Author: Oluwatobi Peter Ayanlola
Publisher: Independently Published
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
For the esotericist, the reality of Christ is something that ought to be sought after. It is the living manifestation of profound spiritual insight. The early civilizations of humanity held a firm conviction in the reality of a metaphysical realm with forces and activities that, under ideal circumstances, manifested as the many kingdoms of nature on the outer plane of existence. The sages and initiates of the period learned about this underlying reality through an objective view of clairvoyant insights and perceptions. Because of the significance of these insights, those ancient cultures acquired a sense of veneration for the metaphysical nature of the human being and of the divine. This was distinguished by their various religious activities (rites, ceremonies, etc.), which became embodied as philosophical traditions. One of such traditions is the doctrine of Gnosticism, or Gnosis, which offers a reliable stream of esoteric knowledge and insight. The nature of Gnosis is thus looked at through the framework of esotericism.
Author: Daniel Merkur
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791416198
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 408
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Book Description
Traces the use of powerful gnostic visionary techniques from Hellenistic Gnosticism and Jewish merkabah mysticism, through Muhammad, the Ismaeilis, and theosophical Sufism to medieval neoplatonism, and renaissance alchemy.
Author: R. van den Broek
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791436110
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 436
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Book Description
This volume introduces what has sometimes been called "the third component of western culture". It traces the historical development of those religious traditions which have rejected a world view based on the primacy of pure rationality or doctrinal faith, emphasizing instead the importance of inner enlightenment or gnosis: a revelatory experience which was typically believed to entail an encounter with one's true self as well as with the ground of being, God. The contributors to this book demonstrate this perspective as fundamental to a variety of interconnected traditions. In Antiquity, one finds the gnostics and hermetics; in the Middle Ages several Christian sects. The medieval Cathars can, to a certain extent, be considered part of the same tradition. Starting with the Italian humanist Renaissance, hermetic philosophy became of central importance to a new religious synthesis that can be referred to as Western Esotericism. The development of this tradition is described from Renaissance hermeticists and practitioners of spiritual alchemy to the emergence of Rosicrucianism and Christian theosophy in the seventeenth century, and from post-enlightenment aspects of Romanticism and occultism to the present-day New Age movement.
Author: Garry W. Trompf
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317201841
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 716
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Book Description
The Gnostic World is an outstanding guide to Gnosticism, written by a distinguished international team of experts to explore Gnostic movements from the distant past until today. These themes are examined across sixty-seven chapters 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 new religious movements, such as Theosophy, Scientology, Western Sufism, and the Nation of Islam. This comprehensive handbook will be an invaluable resource for religious studies students, scholars, and researchers of Gnostic doctrine and history.
Author: Boris Mouravieff
Publisher: Praxis Research Institute
ISBN: 1872292100
Category : Gnosticism
Languages : en
Pages : 303
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Book Description
Author: Wouter J. Hanegraaff
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 624
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Book Description
Covers every aspect of pagan, Jewish, and Christian religious discourses and phenomena traditionally labeled gnosticism, hermeticism, astrology, magic, the "occult sciences," esoteric religion, and more. Contains articles about the life and work of all the major personalities in the history of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, discussing their ideas, significance, and historical influence.
Author: Gwendolyn Taunton
Publisher: Manticore Press
ISBN: 9780648766056
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 114
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Book Description
Eternal Wisdom explains the connection between art, mythology, spirituality, and religion through the language of symbols. These concepts are taken outside of the context of religious philosophy to explain how these ideas should be revised to achieve a positive cultural outlook for the increasingly bleak modern era. Archetypes and mystical experiences possess an inherent immortal existence in the collective human subconscious. They are eternally existent in artistic symbolism and spiritual traditions. Part earthly and part-other worldly, these hidden forces interact with humanity by providing a primordial source for the creative facets of human existence that are channeled into the diverse range of spiritual, mystical, and cultural experiences. This book examines the strands of esoteric thought and gnosis provided in the teachings of perennial philosophy - a topic that has been predominantly associated with prestigious authors such as Carl Jung, René Guénon, Frithjof Schuon, Ananda Coomaraswamy, Huston Smith, and Aldous Huxley. Eternal Wisdom aspires to expand on the existing corpus of teachings by advocating for the inclusion of polytheist cultural sources. Additionally, esoteric practices - including divination and the alchemy - are discussed within the context of perennial philosophy and the primordial tradition.
