Gnostic Return in Modernity , livre ebook

322

pages

English

Ebooks

2001

Écrit par
Cyril O'Regan

Publié par
State University of New York Press

Lire un extrait

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus

Découvre YouScribe et accède à tout notre catalogue !

Je m'inscris

Découvre YouScribe et accède à tout notre catalogue !

Je m'inscris

322

pages

English

Ebooks

2001

Lire un extrait

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus

Publié par

State University of New York Press

Date de parution

19 juillet 2001

Nombre de lectures

EAN13

9780791490372

Langue

English

Poids de l'ouvrage

1 Mo

Gnostic Return in Modernity demonstrates the possibility that Gnosticism haunts certain modern discourses. Studying Gnosticism of the first centuries of the common era and utilizing narrative analysis, the author shows how Gnosticism returns in a select band of narrative discourses that extends from the seventeenth century German mystic Jacob Boehme through Hegel and Blake down into the contemporary period. The key concept is that of narrative grammar. Unlike the hypothesis of an invariant narrative, a Gnostic narrative grammar allows room for the differences between modern and ancient forms of Gnosticism, and respects the dignity of both periods.
Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I. Baurian Model of Gnostic Return and Its Challenges

Chapter 1. Redeeming and Reconstructing Baur's Model of Gnostic Return
Summary

Chapter 2. Baurian Gnostic Genealogical Model and Its Contestation
2.1. Historicist Challenge: Hans Blumenberg and Epochal Shift
2.2. Agon between Gnostic Baurian and Non-Gnostic Genealogies
Summary

Part II. Toward Valentinian Narrative Grammar

Chapter 3. Classical Valentinian Narratives: Variety and Unity
3.1. Ptolemy's Valentinian Gnostic System
3.2. The Gospel of Truth3.3 The Tripartite Tractate
Summary

Chapter 4. Valentinian Narrative Grammar: Irenaean Gestures and the Phenomenon of Valentinian Enlisting
4.1. The Contributions of Irenaeus: Developing the Grammatical Hints
4.2. Valentinianism's Relation to Other Narrative Discourses

Chapter 5. Genealogical Capability of Valentinian Narrative Grammar
5.1. Justifying the Protestant Identification of the Baurian Line
5.2. Baurian Line and Rule-Governed Deformation of Classical Valentinian Genres
5.3. Valentinian Enlisting of Non-Valentinian Narrative Discourses
Summary

Conclusion

Notes

Index

Voir

Publié par

State University of New York Press

Date de parution

19 juillet 2001

EAN13

9780791490372

Langue

English

Poids de l'ouvrage

1 Mo

Philosophie Philosophie de la religion Religion Christianisme 19th century Theology Philosophy of religion Christianity

Chapter Title

Gnostic Return in Modernity

This page intentionally left blank.

Chapter Title

Gnostic Return in Modernity

CYRIL O’REGAN

S U N Y P TATE NIVERSITY OF EW ORK RESS

iii

Gnostic Return in Modernity

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, address State University of New York Press, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207

Production by Diane Ganeles Marketing by Patrick Durocher

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

O’Regan, Cyril, (date) Gnostic return in modernity / Cyril O’Regan. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 079145021X (alk. paper) — ISBN 0791450228 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Gnosticism—History. I. Title. BT1390.O74 2001 299'.932—dc21 00049300

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Dedicated to Ger Meehan

Of the roads that led from your green room and their soft vanishing borders only one of which led to me,

all are kissed. I fold a blue page over a bouquet of absences, the morning promises of a child that would dream and not wake.

Some nights I spy those shadows, directions’ excess, distances traveled back there before morning. I play

the game of cataloguing the selves that might have been, or the game plays me with its metaphysical hand.

Each morning I wake to the miracle of the fabulously familiar.

Gnostic Return in Modernity

This page intentionally left blank.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Contents

Part I. Baurian Model of Gnostic Return and Its Challenges

Chapter 1. Redeeming and Reconstructing Baur’s Model of Gnostic Return Summary

Chapter 2. Baurian Gnostic Genealogical Model and Its Contestation 2.1. Historicist Challenge: Hans Blumenberg and Epochal Shift 2.2. Agon between Gnostic Baurian and NonGnostic Genealogies Summary

Part II. Toward Valentinian Narrative Grammar

Chapter 3. Classical Valentinian Narratives: Variety and Unity 3.1. Ptolemy’s Valentinian Gnostic System 3.2. The Gospel of Truth

vii

23 46

65 88

99 102 110

viii

Contents

3.3 The Tripartite Tractate Summary

Chapter 4. Valentinian Narrative Grammar: Irenaean Gestures and the Phenomenon of Valentinian Enlisting 4.1. The Contributions of Irenaeus: Developing the Grammatical Hints

4.2. Valentinianism’s Relation to Other Narrative Discourses

Chapter 5. Genealogical Capability of Valentinian Narrative Grammar 5.1. Justifying the Protestant Identification of the Baurian Line 5.2. Baurian Line and RuleGoverned Deformation of Classical Valentinian Genres 5.3. Valentinian Enlisting of NonValentinian Narrative Discourses Summary

Conclusion

Notes

Index

118 135

137

143

167

179

181

196

207 225

227

237

295

Acknowledgments

The creation of this book constitutes no exception to the rule that a text is always a chorus of voices and a work of more than one hand. In this text the voices of three Yale friends, David Kelsey, Wayne Meeks, and Gene Outka resound. Their support of this text and oth ers on the return of Gnosticism in the modern period has been as un conditional as their correction has been insightful and persuasive. In addition, the editorial hand of Gene Outka is on every page. He was assiduous, even heroic, in his efforts to get me to write in something like English prose. I am grateful also to Jim Dittes for his kindness and support while at the department of Religious Studies at Yale, and to Steve Fraade who as chair of the Department of Religious Studies procured for me muchneeded timeoff in 1997–8. To the cabal of Yale graduate students who read carefully and critically evaluated the first draft of this volume, and who go under the proper names of Andrew Dole, Alicia Jaramillo, Todd Ohara, Stefano Penna, and Madhuri Yadlapati, I offer thanks. I would like to express my thanks also to John Jones—now marketing editor at Crossroad/ Herder—for his critical reading of the early fragmentary outline of the present book and the one that immediately follows. My debts in my new home of the Department of Theology at the University of Notre Dame are no less real. The Department of Theology under the able leadership of John Cavadini has provided a welcoming and hos pitable environment for reworking, revising, and editing this text and the one that follows it. Sue Meyer did a wonderful job proofing the manuscript and introducing consistency of style. In this not ob viously rewarding venture she was ably assisted by Cyril Gorman O.S. B. Michael Lee provided valuable assistance in constructing an index. I am deeply in debt to all three of my readers at SUNY Press. I can safely say that more generous readers could not possibly be

Voir