Gnosticism

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Gnosticism, a sect associated with early Christianity. The Gnostics divided the universe into two domains: the visible world and the spiritual one. They believed that a special sort of knowledge, or gnosis, would enable them to escape the evils of the physical world and allow them access to the higher spiritual realm. The Gnostics were regarded as heretics by many of the Church Fathers, but their influence was important in defining the course of early Christianity. A major archaeological discovery in Egypt in the 1940s, when a large cache of Gnostic texts were found buried in an earthenware jar, enabled scholars to learn considerably more about their beliefs.

→ Listen on BBC Sounds website

Guests

• Martin Palmer 22 episodes
  Director of the International Consultancy on Religion, Education, and Culture
• Caroline Humfress 4 episodes
  Reader in History at Birkbeck College, University of London
• Alastair Logan No other episodes
  Honorary University Fellow of the Department of Theology and Religion at the University of Exeter

Reading list

• The Gnostic Bible: Gnostic Texts of Mystical Wisdom from the Ancient and Medieval Worlds
  Willis Barnstone and Marvin Meyer (New Seeds Books, 2003) Google Books →
• The Gnostics: Myth, Ritual and Diversity in Early Christianity
  David Brakke (Harvard University Press, 2010) Google Books →
• A History of Gnosticism
  Giovanni Filoramo (Blackwell, 1992)
• Gnosis on the Silk Road
  Hans-Joachim Klimkeit (HarperCollins, 1993) Google Books →
• The Gnostic Scriptures: A New Translation with Annotations and Introductions
  Bentley Layton (Doubleday, 1987) Google Books →
• The Gnostics: Identifying an Early Christian Cult
  Alastair Logan (T&T Clark, 2006) Google Books →
• Gnosis: An Introduction
  Christoph Markschies (T&T Clark, 2003) Google Books →
• The Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The Revised and Updated Translation of Sacred Gnostic Texts
  Marvin Meyer and James M. Robinson (HarperOne, 2009) Google Books →
• The Gnostic Gospels
  Elaine Pagels (Phoenix, 2006) Google Books →
• The Jesus Sutras: Rediscovering the Lost Scrolls of Taoist Christianity
  Martin Palmer (Wellspring/Ballantine, 2001) Google Books →
• Ancient Gnosticism: Traditions and Literature
  Birger A. Pearson (Fortress Press, 2007) Google Books →
• The Nag Hammadi Library
  James M. Robinson (ed.) (HarperOne, 1990) Google Books →
• Jesus, Gnosis and Dogma
  Riemer Roukema (T&T Clark, 2010) Google Books →
• Gnosis: The Nature and History of Gnosticism
  Kurt Rudolph (HarperOne, 1987) Google Books →
• Rethinking "Gnosticism": An Argument for Dismantling a Dubious Category
  Michael A. Williams (Princeton University Press, 1999) Google Books →

Related episodes

• Neoplatonism
  
  19 Apr, 2012 180 Ancient, medieval, and Eastern philosophy
• Arianism
  
  15 Apr, 2021 270 History of Christianity
• The Pelagian Controversy
  
  21 Apr, 2011 270 History of Christianity
• Catharism
  
  17 Jan, 2002 270 History of Christianity
• The Nicene Creed
  
  27 Dec, 2007 270 History of Christianity
• The Trinity
  
  13 Mar, 2014 230 Christianity
• The Cult of Mithras
  
  27 Dec, 2012 290 Other religions
• The Druids
  
  20 Sep, 2012 290 Other religions
• Pythagoras
  
  10 Dec, 2009 510 Mathematics
• The Lindisfarne Gospels
  
  20 Feb, 2003 270 History of Christianity

Experimental. For more related episodes, visit the visual explorer.

---

Programme ID: b01s4rhz

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01s4rhz

Auto-category: 270.1 (Christian heresies and sects)

Hello (First sentence from this episode)

Hello. In 1945, an Egyptian farmer walked out into the mountains near his home looking for fertiliser.