Cosmology and fate in gnosticism and Graeco-Roman antiquity : under pitiless skies / / by Nicola Denzey Lewis.

• Author: Lewis, Nicola Denzey, 1966-
• Year of Publication: 2013
• Language: English
• Series: Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 81.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (220 p.)
• Notes: Title from PDF title page (viewed on May 14, 2013).

In Cosmology and Fate in Gnosticism and Graeco-Roman Antiquity , Nicola Denzey Lewis dismisses Hans Jonas' mischaracterization of second-century Gnosticism as a philosophically-oriented religious movement built on the perception of the cosmos as negative or enslaving. A focused study on the concept of astrological fate in “Gnostic” writings including the Apocryphon of John, the recently-discovered Gospel of Judas, Trimorphic Protennoia, and the Pistis Sophia, this book reexamines their language of “enslavement to fate (Gk: heimarmene)” from its origins in Greek Stoicism, its deployment by the apostle Paul, to its later use by a variety of second-century intellectuals (both Christian and non-Christian). Denzey Lewis thus offers an informed and revisionist conceptual map of the ancient cosmos, its influence, and all those who claimed to be free of its potentially pernicious effects.

Table of Contents

Front Matter / Nicola Denzey Lewis -- Introduction / Nicola Denzey Lewis -- Were the Gnostics Cosmic Pessimists? / Nicola Denzey Lewis -- Nag Hammadi and the Providential Cosmos / Nicola Denzey Lewis -- ‘This Body of Death’: Cosmic Malevolence and Enslavement to Sin in Pauline Exegesis / Nicola Denzey Lewis -- Heimarmene at Nag Hammadi: The Apocryphon of John and On the Origin of the World / Nicola Denzey Lewis -- Middle Platonism, Heimarmene, and the Corpus Hermeticum / Nicola Denzey Lewis -- Ways Out I: Interventions of the Savior God / Nicola Denzey Lewis -- Ways Out II: Baptism and Cosmic Freedom: A New Genesis / Nicola Denzey Lewis -- Astral ‘Determinism’ in the Gospel of Judas / Nicola Denzey Lewis -- Conclusions, and a New Way Forward / Nicola Denzey Lewis -- Selected Bibliography / Nicola Denzey Lewis -- Subject Index / Nicola Denzey Lewis.