Practicing gnosis : ritual, magic, theurgy and liturgy in Nag Hammadi, Manichaean and other ancient literature : essays in honor of Birger A. Pearson / edited by April D. DeConick, Gregory Shaw, John D. Turner.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

A tribute to Birger A. Pearson. For Birger Pearson : a scholar who both studies and embodies syncretism / George W.E. Nickelsburg -- Religionsgeschichtliche Schule, Religionswissenschaft, piano, oboe and bourbon / Gerald James Larson -- Birger Pearson : scholar, professor and mentor / Gregory Shaw -- Birger Albert Pearson : a bibliography.

Section 1. Initiatory practices. The road for the souls is through the planets : the mysteries of the Ophians mapped / April D. DeConick -- Ecstatic religion in the Roman cult of Mithras / Roger Beck -- Gospel of Philip as Gnostic initiatory discourse / Bas van Os -- Becoming invisible : rending the veil and the hermeneutic of secrecy in the Gospel of Philip / Elliot Wolfson -- Ritual in the second Book of Jeu / Erin Evans -- Death on the Nile : Egyptian codices, Gnosticism, and early Christian books of the dead / Nicola Denzey Lewis.

Section 2. Recurrent pratices. Going to church with the Valentinians / Einar Thomassen -- Practicing 'repentance' on the path to gnosis in exegesis on the soul / Madeleine Scopello -- Opening the way of writing : semiotic metaphysics in the Book of Thoth / Edward Butler -- "I worship and glorify" : Manichaean liturgy and piety in Kellis' Prayer of the emanations / Fernando Bermejo Rubio -- The Manichaean weekly confessional ritual / Jason BeDuhn -- Ritual ingenuity in the Mandaean Scroll of exalted kingship / Jorunn Buckley.

Section 3. Therapeutic practices. Natural, magical, scientific or religious? : a guide to theories of healing / Naomi Janowitz -- Astrological medicine in Gnostic traditions / Grant Adamson -- The persistence of ritual in the magical Book of Mary and the Angels : P. Heid. Inv. Kopt. 685 / Marvin Meyer -- Image and word : performative ritual and material culture in the Aramaic incantation bowls / Rebecca Lesses.

Section 4. Ecstatic practices. From baptismal vision to mystical union with the One : the case of the Sethian gnostics / John D. Turner -- Marcosian rituals for prophecy and apolytrosis / Niclas Förster -- Ritual praxis in the Hekhalot literature / James Davila.

Section 5. Philosophic practices. The Platonizing Sethian gnostic Interpretation of Plato's Sophist / Zeke Mazur -- Did Plotinus' "friends" still go to church? : communal rituals and ascent apocalypses / Michael Williams -- The meaning of "one" : plurality and unity in Plotinus and later Neoplatonism / Kevin Corrigan -- Theurgy and the Platonist's luminous body / Gregory Shaw.

"Ritual, magic, liturgy, and theurgy were central features of Gnosticism, and yet Gnostic practices remain understudied. This anthology is meant to fill in this gap and address more fully what the ancient Gnostics were doing. While previously we have studied the Gnostics as intellectuals in pursuit of metaphysical knowledge, the essays in this book attempt to understand the Gnostics as ecstatics striving after religious experience, as prophets seeking revelation, as mystics questing after the ultimate God, as healers attempting to care for the sick and diseased. These essays demonstrate that the Gnostics were not necessarily trendy intellectuals seeking epistomological certainities. They were after religious experiences that relied on practices. The book is organized comparatively in a history-of-religions approach with sections devoted to Initiatory, Recurrent, Therapeutic, Ecstatic, and Philosophic Practices. This book celebrates the brilliant career of Birger A. Pearson."--Provided by the publisher

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