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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 273.1
EAN: 9780807058015
ISBN: 0807058017
Label: Beacon Press
Manufacturer: Beacon Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 359
Publication Date: January 16, 2001
Publisher: Beacon Press
Sales Rank: 337508
Studio: Beacon Press
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Product Description:
The Message of the Alien God and the Beginnings of Christianity
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
This book presents Gnosis in the form of a series of Creation myths differing from our normal western mythology in that it presents dualism in a later stage of the creative process and was thus labeled a Christian heresy. However, the presentation of evil as not personal to the individual coincides with some of the more modern Christian Science practices. In other words, we do not actually generate evil, according to this belief system. Indeed, we separate ourselves from evil through Gnosis.
Rating: -
It is an informative book, and is written in a fairly engaging manner. It has relatively few typos. It is, however, also rather bigoted at points. Some part of Jonas does not like Gnostics or Gnosticism and tends to favor Orthodoxy - in a subtle, back-biting sort of way.
Regardless, this is a book worth having in your library. Read it and extract the rich signal from the annoying undercurrent of noise.
It could've, it should've, it would've been a five star book if only,..
Rating: -
"...all investigations of detail over the last half century have proved divergent rather than convergent, and leave us with a portrait of Gnosticism in which the absence of a unifying character seems to be the salient feature" - Hans Jonas, Preface, 1958
No modern writer that I am aware of has brought life to Gnosticism as Jonas has. While in no way neglecting historical or theological issues, Jonas didn't get bogged down in them: he insisted on revealing the existential import of Gnosticism. ... Read More
Rating: -
Gnosticism was a syncretic religious movement which flourished from the time of St Paul to about 200 AD. The Gnostics were brilliant seekers who like many thoughtful people of the time, were seeking for an answer to the meaning of existence in a turbulent and unstable world addled with war, injustice, evil, and suffering.
Jonas offers an excellent examination of the Gnostic religion and the main ideas of Gnosticism, and introductions to the most famous Gnostic teachers (Valentinus and Basilides) ... Read More
Rating: -
I have heard from others that Jonas' book is less difficult to follow than Rudolph's book "Gnosis". I would agree with this assessment, in some ways. I found Jonas' book to be well organised and less "wordy" than that which Rudolph wrote.
While Jonas does not cover as wide a range of types of Gnosticism, he does enter into greater detail. He uses Valentinian and Manichaean Gnosticism as examples of different streams of Gnostic thought. The detail into which he goes with the different elements of these ... Read More
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