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OverviewThis book is a comprehensive study of “Valentinianism,” the most important Gnostic Christian movement in Antiquity. It is the first attempt to make full use of the Valentinian documents from Nag Hammadi as well as the reports of the Church Fathers. The book discusses the difference between the Eastern and the Western branches of Valentinianism, and argues that individual sources must always be understood in the context of the historical development of Valentinian doctrines. It also analyses the ideas about the incarnation, protological theories, and initiation practice, as well as the dynamic relationship between these building-blocks of Valentinian doctrine. A final chapter studies anew the doctrine of Valentinus himself and outlines the history of the movement. The book’s usefulness lies in its attempt to bring together for the first time all the sources so as to construct a coherent picture of Valentinian Christianity. This volume is also available as paperback. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Einar ThomassenPublisher: Brill Imprint: Brill Volume: 60 Dimensions: Width: 15.50cm , Height: 4.00cm , Length: 23.50cm Weight: 0.880kg ISBN: 9789004148024ISBN 10: 9004148027 Pages: 550 Publication Date: 11 November 2005 Audience: College/higher education , Undergraduate , Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: Out of stock  The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available. Table of ContentsPART I VALENTINIANISM EAST AND WEST 1 The Valentinians of Irenaeus 2 “Valentinus” in Iren. Haer. I 11:1 3 The doctrine of Theodotus 4 The two “schools” 5 The soteriology of The Tripartite Tractate 6 The soteriology of Irenaeus’ system 7 The soteriology of Exc. 43:2–65 8 The soteriology of Iren. Haer. I 7:2 9 The soteriology of Hipp. Haer. VI 29–36 10 Provisional conclusions 11 Eastern soteriologies: The Treatise on the Resurrection 12 Eastern soteriologies: The Interpretation of Knowledge 13 Eastern soteriologies: The Gospel of Philip 14 The soteriology of Heracleon 15 The position of Ptolemy PART II THE THREE DIMENSIONS OF VALENTINIANISM 16 Salvation in history and ritual 17 Salvation in history and protological myth 18 Protology, salvation history, and ritual 19 Conclusion to Part II PART III VALENTINIAN PROTOLOGY 20 The pleromatology 21 The myth of separation and restoration 22 Chronology of the protologies 23 The meaning and origins of Valentinian protology 24 The transformation of eschatology to protology PART IV VALENTINIAN INITIATION 25 The sources 26 Initiation: Synopsis of the acts y of the initiation ritual 28 The historical position of Valentinian initiation 29 A ritual for the dying PART V VALENTINUS AND THE “VALENTINIANS” 30 Valentinus: biography and sources 31 Valentinus: a study of the fragments 32 Valentinians: fragments of the history of ValentinianismReviews'The Spiritual Seed is in my opinion the most important book on Valentinian Gnostic Christianity published since the discovery of the Nag Hammadi Codices 60 years ago.' Birger A. Pearson (Professor Emeritus, University of California, Santa Barbara). "'The author has a good sense of the philosophical and theological issues at stake and situates the tradition well in the intellectual world of the second century... a very ambitious and very learned reconstruction of the Valentinian tradition. This monograph will make a major contribution to the study of early Christian life and thought.' Harold W. Attridge (University of Notre Dame) 'The Spiritual Seed is in my opinion the most important book on Valentinian Gnostic Christianity published since the discovery of the Nag Hammadi Codices 60 years ago.' Birger A. Pearson, Professor Emeritus, University of California, Santa Barbara. 'Einar Thomassen's The Spiritual Seed is a magisterial work, the most comprehensive and authoritative study of Valentinian Christianity now available. Through his close readings of the often fragmentary ancient sources, Thomassen pieces together a compelling reconstruction of the history, teachings, and rituals of this fascinating branch of the early Christian movement. The book concludes with an original portrait of Valentinus himself. Newcomers to the study of Valentinianism will profit from the book's clear introduction to the important questions and figures, while specialists will find fresh insights and seasoned judgments on nearly every page. This is the one book that anyone interested in Valentinian Christianity should read.' David Brakke, Indiana University 'At slightly over 500 pages, Einar Thomassen's The Spiritual Seed: The Church of the ""Valentinians"" is by far the most important, thorough, and authoritative treatment of Valentinian Christianity in the 60 years since the publication of Francois Sagnard's La gnose valentinienne et le temoignage de saint Irenee in 1947. Its 32 chapters contain an exhaustive and careful analysis of all extant Valentinian literature from the Nag Hammadi library, the commentaries of Heracleon, Theodotus' Excerpts, and Ptolemy's Letter to Flora, and all the patristic testimonies that in turn were based on nearly a score of no-longer extant texts, well as all the fragmentary but non-systematic remains of psalms, homilies and letters that can be attributed to Valentinus himself. Thomassen systematically guides the reader through these texts under the heads of their soteriology, protology, and ritual practice and theory, each of which he subdivides by author and chronological development of specific doctrines and practices. All this is filled with illuminating explanations of the relation between the protological emergence of multiplicity from original unity and the eschatological reunification of multiplicity into final unity through the Savior' redemptive activity and its ritual and doctrinal re-presentation, which are traced back to their biblical and philosophical (mainly Platonic and Neopythagorean) sources. Thomassen clearly brings out the nature of Valentinus and the Valentinians as part of the Christian church, sharing nearly exactly the same scripture and ritual-liturgical protocol, which they interpreted according to a sophisticated interpretation of baptism and redemption of both all Christians and the Savior himself through the Name that he received at his baptism. He also shows how the late second-century split between the earlier Eastern branch of Valentinians associated with the bulk of Theodotus' fragments plus the Nag Hammadi treatises Gospel of Philip, Tripartite Tractate, Treatise on the Resurrection and Valentinian Exposition, and perhaps Heracleon himself) and the later western Valentinianism of Ptolemy and his contemporary and later adherents (preserved in the testimonies of Irenaeus and Hippolytus) arose over the latter's proposal of two Sophias and an additional third category of ""psychic"" humans together with a distinct ""psychic"" manifestation of the Savior beyond the original twofold distinction of natures-merely spiritual versus material-of both the Savior and human beings that stemmed from Valentinus and prevailed in the East. All-in-all, this clearly and patiently written work is a ""blockbuster"" that now gives a reliable account of Valentinian theology, ritual, and intellectual history. The Spiritual Seed is now the definitive treatment of Valentinianism and its biblical and philosophical bases, a ""must have"" for all scholars-and their research libraries-of ancient Gnosticism, second-century Christian history and thought, and historians of later Greek philosophy.' John D. Turner, University of Nebraska at Lincoln." Author InformationKevin M. Doak, Ph.D. (1989) in East Asian Languages and Cultures, The University of Chicago, is the Nippon Foundation Endowed Chair in Japanese Studies at Georgetown University. He has published extensively on Japanese nationalism, social and political thought, including Dreams of Difference: The Japan Romantic School and the Crisis of Modernity (California, 1994). Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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