LEADER 04677nam 2200733 450 001 9910789136603321 005 20211011232547.0 010 $a0-8122-0922-2 024 7 $a10.9783/9780812209228 035 $a(CKB)3710000000083065 035 $a(OCoLC)870564014 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebrary10826575 035 $a(SSID)ssj0001189696 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11674268 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0001189696 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)11175155 035 $a(PQKB)10130407 035 $a(MdBmJHUP)muse32964 035 $a(DE-B1597)449806 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780812209228 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL3442317 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10826575 035 $a(CaONFJC)MIL682533 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC3442317 035 $a(EXLCZ)993710000000083065 100 $a20140127h20142014 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurcnu|||||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 10$aApocalypse of the alien god $ePlatonism and the exile of Sethian gnosticism /$fDylan M. Burns 205 $a1st ed. 210 1$aPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania :$cUniversity of Pennsylvania Press,$d2014. 210 4$dİ2014 215 $a1 online resource (342 p.) 225 0 $aDivinations : Rereading Late Ancient Religion 300 $aBibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph 311 0 $a1-322-51251-5 311 0 $a0-8122-4579-2 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index. 327 $tFront matter --$tContents --$tAbbreviations --$tIntroduction --$t1. Culture Wars --$t2. Plotinus Against His Gnostic Friends --$t3. Other Ways of Writing --$t4. The Descent --$t5. The Ascent --$t6. The Crown --$t7. Between Judaism, Christianity, and Neoplatonism --$tAppendix: Reading Porphyry on the Gnostic Heretics and Their Apocalypses --$tNotes --$tBibliography --$tIndex --$tAcknowledgments 330 $aIn the second century, Platonist and Judeo-Christian thought were sufficiently friendly that a Greek philosopher could declare, "What is Plato but Moses speaking Greek?" Four hundred years later, a Christian emperor had ended the public teaching of subversive Platonic thought. When and how did this philosophical rupture occur? Dylan M. Burns argues that the fundamental break occurred in Rome, ca. 263, in the circle of the great mystic Plotinus, author of the Enneads. Groups of controversial Christian metaphysicians called Gnostics ("knowers") frequented his seminars, disputed his views, and then disappeared from the history of philosophy?until the 1945 discovery, at Nag Hammadi, Egypt, of codices containing Gnostic literature, including versions of the books circulated by Plotinus's Christian opponents. Blending state-of-the-art Greek metaphysics and ecstatic Jewish mysticism, these texts describe techniques for entering celestial realms, participating in the angelic liturgy, confronting the transcendent God, and even becoming a divine being oneself. They also describe the revelation of an alien God to his elect, a race of "foreigners" under the protection of the patriarch Seth, whose interventions will ultimately culminate in the end of the world. Apocalypse of the Alien God proposes a radical interpretation of these long-lost apocalypses, placing them firmly in the context of Judeo-Christian authorship rather than ascribing them to a pagan offshoot of Gnosticism. According to Burns, this Sethian literature emerged along the fault lines between Judaism and Christianity, drew on traditions known to scholars from the Dead Sea Scrolls and Enochic texts, and ultimately catalyzed the rivalry of Platonism with Christianity. Plunging the reader into the culture wars and classrooms of the high Empire, Apocalypse of the Alien God offers the most concrete social and historical description available of any group of Gnostic Christians as it explores the intersections of ancient Judaism, Christianity, Hellenism, myth, and philosophy. 606 $aApocalyptic literature$xHistory and criticism 606 $aGnostic literature$xHistory and criticism 606 $aGnosticism 606 $aNeoplatonism 610 $aAncient Studies. 610 $aClassics. 610 $aReligion. 610 $aReligious Studies. 615 0$aApocalyptic literature$xHistory and criticism. 615 0$aGnostic literature$xHistory and criticism. 615 0$aGnosticism. 615 0$aNeoplatonism. 676 $a299/.932 700 $aBurns$b Dylan M$01167385 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910789136603321 996 $aApocalypse of the alien god$93677748 997 $aUNINA