Ebook: The Gnostic World

"The Gnostic World is an outstanding guide to Gnosticism, designed as a collection of critical studies by experts to both widen and deepen study in Gnostic movements and strands of speculation as a discrete "World" of human socio-spiritual life from the distant past until today. An international team of contributors examines these manifestations in a variety of contexts, from the ancient pre-Christian to the contemporary. The volume considers the intersection of Gnosticism with Jewish, Christian, Islamic and Indic practices and beliefs, and also with such new religious movements as Theosophy, Scientology, Western Sufism, and the Nation of Islam. This illustrated handbook will be an invaluable resource for students, scholars, and researchers of Gnostic doctrine and history";Gnosticism, gnostics, and gnosis / Dylan M. Burns -- "The gnostic world" : a history of scholarship (until 2000) / Garry W. Trompf -- Gnostics and temporality : from myth to macrohistory / Garry W. Trompf -- Ancient pre-Christian "gnosticisms" : the state of the questions / Carl B. Smith II -- The Jewish background to "gnosticism" : a guide to the perplexed / Garry W. Trompf -- Gnostic motifs in the New Testament / Pheme Perkins -- On ancient "gnosticism" as a problematic category / Michael A. Williams -- Gender issues and the study of ancient "gnosticism" / Majella Franzmann -- The gnostics in early Christian heresiology / Mark Edwards -- Genres of gnostic literature and the "classical gnostic" school of thought / John D. Turner -- Sethian gnostic speculation / John D. Turner -- Basilides and the Basilidians / Jean-Daniel Dubois -- Valentinus and the Valentinians / Einar Thomassen -- Is the Gospel of Thomas gnostic? / David W. Kim -- The gospel of Judas and the Tchacos Codex / Garry W. Trompf and David W. Kim -- The Mandaeans : writings, rituals, and art / Brikha Nasoraia -- Hermetism and gnosticism / Jean-Pierre Mahé -- Plotinus and the gnostics / Francis Lacroix and Jean-Marc Narbonne -- Gnostic elements in ancient magical papyri / Malcolm Choat -- Mani's life / Iain Gardner -- The Manichaean path to salvation / Jason D. BeDuhn -- Insight and means in Chinese Manichaean texts / Gunner B. Mikkelsen -- From "Zurvanism" to Mazdak / Garry W. Trompf and Milad Milani -- Christian gnosis : from Clement the Alexandrian to John Damascene / Doru Costache -- Gnostic vicissitudes in late antiquity / Garry W. Trompf -- Jñana : gnostic tendencies in early Hinduism and Buddhism / Gregory Bailey -- The discourse of truth in Tiantai Buddhism : "gnosis beyond gnosis" / Haiyan Shen, with Brikha H.S. Nasoraia -- Questions of gnostic influence on early Islam / John C. Reeves -- An agenda for the study of early Shi'i cosmologies / Mushegh Asatryan -- Classic sufism and gnosis / Milad Milani -- Ismailism and gnosis / Farhad Daftary -- Druze gnosis and the mystery of time / Adnan Kasamanie -- Gnostic elements in Yezidism / Victoria Arakelova and Garnik Asatryan -- Kabbalah and gnosticism / Michael Schneider -- Bogomils and Cathars / Zdenko Zlatar -- Alchemy and gnosis from antiquity to early modern times : "as above so below" / Peter Marshall -- "Gnosis" as term and concept in the esoteric movements of the modern West : an attempt at periodization / Antoine Faivre -- Byzantine and modern orthodox gnosis : from the eleventh to the twenty-first century / Doru Costache -- Pansophia, Christian kabbalism, and the quest for universal knowledge in the early modern West / Garry W. Trompf -- Freemasonry: gnostic images / Garry W. Trompf -- British romanticism : gnostic longings / William Christie -- William Blake, the ancient gnostics, and the birth of modern gnosticism / Peter Otto -- Gnosis in the "French occult revival" and its offshoots / Tobias Churton -- The "lost word" key and esoteric eschatology : Blavatsky's gnosis the core of Krishnamurti's teaching / Al Boag -- The philosophy of Guido von List (1848-1919) : connecting gnosticism to nazism / Jeffrey D. Lavoie -- Rudolf steiner : multiple bodies / Wayne Hudson -- Gnostic sensibility in Gurdjieff's "work" / Constance A. Jones -- Western sufism and gnosis / Mark Sedgwick -- Gnosis : a perennialist perspective / Harry Oldmeadow -- Carl Jung on gnosticism / Robert A. Segal -- Elevating the family in the nation of Islam : discerning the "gnostic factor" / Dennis Walker -- Inner tradition : recovering Christianity of the East / Lynn C. Bauman -- Gnosis in Babism and gnostic signs in Babi talismans / Denis MacEoin -- Ayatollah Khomeini's gnoseology and its impact on his political worldview / Emad Bazzi -- Syncretistic Sufi gnosticism in south and southeast Asia / Clinton Bennett -- Aurobindo and supermind / Peter Heehs -- Of gnosis in tribal and "primal" cultures / Garry W. Trompf -- Between the libertines and the renunciants : the neo-gnostic synthesis of Samael Aun Weor / Bernard Doherty -- Scientology and gnosticism : L. Ron Hubbard's "The factors" (1953) / Donald A. Westbrook and James R. Lewis -- Gnostic and esoteric filaments in popular culture / Adam Possamai -- Feminist gnosis and modern gender issues / Jay Johnston -- Modern psychedelic gnosis / Christopher Partridge -- Exposing gnosticism / Douglas E. Cowan -- Gnostic fiction / Carole Cusack -- Film : evil demiurges in Hollywood films at the threshold of the 21st century : gnostic world-creators in the age of rapid technological development / Fryderyk Kwiatkowski -- Gnosis and the arts : music / Joscelyn Godwin -- Aesthetics and visual art / Jay Johnston