Wrestling with Archons (eBook)

Gnosticism as a Critical Theory of Culture

Jonathan Cahana-Blum (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2018
210 Seiten
Lexington Books (Verlag)
978-1-4985-6629-2 (ISBN)

Infos

This book demonstrates that ancient Christian Gnosticism was an ancient form of cultural criticism in a mythological garb. It establishes that, much like modern forms of critical theory, including the Frankfurt School and queer theory, ancient Gnosticism was set on deconstructing mainstream discourses and cultural premises.

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This book demonstrates that ancient Christian Gnosticism was an ancient form of cultural criticism in a mythological garb. It establishes that, much like modern forms of critical theory, ancient Gnosticism was set on deconstructing mainstream discourses and cultural premises. Strains of critical theory dealt with include the Frankfurt School, queer theory, and poststructural philosophy. The book documents how in both ancient Gnosticism and modern critical theories issues that used to serve as premises for discussion or as concepts relegated to the realms of the ';natural' and the ';given' in their respective historical contexts, are transformed into objects of contention. The main aim of this book is to salvage the historical category of Gnosticism from its present scholarly disavowal, if only because Gnosticism, when read as a cultural, and not only a religious phenomenon, presents us an ancient form of culture criticism which would be hard to parallel until (post) modernity. While Hans Jonas remarked many years ago that ';something in Gnosticism knocks at the door of our Being and of our twentieth-century Being in particular,' by the 21st century global world this something has already entered and lives with us. We can thus still benefit from another perspective, even if it comes from Mediterranean people who lived almost 2,000 years ago.

Autor

Jonathan Cahana-Blum conducted postdoctoral research as a Fulbright Fellow at Harvard Divinity School and held a Sapere Aude fellowship from the Danish Council for Independent Research at Aarhus University. He has published in such venues as Numen, Journal of Religion, and Journal of the American Academy of Religion.

Inhalt

AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Gnosticism, Gnostics and their DiscontentsChapter 1: MethodologyChapter 2: Gnosticism as Ancient Cultural Criticism: A Historical ApproachChapter 3: Gnosticism and Modern Cultural Criticism: A Comparative ApproachChapter 4: Paradigm Inversion: Gnosticism at the Origins of ChristianityConclusionsBibliographyAbout the Author

Produkt-Details

• Verlagsort: Lanham
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Religionsgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Religion / Theologie ► Christentum ► Kirchengeschichte
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Weitere Religionen
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Gender Studies
• Schlagworte: Comparative Religion • Critical theory • Early Christianity • Frankfurt School • Gender Studies • Gnosticism • Heresy • Queer Theory • Religious Studies
• ISBN-10: 1-4985-6629-4 / 1498566294
• ISBN-13: 978-1-4985-6629-2 / 9781498566292