Irenaeus has a relationship with two different traditions: the tradition of Valentinian Gnosticism and others such as Marcion, a tradition which he opposed vehemently, and the ecclesiastical tradition which he was intent on defending. In his attack on the one and defence of the other Irenaeus expresses his own theological view-point, a dominant characteristic of which is the concept of Christocentrio salvation history. The present work is a study of the relationship between these three, the two traditions and the Christocentric salvation history. Part one is concerned mainly with methodology. Chapter one is a survey of recent studies of Irenaeus with particular reference to the problems of source materials in Irenaeus, the effect of his polemical task on his thought and writings, and the significance for him of salvation history. In chapter two the two traditions are examined and a sharp division of them into orthodoxy and heresy is rejected. The concept of salvation history is also examined in some detail. Part two is devoted to a study of the ecclesiastical tradition before Irenaeus, in order to see how his predecessors thought of history and of the role of Christ in it. Chapter three is concerned with the Apostolic Fathers, chapter four with some apocryphal writings, and chapter five with the Greek Apologists. While numerous elements of the tradition that are taken up by Irenaeus are to be found in the ecclesiastical tradition, and indeed some outlines of salvation history can also be discerned, the fully integrated concept of a Christocentric salvation history is not present there. Part three is a study of the salvation drama in Valentinian Gnosticism. Chapter six is concerned with the sources, chapter seven with an analysis of the drama, and chapter eight exposes the threat the drama posed to the ecclesiastical tradition, which may be described as the threat of a complete and coherent drama that gives to the believer the security of knowing whence he has come, whither he is going, and where he now is. The task of any opponent is to replace this false knowledge with the true knowledge. In part four we turn to Irenaeus. In chapter nine the Christocentric salvation history of Irenaeus is examined in detail. As a result of this examination we reach the conclusion in chapter ten that in the materials gathered from his own tradition, developed from a number of different sources, and woven together into a coherent and comprehensive historical drama of which Christ is the centre, Irenaeus finds an adequate reply to the coherent and comprehensive drama of Valentinian Gnosticism, and therefore, by his Christocentric salvation history, makes a significant contribution to the polarisation of the ecclesiastieal and Gnostic traditions.

A presente tese é sobre gnosticismo, doutrina religiosa da Antiguidade tardia, em sua relação com a poesia. Procura circunscrever seu âmbito, definir suas características e localizar seus principais temas: entre outros, o dualismo, os mito do demiurgo, das duas almas, do andrógino primordial, sua noção do tempo e sua relação com hermetismo, astrologia e alquimia. Mostra como mitos e temas gnósticos e até um estilo, um modo gnóstico de escrever, reaparecem ou são retomados por poetas românticos, simbolistas e modernistas, inclusive aqueles de língua portuguesa. Entre outros, examina William Blake, Novalis, Gérard de Nerval, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Mallarmé, Lautréamont, Breton, Fernando Pessoa, Dario Veloso e Hilda Hilst. Sustenta que, sendo arcaico e anacrônico em seu dualismo e sua complexa cosmovisão e teologia, ao mesmo tempo o gnosticismo pode ser associado a uma mentalidade moderna e, como parte dela, a criações literárias, algumas inovadoras, pelo caráter sincrético e por formular uma crítica total, cósmica, na era da crítica. Também mostra como poetas não apenas absorveram ou reproduziram aquela doutrina, mas o fizeram de modo pessoal e original, transformando-a e reinventando-a. E, principalmente, como, utilizando suas categorias e temas, tentaram promover uma subversão do senso comum, da percepção instituída do mundo, justificando paralelos do gnosticismo como misticismo rebelde com a rebelião romântica e seus continuadores. / The present thesis is about Gnosticism, the religious doctrine of Late Antiquity, in its relationship to poetry. The focus is to establish the realm of Gnosticism, to define its characteristics, and to locate its main themes. Dualism, the myth of the demiurge, the two souls, the primordial androgynous, its notion of time, and relations of Gnosticism with Hermetism, Astrology and Alchemy are, amongst others, some of the subjects and themes. The thesis shows how Gnostic myths and subjects and even a Gnostic style of writing reappear or is resumed by romantic poets, symbolists and modernists, including those of Portuguese language. Among others, examines William Blake, Novalis, Gérard de Nerval, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Mallarmé, Lautréamont, Breton, Fernando Pessoa, Dario Veloso and Hilda Hilst. Holds that Gnosticism, being archaic and anachronic in its dualism, complex weltanschauung and theology, can be associated at the same time with a modern mentality and, as part of it, with literary creations, some innovative, for its syncretism and its formulation of a total and cosmic review in the era of the criticism. Finally, also shows how poets didn\'t just absorb or reproduce that doctrine, but that they did it in a personal and original way, transforming and reinventing Gnosticism. And, most outstandingly, how, using its categories and themes, poets encouraged subversion of the common sense, and the formal perception of the world, therefore justifying parallels of Gnosticism as a rebellious mysticism with the Romantic rebellion and its followers.

