"name":"Gnosis: Journal of Gnostic Studies","volume":"34 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125631668","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Eric Voegelin and Gnostic Hollywood: Cinematic Portrayals of the Immanentization of the Eschaton in Dark City (1998) and Pleasantville (1998)","authors":"F. Kwiatkowski","doi":"10.1163/2451859x-12340094","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/2451859x-12340094","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000In the first part of the paper, I will provide an overview of Eric Voegelin’s early thesis about Gnosis which he formulated in The New Science of Politics (1952) and Science, Politics, and Gnosticism (1968). A special attention will be paid to the idea of the immanentization of the eschaton which remains in the center of his argument. In the second part of the paper, I will analyze two Hollywood films in the light of Voegelin’s thesis: Dark City (1998) and Pleasantville (1998). Firstly, I will argue that the main characters depicted in the films can be classified as Gnostics in Voegelin’s sense. Secondly, I will demonstrate that their revolutionary acts reflect the idea of the immanentization of the eschaton.","PeriodicalId":130908,"journal":{"name":"Gnosis: Journal of Gnostic Studies","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114510577","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}