Gnosticism

Catalog description

Examination of the nature, history, literature, ritual, and impact of the classical Gnostic religions, 100 BCE to 400 CE. Extensive reading of original Gnostic treatises in English translation, with particular attention to their appropriation and transformation of earlier Jewish, Christian, and pagan religious and philosophical traditions. The principal Gnostic schools to be treated are Simonians, Sethians, Valentinians, Hermetics, and Manichaeans.