Orientador: Flávio Ribeiro de Oliveira / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-18T21:25:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Donadon_DanielBueno_M.pdf: 1097747 bytes, checksum: c3b62e6aeb328f3fcfa73846e695fdad (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Resumo: Neste trabalho é apresentada uma tradução do primeiro livro da obra Adversus Haereses (Contras as Heresias), de autoria do bispo cristão Ireneu de Lyon. Escrito na segunda metade do século II d.C., o livro apresenta o pensamento gnóstico como algo distinto do ensinamento apostólico, algo que o autor se empenha em refutar para fundamentar um dogmatismo ortodoxo para a fé cristã. A motivação desse trabalho não é somente o de trazer à comunidade um livro talvez pouco conhecido, mas também o de contextualizar o complexo processo de formação do pensamento cristão, que pouco após seu início transitou de uma tradição judaica fechada em si mesma para um mundo helenístico de diversas filosofias concorrentes, dentre as quais se destaca os primórdios do neo-platonismo. A escolha do primeiro dentre os cinco tomos da obra completa foi feita por ser o único que pôde ser quase totalmente restaurado em sua escrita grega original, através de longas citações feitas pelos heresiógrafos que o seguiram. Não apenas isso, mas o corpo da filosofia gnóstica é exposta somente neste primeiro livro, centrando-se no comentário do sistema valentiniano. Um breve ensaio introduz os temas do cristianismo, do judaísmo e do helenismo para melhor compreensão dessa obra de Ireneu de Lyon / Abstract: This work presents a translation of the first book of Irenaeus's Adversus Haereses (Against the Heresies). Bishop Irenaeus of Lyon wrote his work on the second half of the second century A. D., and through it he exposed the flourishing gnostic thought as being in opposition to the apostolic teaching. He endeavored to refute these new ideas in order to support the dogmatic orthodoxy of Christian faith. This present translation is not only an effort to bring into Portuguese language a book hardly known to the community but also an attempt to discuss the complex formation of the early Christian thought, which passed from a hermetic Jewish tradition to a Hellenistic world of philosophies, including notably that of Neo-Platonism. The choice of translating the first book out of the five tomes written by Irenaeus is not without reason: it is the only book which can almost completely be rendered in its original Greek language through the juxtaposition of copious quotations made by early theologists, while the remaining books are existent only in a barbarous version of Latin. Not only that, but also the gnostic philosophy which is discussed in this work is exposed only in the first book, which devotes itself to denounce the ideas of the Valentine's gnostic school and those of his disciples' / Mestrado / Linguistica / Mestre em Linguística

Scholarship to date on the Nag Hammadi Codices has been predominantly concerned with establishing the compositional history and doctrinal affiliations of each tractate within the collection. Much less attention has been paid to the library as a fourth-century collection of texts, which must have been understood by the compiler/s of the codices as having ideological coherence, and overarching messages. The present thesis is first and foremost an attempt to address this deficiency. Due to the site of the codices’ discovery in the Egyptian desert being in close proximity to the Pachomian monastery at Phbow, the suggestion was made that perhaps these monks were once the owners of the collection, forced to purge their monastery of these texts due to the increasing concern of the Alexandrian Church over the circulation of what it viewed to be ‘heretical’ religious documents. This ‘Pachomian connection’ was substantiated mainly by the apparent promotion of ascetic practice and a value placed on knowledge both in the Pachomian movement and many of the tractates from Nag Hammadi, as well as the presence of some monastic documents in the waste paper used to strengthen the covers of the codices. None are sufficient to conclude a relationship between the two. Moreover, scholarly conception of the Nag Hammadi Library as a representative of ‘Gnosticism,’ which since the critiques of this category by the likes of Williams (1996) and King (2004) has been something of a taboo term, meant that inquiry into connections with Pachomian monastic literature was too invested in searching for so-called ‘Gnostic’ overlap. On the contrary, this work argues that in order to gain a better understanding of why the Nag Hammadi texts were collected and collated in the way that they were, and how and why they might have been utilised by Christian inhabitants of the Egyptian desert, they must be viewed primarily as a fourth-century Christian collection. The thesis attempts to offer a fresh perspective on the question of monastic usage by viewing the Nag Hammadi texts simply as part of the Egyptian Christian landscape, rather than as a ‘heretical’ invasion of it. In order to conduct a controlled and sufficiently detailed analysis, this thesis examines one sub-collection of the Nag Hammadi Library – Codex II, alongside contemporaneous Pachomian monastic literature, and suggests agreement on various centralised issues. Building on the suggestions of Michael Williams (1996) and James Robinson (2004), that meaningful order can be detected in the arrangement of the Nag Hammadi Codices, the thesis contends that Nag Hammadi Codex II develops certain key themes through the particular sequencing of its tractates. Each of these, it is argued, would have been attractive to a fourth-century Pachomian monastic readership. Firstly, asceticism must be moderated so as not to lose sight of its spiritual value amidst competitive arrogance. Secondly, one’s duty to share and encourage the promulgation of spiritual truths among one’s brethren is of vital importance. Thirdly, identification as an ‘elite’ spiritually superior individual is in no way predetermined, as older definitions of ‘Gnosticism’ have suggested, but based entirely on one’s conscious choice to leave behind worldly pursuits.