Author: Tobias Churton
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1594777675
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 480
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Book Description
An extensive examination of the history of gnosticism and how its philosophy has influenced the Western esoteric tradition • Explains how the Gnostic understanding of self-realization is embodied in the esoteric traditions of the Rosicrucians and Freemasons • Explores how gnosticism continues to influence contemporary spirituality • Shows gnosticism to be a philosophical key that helps spiritual seekers "remember" their higher selves Gnosticism was a contemporary of early Christianity, and its demise can be traced to Christianity's efforts to silence its teachings. The Gnostic message, however, was not destroyed but simply went underground. Starting with the first emergence of Gnosticism, the author shows how its influence extended from the teachings of neo-Platonists and the magical traditions of the Middle Ages to the beliefs and ideas of the Sufis, Jacob Böhme, Carl Jung, Rudolf Steiner, and the Rosicrucians and Freemasons. In the language of spiritual freemasonry, gnosis is the rejected stone necessary for the completion of the Temple, a Temple of a new cosmic understanding that today's heirs to Gnosticism continue to strive to create. The Gnostics believed that the universe embodies a ceaseless contest between opposing principles. Terrestrial life exhibits the struggle between good and evil, life and death, beauty and ugliness, and enlightenment and ignorance: gnosis and agnosis. The very nature of physical space and time are obstacles to humanity's ability to remember its divine origins and recover its original unity with God. Thus the preeminent gnostic secret is that we are God in potential and the purpose of bona fide gnostic teaching is to return us to our godlike nature. Tobias Churton is a filmmaker and the founding editor of the magazine Freemasonry Today. He studied theology at Oxford University and created the award-winning documentary series and accompanying book The Gnostics, as well as several other films on Christian doctrine, mysticism, and magical folklore. He lives in England.
Author: April D. DeConick
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231542046
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 515
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Book Description
Gnosticism is a countercultural spirituality that forever changed the practice of Christianity. Before it emerged in the second century, passage to the afterlife required obedience to God and king. Gnosticism proposed that human beings were manifestations of the divine, unsettling the hierarchical foundations of the ancient world. Subversive and revolutionary, Gnostics taught that prayer and mediation could bring human beings into an ecstatic spiritual union with a transcendent deity. This mystical strain affected not just Christianity but many other religions, and it characterizes our understanding of the purpose and meaning of religion today. In The Gnostic New Age, April D. DeConick recovers this vibrant underground history to prove that Gnosticism was not suppressed or defeated by the Catholic Church long ago, nor was the movement a fabrication to justify the violent repression of alternative forms of Christianity. Gnosticism alleviated human suffering, soothing feelings of existential brokenness and alienation through the promise of renewal as God. DeConick begins in ancient Egypt and follows with the rise of Gnosticism in the Middle Ages, the advent of theosophy and other occult movements in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and contemporary New Age spiritual philosophies. As these theories find expression in science-fiction and fantasy films, DeConick sees evidence of Gnosticism's next incarnation. Her work emphasizes the universal, countercultural appeal of a movement that embodies much more than a simple challenge to religious authority.
Author: Frances Swiney
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781910121740
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 86
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Book Description
Though Gnosticism long preceded Christianity, the Gnostics were the first Christians; they accepted Christ in the full realization of the word; his life, not his death, was the keynote of their doctrine and their practice. Thousands of years before the Egyptian Seers prognosticated the spiritual evolution of the soul in the seven stages of probation in the life beyond the grave. They conceived of a mystical Christos, a divine type of character that could only be attained through the soul's conflict with evil in the spiritual spheres of nebulous idealism. The Gnostics welded the ancient mythos into mundane practicability. They recognized the divine nature of the Universe, the eternal progression of all things, and of the human in particular. Therefore, it is easily conceivable that they were misunderstood, maligned and discredited by the crude primitive minds of the Goth, the Vandal and the Hun, who had drunk too deeply of the draught of oblivion to remember their former phases of existence. ..".Swiney has much in common with modern scholars like Elaine Pagels or Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza, who attempt to restore the lost voices of the women of early Christianity... The Esoteric Teachings of the Gnostics is an important book." by Philip Jenkins, Distinguished Professor of History, Baylor University."
