Williams Rethinking "Gnosticism"

An Argument for Dismantling a Dubious Category
Course Book
ISBN: 978-1-4008-2221-8
Verlag: De Gruyter
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 360 Seiten

Michael Allen Williams is Professor of Comparative Religion at the University of Washington, and is currently chair of the Department of Near East Languages and Civilization. He is also the author of The Immovable Race: A Gnostic Designation and the Theme of Stability in Late Antiquity and co-editor, with Collett Cox and Martin Jaffee, of Innovation in Religious Traditions: Essays in the Interpretation of Religious Change.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Williams, Michael Allen

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Figures and Tables

Preface

Abbreviations

Introduction 3

Ch. 1 What Kind of Thing Do Scholars Mean by "Gnosticism"?: A Look at Four Cases 7

Ch. 2 "Gnosticism" as a Category 29

Ch. 3 Protest Exegesis? or Hermeneutical Problem-Solving? 54

Ch. 4 Parasites? or Innovators? 80

Ch. 5 Anticosmic World-Rejection? or Sociocultural Accommodation? 96

Ch. 6 Hatred of the Body? or the Perfection of the Human? 116

Ch. 7 Asceticism.? 139

Ch. 8.or Libertinism? 163

Ch. 9 Deterministic Elitism? or Inclusive Theories of Conversion? 189

Ch. 10 Where They Came From. 213

Ch. 11.and What They Left Behind 235

Conclusion 263

Notes 267

Modern Works Cited 311

Index 329

Über Autor(innen)

Michael Allen Williams is Professor of Comparative Religion at the University of Washington, and is currently chair of the Department of Near East Languages and Civilization. He is also the author of The Immovable Race: A Gnostic Designation and the Theme of Stability in Late Antiquity and co-editor, with Collett Cox and Martin Jaffee, of Innovation in Religious Traditions: Essays in the Interpretation of Religious Change.