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In the mid 1990's, Aarhus University's Per Bilde detailed a new hypothesis of how Judaism, Christianity and Gnosticism were connected. Bilde suggested that Christianity acted as a catalyst, propelling Jewish Apocalypticism into Gnosticism. This dissertation applies the epistle of Jude to Per Bilde's theory. Although Bilde is not the first to posit Judaism as a factor in the emergence of Gnosticism, his theory is unique in attempting to frame that connection in terms of a religious continuum. Jewish Apocalypticism, early Christianity, and Gnosticism represent three stages in a continual religio-historical development in which Gnosticism became the logical conclusion. I propose that Bilde is essentially correct and that the epistle of Jude is written evidence that the author of the epistle experiences the phenomena. The author of Jude (from this point on referred to as Jude) sits in the middle of Bilde's progression and may be the most perceptive of New Testament writers in responding to the crisis. He looks behind to see the Jewish association with the Christ followers and seeks to maintain it. He looks forward to what he perceives as a shift from early orthodoxy and battles that shift. My thesis is to use the text of the epistle of Jude to uncover its historical situation. I posit that it portrays an early church leader grounded in Jewish Apocalypticism and facing the beginnings of a new "heretical" movement. This is a thesis of connections, and the work lies in using the epistle of Jude to illustrate those connections. This study is significant in two respects. First, it will clarify background issues of Jude. Earlier scrutiny of Jude focused on its unique aspects, such as Jude's use of the non-canonical texts of 1 Enoch and the Testament of Moses. More recent scholarship has centered on the literary and rhetorical analysis of the text. I will concentrate on using the text of Jude within the context of this theory in order to determine a clearer view of the historical setting in which Jude wrote. Second, this work will further the theory of connections between Jewish Apocalypticism, early Christianity, and Gnosticism. Although much work has been done to validate the connections between Judaism and Gnosticism, less has been done specifically with regard to Jewish Apocalypticism and even less with Per Bilde's theory of the critical middle role of early Christianity. And no one has used Jude in this particular discussion. / Religion

<p>The thesis, <i>The Return of Christian Gnosticism. An Investigation of the Theology of Ulf Ekman</i>, is divided into two main sections. In the first section I address the question of what can be seen as characteristic of modern Gnosticism. This section also performs a preparatory function for the second section which contains the primary focus of the thesis, namely an analysis of Ulf Ekman’s theology and an investigation as to whether this theology can be regarded as a modern expression of Gnostic ideas. The first section of the thesis thus creates a platform which is later used to provide answers for the questions found in the second section. In the final chapter of the thesis I shall also relate Ekman’s theology more generally to a neo-Gnostic intellectual climate.</p><p>In the second section of the thesis I investigate the extent to which Ekman’s theology, which is closely related to international, primarily American, religious movements, contains veins of Gnosticism. I discuss in the background of ideas behind the American religious movement’s theology. Kenyon is reckoned to be the American movement’s founder and he is considered Ekman’s most significant spiritual father. I also discuss briefly how Gnostic thinking has contributed in various ways to the ideas of romanticism. I return to this theme in the concluding chapter of the thesis where I reflect on Gnostic traditions and ideas, and their presence in our culture. Then I present Ekman’s main theological thoughts. The focal point of the thesis is to what extent Ulf Ekman’s theology can be viewed as an expression of Christian neo-Gnosticism. The comparison that I draw in this section between Ekman’s theology and modern Gnosticism is based on the “Gnostic grammar” formulated in the first section. This comparison lies on a structural level, that is to say I compare the extent to which the fundamental thought structures in Ekman’s theology agree with the term modern Gnosticism as used in this thesis. This analysis is conducted under headings such as view of humanity; faith; salvation and knowledge; the cosmos and the world; dualism. I then discuss the results of the analysis and pose the question as to whether Ekman’s theology can be seen as being a modern, Christian Gnostic theology. There then follows a reflection over Ekman’s Christian Gnostic grammar. In the concluding chapter, the return of Christian Gnosticism, I widen the perspective by relating Ekman’s thinking to other, more general, cultural examples of Gnosticism such as the film The Matrix and the philosophy of James Redfield. I also discuss the issue of whether Ulf Ekman’s theology can be viewed as an expression of secularisation, if by secularisation one means Christian convictions permeating culture to an ever decreasing extent. This chapter also makes even clearer the historical connections, and their importance for the understanding of Ekman’s theology.</p>

