Gnostic Philosophy: From Ancient Persia to Modern Times (2005 Churton), book

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<bibexternal title="Gnostic Philosophy: From Ancient Persia to Modern Times" author="Churton"/>

Gnostic Philosophy: From Ancient Persia to Modern Times (2005) is a book by Tobias Churton.

Abstract

"Gnosticism was a contemporary of early Christianity whose demise can be traced to Christianity's efforts to silence its teachings. The Gnostic message, however, was not destroyed but simply went underground. Starting with the first emergence of Gnosticism, the author shows how its influence extended from the teachings of Neoplatonists and the magical traditions of the Middle Ages to the beliefs and ideas of the Sufis, Jacob Bohme, Carl Jung, Rudolf Steiner, and the Rosicrucians and Freemasons. In the language of spiritual Freemasonry, gnosis is the rejected stone necessary for the completion of the Temple, a temple of a new cosmic understanding that today's heirs to Gnosticism continue to strive to create.

The Gnostics believed that the universe embodies a ceaseless contest between opposing principles. Terrestrial life exhibits the struggle between good and evil, life and death, beauty and ugliness, and enlightenment and ignorance: gnosis and agnosis. The very nature of physical space and time are obstacles to humanity's ability to remember its divine origins and recover its original unity with God. Thus the preeminent gnostic secret is that we are God in potential and the purpose of bona fide gnostic teaching is to return us to our godlike nature."--Publisher description.

Editions

Published in Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2005.

Contents

Before the gnostics -- From the Magi to St. Paul -- The first gnostics -- Magic in the Middle Ages -- The sufis -- The troubadours -- The knights templar -- Jacob Böhme's Theosophick Cosmos -- Germany 1710-1800: the return of the rosy cross -- Freemasonry in France -- A new aeon: Aleister Crowley -- Light in the jar -- Gnosis and the new physics -- Gnosis today: a personal view.

External links

  • [ Google Books]
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