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019 _a(OCoLC)979881236
020 _a9780812245790
_qprint
020 _a9780812209228
_qPDF
024 7 _a10.9783/9780812209228
_2doi
035 _a(DE-B1597)9780812209228
035 _a(DE-B1597)449806
035 _a(OCoLC)870564014
040 _aDE-B1597
_beng
_cDE-B1597
_erda
072 7 _aREL112000
_2bisacsh
082 0 4 _a299/.932
_223
084 _aonline - DeGruyter
100 1 _aBurns, Dylan M.
_eautore
245 1 0 _aApocalypse of the Alien God :
_bPlatonism and the Exile of Sethian Gnosticism /
_cDylan M. Burns.
264 1 _aPhiladelphia :
_bUniversity of Pennsylvania Press,
_c[2014]
264 4 _c©2014
300 _a1 online resource (344 p.) :
_b4 illus.
336 _atext
_btxt
_2rdacontent
337 _acomputer
_bc
_2rdamedia
338 _aonline resource
_bcr
_2rdacarrier
347 _atext file
_bPDF
_2rda
490 0 _aDivinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion
505 0 0 _tFrontmatter --
_tContents --
_tAbbreviations --
_tIntroduction --
_t1. Culture Wars --
_t2. Plotinus Against His Gnostic Friends --
_t3. Other Ways of Writing --
_t4. The Descent --
_t5. The Ascent --
_t6. The Crown --
_t7. Between Judaism, Christianity, and Neoplatonism --
_tAppendix: Reading Porphyry on the Gnostic Heretics and Their Apocalypses --
_tNotes --
_tBibliography --
_tIndex --
_tAcknowledgments
506 0 _arestricted access
_uhttp://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec
_fonline access with authorization
_2star
520 _aIn the second century, Platonist and Judeo-Christian thought were sufficiently friendly that a Greek philosopher could declare, "What is Plato but Moses speaking Greek?" Four hundred years later, a Christian emperor had ended the public teaching of subversive Platonic thought. When and how did this philosophical rupture occur? Dylan M. Burns argues that the fundamental break occurred in Rome, ca. 263, in the circle of the great mystic Plotinus, author of the Enneads. Groups of controversial Christian metaphysicians called Gnostics ("knowers") frequented his seminars, disputed his views, and then disappeared from the history of philosophy-until the 1945 discovery, at Nag Hammadi, Egypt, of codices containing Gnostic literature, including versions of the books circulated by Plotinus's Christian opponents. Blending state-of-the-art Greek metaphysics and ecstatic Jewish mysticism, these texts describe techniques for entering celestial realms, participating in the angelic liturgy, confronting the transcendent God, and even becoming a divine being oneself. They also describe the revelation of an alien God to his elect, a race of "foreigners" under the protection of the patriarch Seth, whose interventions will ultimately culminate in the end of the world.Apocalypse of the Alien God proposes a radical interpretation of these long-lost apocalypses, placing them firmly in the context of Judeo-Christian authorship rather than ascribing them to a pagan offshoot of Gnosticism. According to Burns, this Sethian literature emerged along the fault lines between Judaism and Christianity, drew on traditions known to scholars from the Dead Sea Scrolls and Enochic texts, and ultimately catalyzed the rivalry of Platonism with Christianity. Plunging the reader into the culture wars and classrooms of the high Empire, Apocalypse of the Alien God offers the most concrete social and historical description available of any group of Gnostic Christians as it explores the intersections of ancient Judaism, Christianity, Hellenism, myth, and philosophy.
530 _aIssued also in print.
538 _aMode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
546 _aIn English.
588 0 _aDescription based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 30. Aug 2021)
650 4 _aReligious Studies.
650 7 _aRELIGION / Gnosticism.
_2bisacsh
653 _aAncient Studies.
653 _aClassics.
653 _aReligion.
653 _aReligious Studies.
850 _aIT-RoAPU
856 4 0 _uhttps://doi.org/10.9783/9780812209228
856 4 0 _uhttps://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9780812209228
856 4 2 _3Cover
_uhttps://www.degruyter.com/cover/covers/9780812209228.jpg
942 _cEB
999 _c198792
_d198792