The thesis, The Return of Christian Gnosticism. An Investigation of the Theology of Ulf Ekman, is divided into two main sections. In the first section I address the question of what can be seen as characteristic of modern Gnosticism. This section also performs a preparatory function for the second section which contains the primary focus of the thesis, namely an analysis of Ulf Ekman’s theology and an investigation as to whether this theology can be regarded as a modern expression of Gnostic ideas. The first section of the thesis thus creates a platform which is later used to provide answers for the questions found in the second section. In the final chapter of the thesis I shall also relate Ekman’s theology more generally to a neo-Gnostic intellectual climate. In the second section of the thesis I investigate the extent to which Ekman’s theology, which is closely related to international, primarily American, religious movements, contains veins of Gnosticism. I discuss in the background of ideas behind the American religious movement’s theology. Kenyon is reckoned to be the American movement’s founder and he is considered Ekman’s most significant spiritual father. I also discuss briefly how Gnostic thinking has contributed in various ways to the ideas of romanticism. I return to this theme in the concluding chapter of the thesis where I reflect on Gnostic traditions and ideas, and their presence in our culture. Then I present Ekman’s main theological thoughts. The focal point of the thesis is to what extent Ulf Ekman’s theology can be viewed as an expression of Christian neo-Gnosticism. The comparison that I draw in this section between Ekman’s theology and modern Gnosticism is based on the “Gnostic grammar” formulated in the first section. This comparison lies on a structural level, that is to say I compare the extent to which the fundamental thought structures in Ekman’s theology agree with the term modern Gnosticism as used in this thesis. This analysis is conducted under headings such as view of humanity; faith; salvation and knowledge; the cosmos and the world; dualism. I then discuss the results of the analysis and pose the question as to whether Ekman’s theology can be seen as being a modern, Christian Gnostic theology. There then follows a reflection over Ekman’s Christian Gnostic grammar. In the concluding chapter, the return of Christian Gnosticism, I widen the perspective by relating Ekman’s thinking to other, more general, cultural examples of Gnosticism such as the film The Matrix and the philosophy of James Redfield. I also discuss the issue of whether Ulf Ekman’s theology can be viewed as an expression of secularisation, if by secularisation one means Christian convictions permeating culture to an ever decreasing extent. This chapter also makes even clearer the historical connections, and their importance for the understanding of Ekman’s theology.

<p>Förhållandet mellan modern gnosticism och New Age har visat sig vara oklar i den aktuella akademiska diskussionen. I denna studie gjordes ett försök att bringa en större ordning i denna aktuella akademiska diskussion. Huvudsyftet var att jämföra modern gnosticism och New Age utifrån några valda verk, och se vilka likheter och skillnader som fanns. Metoden som användes var deskription och komparation. Studien visade att det fanns både likheter och skillnader. Den största likheten kan sägas bestå av att båda fenomenen är individcentrerade. Den främsta auktoriteten finns inom människan. En annan likhet är att båda rörelserna har en oppositionell karaktär. På det andliga planet är man mot den etablerade, institutionaliserade och hierarkiska formen av religion. Den största skillnaden mellan de båda handlar om två närliggande existentiella frågor som verkar vara förbehållet modern gnosticism. Det handlar om människan som en främling inför tillvaron, och hennes utkastade tillstånd i denna världen.</p>

Förhållandet mellan modern gnosticism och New Age har visat sig vara oklar i den aktuella akademiska diskussionen. I denna studie gjordes ett försök att bringa en större ordning i denna aktuella akademiska diskussion. Huvudsyftet var att jämföra modern gnosticism och New Age utifrån några valda verk, och se vilka likheter och skillnader som fanns. Metoden som användes var deskription och komparation. Studien visade att det fanns både likheter och skillnader. Den största likheten kan sägas bestå av att båda fenomenen är individcentrerade. Den främsta auktoriteten finns inom människan. En annan likhet är att båda rörelserna har en oppositionell karaktär. På det andliga planet är man mot den etablerade, institutionaliserade och hierarkiska formen av religion. Den största skillnaden mellan de båda handlar om två närliggande existentiella frågor som verkar vara förbehållet modern gnosticism. Det handlar om människan som en främling inför tillvaron, och hennes utkastade tillstånd i denna världen.