Peter J. Leithart

In his history of Christianity, August Neander distinguished between gnostics who arose from within Judaism and those whose inspiration came from “Oriental” modes of thought. Here is his description of the Jewish sources of gnosticism: In the following respect, all these Gnostics agree . . . . Continue Reading »

A few scattered notes from Jarl Fossum’s book examining the links between the figure of the “angel of Yahweh” in Samaritan theology and the “demiurge” of gnosticism. 1) Fossum points out that Simon Magus, legendarily the fountain of Gnosticism, venerated the Torah, and . . . . Continue Reading »

In a 2006 book on the origins of gnosticism, Carl B. Smith offers an alternative account of the connections of Judaism and gnosticism. According to the JETS reviewer: Smith “proposes that gnosticism arose in a social context of ‘alienated Judaism’ influenced by Greco-Roman and . . . . Continue Reading »

In a book published in 1959, R. M. Grant attempted “to explain Gnosticism as arising out of the debris of apocalyptic-eschatological hopes which resulted from the fall or falls of Jerusalem.” According to a reviewer in Theology T0day , “Grant stresses the Jewish element which, as . . . . Continue Reading »

Origen says that the Ophite demiurge had the face of a lion and was connected with Saturn, and this has led some scholars to conclude that Jaldabaoth was a combination of Baal and Kronos. John of Damascus says that the Phoenicians held Kronos to be a kind of demiurge, and because Saturday was the . . . . Continue Reading »

According to Alfred Honig (writing in the late 19th century), the Ophite name for the demiurge, Jaldabaoth, comes from a Hebrew phrase meaning “child of chaos,” and the etymology goes back at least to the 1820s. Scholem argued, however, that the name was invented by a Jew and is a . . . . Continue Reading »

We might not have the Nag Hammadi library if it had not been for a gruesome murder. The collection was found in 1945 by two brothers in Egypt, Muhammed and Kalifah Ali. As Giovanni Filoramo tells it, when the brothers took the jar containing the texts back to their village, they got caught up in a . . . . Continue Reading »

One Brian Cosby has a review of Guy Waters’s book on the Federal Vision in the latest issue of the Westminster Journal. After a fair summary of Waters’s book, Cosby levels two charges: First, that Waters “criticizes the various FV proponents’ positions and doctrines . . . . Continue Reading »

In the October 22 issue of TNR , Walter Russell Mead compares American foreign policy to Mr Magoo, since it seems to “wanter nearsightedly but relatively unscathed past one hazard after another.” The pattern goes back at least to the Jefferson administration, and Mead quickly summarizes . . . . Continue Reading »

Bossy again, from the same essay: He quotes Oberman’s claim that “in the old dispensation the holiness of the Church and its governors was made manifest by their power to transmit to the body of Christians the condition of peace, and conversely that the absence of peace was an . . . . Continue Reading »