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Gnosis: The Nature and History of Gnosticism

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It is comprehensive, steeped in the sources and objective which is rare in a field where personal covinctions often interfere with narrative. There are some minor works or subjects which I wanted to see better covered but, nevertheless, it is an outstanding achievement. It helped me a lot to penetrate the world of ancient Gnosticism and finally to write and defend a doctoral thesis on it. It will be published in 2000, alas, in Bulgarian. It also stimulated me to begin researching the influence of Gnosticism through the ages which is enormous but much neglected.

Although scholarly, this book is most readable. I have found it the best study of the Gnostics individually and as a whole, and Rudolph has portrayed quite well how a group of Gnostic Christians broke away from the older Gnostic sects to produce what has become Catholicism. In addition, he gives us a clear view of how and why the early Gnostics accepted Jesus into their pantheon. I am quite surprised that Messrs. Freke and Gandy had not read this book before writing The Jesus Mysteries, but it does not appear in their bibliography.

From studying the Gnostics one can see where the Roman Church gained it rituals and sacraments, and why it was necessary to denigrate the many Gnostics sects in order to prove theirs was the truest. It is all a matter of belief systems. If you can gain more people who believe in yours (even through persecution), then you can call everyone else a heretic, pagan or infidel.

Rudolph confirmed for me that man has always sought mysteries. Knowledge is power, and secret knowledge is true power. Though Rudolph doesn't say it, Gnosticism was certainly behind the quest throughout the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation, and the reason men like Ficino, Pico, Albertus Magus, Francis Bacon, Giordano Bruno, etc., sought gnosis outside the Roman Church for the right to study suppressed knowledge, which was the beginning of what we know as the Hermetic Arts, Occult science, Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry.

This is a comparatively easy read (if compared to someinsufferable history books I read in college), and it is also veryinformative. No new age [stuff] -- just scholarship and very goodanalysis. This survey is much better than Hans Jonas in that itincorporates Nag Hammadi findings, and is not as hostile. The selectbibliography at the end is a jewel ...

For someone looking for a reasonably detailed and well-written introduction to Gnosticism, this is an excellent starting point. Covering most of the major Gnostic phenomena, it covers a difficult topic in a way that is pretty easy to get into.

Sometimes, it is a bit "wordy" and heavy going, though overall, it is an excellent intro.

I thoroughly enjoyed it.

If your passion is Gnosticism than this book is for you. One you would keep in your library. Very complete. I wish I owned the hard cover. This book will orient you to Gnosticism complete. I recommend reading this book BEFORE you read the Nag Hammadi Library. Not a book for everybody simply because you may not want to go into this much detail on the subject. After reading this book I can read more detailed Gnostic scriptures and have a much better understanding of what it is I am reading. This book was originally written in German by the Gnostic Scholar Kurt Rudolph. I enjoyed this book!

Rudolph acheives the almost impossible task of making gnosticism easy to understand. An invaluable reference, "The Nature and History of Gnosticism" illuminates countless factes of a long-censored (and often confusing) belief system.

GNOSIS: The Nature & History of Gnosticism by Kurt Rudolph is one of the ultimate resources on the subject of gnosis. A scholar of the very finest caliber, Rudolph meticulously explores the earliest origins of a loosely connected spiritual movement that can be historically traced back to at least the year One Common Era. Within this context the author alludes to the fact that Pagans, not just Christians, were associated to the Gnostic view of a universe under the domination of the Demiurge (Satan or exploitation). The author describes the inevitable conflict between the myriad Gnostics sects and the Church Establishment. The Gnostics were concerned with individual liberation, while the early Church was obsessed with imposing a rigid fundamentalism and considered the Gnostics to be the worst heretics-and dealt with them accordingly. The author also demonstrates the fact that Gnostics were involved in astrology, numerology & magic. He also states the compatibility of modern Gnosticism and socialism

The Gnostic Gospels
The Gnostic Bible
Living Gnosis: A Practical Guide to Gnostic Christianity
The Laughing Jesus: Religious Lies and Gnostic Wisdom

[from Boating on the Catawba...in the
"Musketaquid"]
"The hidden significance of these fables
which is sometimes thought to have been
detected, the ethics running parallel to
the poetry and the history, are not so
remarkable as the readiness with which they
may be made to express a variety of truths.
As if they were the skeletons of still older
and more universal truths than any whose
flesh and blood they are for the time made
to wear. *** But what signifies it? In the
mythus a superhuman intelligence uses the
unconscious thoughts and dreams of men as its
hieroglyphics to address men unborn. In the
history of the human mind, these glowing and
ruddy fables precede the noonday thoughts of
men, as Aurora [does]the sun's rays. The matutine
intellect of the poet, keeping in advance of the
glare of philosophy, always dwells in this
auroral atmosphere."
-- Henry David Thoreau; *A Week on the
Concord and Merrimack Rivers*.
* * * * * * * * *
This work by Kurt Rudolph is the most
clearly defined, cross-referenced, and
helpfully labeled (in the margins) guide to
understanding Gnosticism which I have so far
encountered.
His explanations and numerous excerpts
are concise and clear, as are his numerous
guides to other places in the text which
are also relevant. Rudolph also includes
an excellent discussion of the discovery
and significance of the Nag Hammadi Coptic
gnostic texts, including an excellent and
clear outline of the Codices and their
contents. The book also contains remarkable
photographs of the places of discovery as
well as of some individual pages. In other
parts of the book there are photographs and
drawings related to other expressions
of Gnostic experience.
To explain the concept and the understanding,
one might borrow this quote from Elaine Pagels
in her remarkable work, *The Gnostic Gospels*:

