Dylan Burns and Eduard Iricinschi, "Preface: Manichaica-Judaica-Gnostica 1: Polemics, Geographies, and Ethics," Gnosis: Journal of Gnostic Studies, 9 (2024): 143–158 (original) (raw)
Related papers
Manichaica-Judaica-Gnostica (1): Polemics, Geographies, and Ethics: Prologue
Gnosis: Journal of Gnostic Studies, 2024
This article introduces a special issue of Gnosis: Journal of Gnostic Studies, whose goals are (1) to attempt to set the study of Manichaeism with respect to Judaism, Jews, and Jewish sources of late antiquity on firmer ground, given the great changes that scholarship on this topic has seen over the last fifty years; (2) to disentangle the normative perceptions of the continuity between the Nag Hammadi literature, ancient heresiological description of gnostic practices and ancient Manichaean religion; (3) to further elucidate the historical relationships between ]Manichaeism and Christian and Gnostic evidence; and (4) to provide a platform for the fresh and exciting research on this topic that is emerging today. This article, authored by the editors of the special issue, seeks to set the stage for the subsequent contributions by taking stock of how the scholarly conversation about Manichaeism’s relationship to Judaism developed, and what tensions may be observed therein.
Manichaeology : Origin and Development of the Study of a Gnostic World Religion R&T 29 3&4 2022.
RELIGION AND THEOLOGY (BRILL ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS), 2022
The article provides a survey of the development of Manichaean studies over the past 450 years. Since the last few decades in particular, one may speak of "Manichaeology" as a new and rapidly developing new discipline of the human sciences. This survey and critical assessment aims to introduce into the discipline, at the same time stressing the recurrent discussion about the importance of Iranian and/or (Jewish-)Christian elements as the core of Mani's message that became a unique Gnostic world religion.
Gnostica, Judaica, Catholica: Collected Essays of Gilles Quispel, edited by Johannes van Oort, Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies, Volume 55, Leiden-Boston: E.J. Brill 2008, XXXVII + 823 pp.., 2008
The Importance of the Gnostic Apocalypses from Nag Hammadi for the Study of Early Jewish Mysticism
Reimagining Apocalypticism, 2023
Scholarship on ancient Judaism—ranging from Rabbinic literature to the Dead Sea Scrolls, pseudepigrapha, and medieval mystical texts—has experienced a renaissance in recent decades, having transformed the terrain upon which the boundaries between and Gnosticism and Judaism were once divined by scholarship. This article suggests how Gnostic studies might digest these developments, allowing us to address, in fresh and new terms, the relationship of Gnosticism—particularly, the ‘Sethian’ apocalypses unearthed at Nag Hammadi, in 1945—to Jewish mystical traditions and practices. Conversely, our Gnostic evidence, principally the ‘Sethian’ works from Nag Hammadi, provides us with valuable insight into the reception and transformation of Jewish mystical traditions during the second–fifth centuries CE, a period in which our evidence regarding these traditions is scarce indeed. The Gnostic apocalypses thus may be of tremendous use in formulating new approaches to current problems regarding the evolution and contours of both our Gnostic and Jewish sources.
Mani established his religion on very broad syncretistic grounds, in the hope that it could conquer the whole oikumene, East and West, by integrating the religious traditions of all peoples-except those of the Jews. Although Manichaeism as an organized religion survived for more than a thousand years, and its geographical realm extended from North Africa to Southeast China, this ambition never came close to being realized, and the Manichaeans remained, more often than not, small and persecuted communities.1 Yet, in a somewhat paradoxical way, Mani did achieve his ecumenical goal. For more than half a millennium, from its birth in the third century throughout late antiquity and beyond, his religion was despised and rejected with the utmost violence by rulers and thinkers belonging to all shades of the spiritual and religious spectrum. In this sense, Manichaeism, an insane system, a "mania,"2 appeared as the outsider par excellence. It thus offered a clear reference point, a convenient negative l For the best overview of Manichaeism in its roots and developments East and West, see now S.
Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies, vol. 100*, Leiden-Boston: Brill Academic Publishers, 2020
At this Academia.edu place the abstracts, handouts, papers in progress and full papers of the Pretoria conference ‘Manichaeism and Early Christianity’ will be uploaded, corrected, expanded etc. in the upcoming weeks and months. The list of contributors and their contributions will be updated on a regular basis. All scholars are welcome with comments and suggestions. The selected papers are scheduled to appear in early 2020 in a separate volume of the Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies (Brill Academic Publishers, Leiden-Boston).
Mani established his religion on very broad syncretistic grounds, in the hope that it could conquer the whole oikumene, East and West, by integrating the religious traditions of all peoples-except those of the Jews. Although Manichaeism as an organized religion survived for more than a thousand years, and its geographical realm extended from North Africa to Southeast China, this ambition never came close to being realized, and the Manichaeans remained, more often than not, small and persecuted communities.1 Yet, in a somewhat paradoxical way, Mani did achieve his ecumenical goal. For more than half a millennium, from its birth in the third century throughout late antiquity and beyond, his religion was despised and rejected with the utmost violence by rulers and thinkers belonging to all shades of the spiritual and religious spectrum. In this sense, Manichaeism, an insane system, a "mania,"2 appeared as the outsider par excellence. It thus offered a clear reference point, a convenient negative l For the best overview of Manichaeism in its roots and developments East and West, see now S.