Gnosticism and the History of Religions by David G. Robertson - 9781350258594

Gnosticism and the History of ReligionsAuthor(s): David G. Robertson\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, United Kingdom\nImprint: Bloomsbury Academic\nISBN-13: 9781350258594, 978-1350258594\nSynopsis\nBuilding on critical work in biblical studies, which shows how a historically-bounded heretical tradition called Gnosticism was invented, this work focuses on the following stage in which it was essentialised into a sui generis, universal category of religion. At the same time, it shows how Gnosticism became a religious self-identifier, with a number of sizable contemporary groups identifying as Gnostics today, drawing on the same discourses.\n\n This book provides a history of this problematic category, and its relationship with scholarly and popular discourse on religion in the twentieth century. It uses a critical-historical method to show how and why Gnosis, Gnostic and Gnosticism were taken up by specific groups and individuals practitioners and scholars at .