Against The Protestant Gnostics

Since the discovery of original gnostic documents at Nag Hammadi in 1945, many scholars have recognized a familiar presence within this ancient heresy. To some authors the main features of gnosticism--belief in a secret revelation available only to an initiated elite, rejection of the physical world, and escape into the self--seemed reminiscent of modern cult groups and secular movements. However, Philip Lee, noting that most of the early gnostics were firmly ensconced within the Church, locates modern gnosticism within the Protestant establishment itself. "As a Protestant, I believe I have identified the elusive modern gnostics and they are ourselves," he writes. In this penetrating and provocative assessment of the current state of religion and its effect on values in society at large, Lee criticizes conservatives and liberals alike as he traces gnostic motifs to the very roots of American Protestantism. With references to an extraordinary spectrum of writings from sources as diverse as John Calvin, Martin Buber, Tom Wolfe, Margaret Atwood and Emily Dickinson among many others, he probes the effects of gnostic thinking on issues ranging from politics to feminism, from ecology to parenthood. The ethical ramifications of such a gnostic turn have been negative and frightening, he maintains. The book points to positive ways of restoring health to endangered Protestant churches. Calling for the restoration of a dialectical faith and practice, Lee offers an agenda for reform, including a renewal of obedience to the scriptures and an affirmation of life and creation within the circle of the extended family.

In this penetrating and provocative assessment of the current state of religion and its effects on society at large, Philip J. Lee criticizes conservatives and liberals alike as he traces gnostic motifs to the very roots of American Protestantism. With references to an extraordinary spectrum of writings from sources as diverse as John Calvin, Martin Buber, Tom Wolfe, Margaret Atwood, and Emily Dickinson, he probes the effects of gnostic thinking on a wide range of issues. Calling for the restoration of a dialectical faith and practice, the book points to positive ways of restoring health to endangered Protestant churches.

A study of gnosticism examines the various ways early Christians strove to define themselves in a pluralistic Roman society, while questioning the traditional ideas of heresy and orthodoxy that have previously influenced historians.

Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time The Gnostic Gospels is a landmark study of the long-buried roots of Christianity, a work of luminous scholarship and wide popular appeal. First published in 1979 to critical acclaim, winning the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, The Gnostic Gospels has continued to grow in reputation and influence over the past two decades. It is now widely recognized as one of the most brilliant and accessible histories of early Christian spirituality published in our time. In 1945 an Egyptian peasant unearthed what proved to be the Gnostic Gospels, thirteen papyrus volumes that expounded a radically different view of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ from that of the New Testament. In this spellbinding book, renowned religious scholar Elaine Pagels elucidates the mysteries and meanings of these sacred texts both in the world of the first Christians and in the context of Christianity today. With insight and passion, Pagels explores a remarkable range of recently discovered gospels, including the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, to show how a variety of “Christianities” emerged at a time of extraordinary spiritual upheaval. Some Christians questioned the need for clergy and church doctrine, and taught that the divine could be discovered through spiritual search. Many others, like Buddhists and Hindus, sought enlightenment—and access to God—within. Such explorations raised questions: Was the resurrection to be understood symbolically and not literally? Was God to be envisioned only in masculine form, or feminine as well? Was martyrdom a necessary—or worthy—expression of faith? These early Christians dared to ask questions that orthodox Christians later suppressed—and their explorations led to profoundly different visions of Jesus and his message. Brilliant, provocative, and stunning in its implications, The Gnostic Gospels is a radical, eloquent reconsideration of the origins of the Christian faith.

For over forty years Stanley Hauerwas has been writing theology that matters. In this new collection of essays, lectures, and sermons, Hauerwas continues his life’s work of exploring the theological web, discovering and recovering the connections necessary for the church to bear faithful witness to Christ in our complex and changing times. Hauerwas enters into conversation with a diverse array of interlocutors as he brings new insights to bear on matters theological, delves into university matters, demonstrates how lives matter, and continues in his passionate commitment to the matter of preaching. Essays by Robert Dean illumine the connections that have made Hauerwas’s theological web-slinging so significant and demonstrate why Hauerwas’s sermons have a crucial role to play in the recovery of a gospel-shaped homiletical imagination.

Religious history in the Western world has been dominated by the power and doctrinal discipline of the Catholic Church. But, argues Tony Sunderland in his new book, we are not solely products of this tradition, nor of that of its Protestant challengers. Lost in the footnotes of history is the story of the Church's fascinating heretical counterpart, Gnosticism. The Gnostics were brutally persecuted and their ideas were suppressed. But their teachings were powerful enough to linger on in the collective unconscious of succeeding generations and to re-emerge in the most unexpected places. From symbols on the American one-dollar bill to the ideals of the 1960s counterculture, from heavy metal music to twenty-first century technological innovations, various facets of Gnostic thought continue to offer us a way to interpret the meaning of our lives. As Sunderland traces the battle between the orthodox and heretical traditions of Christianity, his thorough research and ability to make counterintuitive connections reveal to us a struggle that continues to rage beneath the surface of contemporary life.

Jacob Boehme, the seventeenth-century German speculative mystic, influenced the philosophers Hegel and Schelling and both English and German Romantics alike with his visionary thought. Gnostic Apocalypse focuses on the way Boehme's thought repeats and surpasses post-reformation Lutheran thinking, deploys and subverts the commitments of medieval mysticism, realizes the speculative thrust of Renaissance alchemy, is open to esoteric discourses such as the Kabbalah, and articulates a dynamic metaphysics. This book critically assesses the striking claim made in the nineteenth century that Boehme's visionary discourse represents within the confines of specifically Protestant thought nothing less than the return of ancient Gnosis. Although the grounds adduced on behalf of the "Gnostic return" claim in the nineteenth century are dismissed as questionable, O'Regan shows that the fundamental intuition is correct. Boehme's visionary discourse does represent a return of Gnosticism in the modern period, and in this lies its fundamental claim to our contemporary philosophical, theological, and literary attention.

Will all evil finally turn to good, or does some evil remain stubbornly opposed to God and God's goodness? Will even the devil be redeemed? Addressing a theological issue of perennial interest, this comprehensive book (in two volumes) surveys the history of Christian universalism from the second to the twenty-first century and offers an interpretation of how and why universalist belief arose. The author explores what the church has taught about universal salvation and hell and critiques universalism from a biblical, philosophical, and theological standpoint. He shows that the effort to extend grace to everyone undermines the principle of grace for anyone.

In this rigorous and provocative study, Joe E. Morrisargues that the basic tenets and practices of Fundamentalism are those of ancient Christian Gnosticism. Drawing on extensive research andcareful analysis, Morris aligns the two religious phenomena, point by point, tenet by tenet.Along the way, he provides insights into the key hermeneutic of Fundamentalism: inerrancy of Scripture, highlighting the multiple problems with the positions of literal and inerrant interpretation, their impracticality and unfeasibility, and their contradiction with their own conservative doctrine - namely, the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. This groundbreaking book dramatically recasts our understanding of the history of Christianity and gives important context to modern-day religious debates.