Johannes wrote:I'd also agree that there are obvious pitfalls with people springing up and claiming that they've heard the Voice of God. But if there is already a cadre of wealthy and privileged individuals in place who claim to speak with divine authority, and someone like the Lollards or Luther wants to come along and mix it up a bit, I'm basically ok with that. That's bracketing any faith commitment, but it bears adding that I come from a faith tradition that has a hard time seeing God as being on the side of the dukes and cardinals. No doubt the dukes and cardinals will always say that it's best if they're left in power because fewer people will get killed that way.
I have no idea how much merit it has, but I really liked Elaine Pagels idea about the production of Gnostic scripture: every "Gnostic" was writing this stuff. Even if that was not the case, it would still be interesting in Nicola Denzey Lewis were right about the Nag Hammadi Library being the equivalent of the hobby works of gentleman Theosophists in Late Antique Egypt. My point is that so much of how we take all of this scripture has to do with our concept of scripture itself. As Symmachus astutely pointed out, Joseph Smith's real play was to create a new hierarchy with himself at the top of it. His scripture should be understood as a means toward that end. He is not producing a Nag Hammadi Library. He is producing the book that prophesies his own central role in leading Israel in the Last Days.
"Petition wasn’t meant to start a witch hunt as I’ve said 6000 times." ~ Hanna Seariac, LDS apologist
It could be argued that the production of Gnostic scripture has continued into our own time. I learned from James Robinson's commentary in The Nag Hammadi Library that Harold Bloom, that well known friend of the Saints, once wrote a novel entitled The Flight to Lucifer, which amounted to a modern work of Gnostic mythopoiesis....
In it the reincarnated Valentinus and his companions fly to a planet called Lucifer. Quoting our gnostic texts, the heroes wage a violent battle against Saklas, the Demiurge who is worshipped in his "Saklaseum". Bloom, more successful as an interpreter of literature, later confessed that The Flight to Lucifer reads as though Walter Pater were writing Star Wars. But, then, so does much ancient gnostic writing.
Last edited by Guest on Fri Dec 01, 2017 4:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Kishkumen wrote:Even if that was not the case, it would still be interesting in Nicola Denzey Lewis were right about the Nag Hammadi Library being the equivalent of the hobby works of gentleman Theosophists in Late Antique Egypt.
I'm sure this is right, by the way (although I don't care for Denzey Lewis).
Johannes wrote:It could be argued that the production of Gnostic scripture has continued into our own time. I learned from James Robinson's commentary in The Nag Hammadi Library that Harold Bloom, that well known friend of the Saints, once wrote a novel entitled The Flight to Lucifer, which amounted to a modern work of Gnostic mythopoiesis....
In it the reincarnated Valentinus and his companions fly to a planet called Lucifer. Quoting our gnostic texts, the heroes wage a violent battle against Saklas, the Demiurge who is worshipped in his "Saklaseum". Bloom, more successful as an interpreter of literature, later confessed that The Flight to Lucifer reads as though Walter Pater were writing Star Wars. But, then, so does much ancient gnostic writing.
David Lindsay's A Voyage to Arcturus is a Gnostic work.
Johannes wrote:It could be argued that the production of Gnostic scripture has continued into our own time. I learned from James Robinson's commentary in The Nag Hammadi Library that Harold Bloom, that well known friend of the Saints, once wrote a novel entitled The Flight to Lucifer, which amounted to a modern work of Gnostic mythopoiesis....
In it the reincarnated Valentinus and his companions fly to a planet called Lucifer. Quoting our gnostic texts, the heroes wage a violent battle against Saklas, the Demiurge who is worshipped in his "Saklaseum". Bloom, more successful as an interpreter of literature, later confessed that The Flight to Lucifer reads as though Walter Pater were writing Star Wars. But, then, so does much ancient gnostic writing.
Sounds worth reading just because! Valis is undoubtedly much better, but still.
"Petition wasn’t meant to start a witch hunt as I’ve said 6000 times." ~ Hanna Seariac, LDS apologist
One matter of substance on which I'm opposed to her is the way that she attacks the very category of "Gnosticism". As we both know, this is the oldest academic ploy in the book - you tug on the loose threads of a category until it unravels in your hands and meaning disappears amidst free-floating diversity. You end up proving that there's actually no such thing as Protestantism, or feminism, or Britishness, or whatever. It's a cheap grad student trick. Yes, well done, now can you start the actual scholarship, please?