"As the gnostics use the term, we could
translate it as *insight,* for gnosis
involves *an intuitive process of knowing
oneself.* And to know oneself, they claimed,
is to know human nature and human destiny."
* * * * * * * * *
As Rudolph so well puts it:
"They were not aiming at any ideal philosophical
knowledge nor any knowledge of an intellectual
or theoretical kind, but a knowledge which had
at the same time -- a liberating and redeeming
effect. *** All gnostic teachings are in some
form a part of the redeeming knowledge -- which
gathers together -- the object of knowledge
(the divine nature), the means of knowledge (the
redeeming gnosis), and the knower himself. The
intellectual knowledge which is offered as
revealed wisdom -- has here a direct religious
significance, since it is at the same time
understood as otherworldly, and is the basis
for the process of redemption." * * *
"There was no gnostic canon of scripture, unless
it was the *holy scriptures* of other religions,
like the Bible -- or Homer [sic], which were
employed and interpreted for the purpose of
authorising the gnostics' own teachings. ***
The gnostics seem to have taken particular
delight in bringing their teachings to
expression in manifold ways, and they handled
their literary producitons with great skill.
*** ...everywhere one notes a masterful practice
of the method of extracting as much as possible
out of the thoughts and expressing it in ever
new ways. In this process, the interpretive
method of *allegory and symbolism,* widely
diffused in the ancient world, was freely
employed."
* * * * * * * * *
Excellent in many ways...

"Gnosis is one of the great alternatives in looking at the whole scheme of things and our place in it ... the Gnostics probably were the first who saw the theme of the stranger in the world. That makes them, the Gnostics, a world historical event." Hans Jonas



Prologue to a Commentary:
Gazing at the title, while I was checking my comments on "The Nature and History of Gnosticism," shortly after the train left Charlotte to Raleigh, NC, the gentleman sitting to my right asked nicely if I could briefly explain to him what is Gnosticism. While Rabbi Akiba explained Judaism during the hearer sustained standing on one leg, it took me a while to expound Gnosticism (Ca. 40 minutes), the train then has already arrived at Salisbury, NC.

Comments on K R's Gnosis:
A generation after Hans Jonas published "The Gnostic Religion" (English edition), another serious German scholar wrote the state of the art work on the Gnostic phenomenon. His able editor McL. Wilson and translators would not be content with translating the quotations from the German version, but took the original ancient languages quotations in view.

Nature and Structure:
The Sources: This review of the quotations from Church fathers writings, older sources in Corpus Hermeticum, Pistis Sophia,... to Mandean books, followed by research history, basically of German scholars Walter Bauer, von Harnack, Bousset, to Jonas is the most elaborate. His story on the Coptic Gnostic library discovery is the most complete. Leading roles of Coptologists Togo Mina, Pahor Labib, and Victor Girgis were acknowledged together with European scholars, Puech, Quispel, and Doresse.
Two comments, on Christology and Gnostic sources in the Koran, Please go to "Venture to Explore Gnosis," Guide to read the complete review.

Comparative Christology:
Professor Rudolph quotes the German Dogmatic scholar Adolph von Harnack that the Gnostic Docetism helped clarifying and development of the Alexandrine pneumatic Christology, which St. Cyril called Hypostatic Christology. It is evident that the center of Gnostic thought was in Second/ Third century Alexandria whose theological think tanks criticized Gnostic doctrines, starting with Clement and Origen, and culminating with Athanasius Universal Canon of NT/OT Scripture, directed against the danger of Gnostic fake Gospels.

The end of Gnosis:
In the Epilogue, the author concludes, "The gnostic schools, with the exception of Manicheism, did not succeed in becoming broad mass movements, above all, too hostile to the world. ..., account must be taken of the fact that the Christian Church, by adapting to its environment, and by accepting the legitimate concerns of Gnostic theology into its consolidating body of doctrine, developed into a forward looking ideology.

Peers Acknowledgement:
Professor Kurt Rudolph is described by James Robinson as "the world's leading expert on the only branch of Gnosticism that has survived down to the present." Birger Pearson call him, "the preeminent living authority on the Mandean Religion.


* In admiration of the efforts of my learned mystical friend Dr. Gaston des Harnais, who is currently translating "The Gospel of Thomas," from a Greek version.

For anyone curious as to Gnosticism and its influence in the world, this is the book to have in your collection. Also, if you are looking to study how Gnostic thought influenced some early Christian fathers (such as Clement), this is also an important book to have in your personal library. Very well written and easy to understand, you will certainly enjoy this book as you read how Gnostic thought has evolved throughout the years.