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Is God involved? Why do bad things happen to good people? What is up to us? These questions were explored in Mediterranean antiquity with reference to ‘providence’ ( pronoia ). In Did God Care? Dylan Burns offers the first comprehensive survey of providence in ancient philosophy that brings together the most important Greek, Latin, Coptic, and Syriac sources, from Plato to Plotinus and the Gnostics. Burns demonstrates how the philosophical problems encompassed by providence transformed in the first centuries CE, yielding influential notions about divine care, evil, creation, omniscience, fate, and free will that remain with us today. These transformations were not independent developments of ‘Pagan philosophy’ and ‘Christian theology,’ but include fruits of mutually influential engagement between Hellenic and Christian philosophers.

Determinism (Philosophy) --- Free will and determinism. --- Providence and government of God. --- Hellenism. --- Christian philosophy --- Philosophy --- God --- Compatibilism --- Determinism and free will --- Determinism and indeterminism --- Free agency --- Freedom and determinism --- Freedom of the will --- Indeterminism --- Liberty of the will --- Providence and government --- Sovereignty

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In 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.

Apocalyptic literature --- Gnostic literature --- Gnosticism. --- Neoplatonism. --- History and criticism. --- Ancient Studies. --- Classics. --- Religion. --- Religious Studies.

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The discoveries of Coptic books containing “Gnostic” scriptures in Upper Egypt in 1945 and of the Dead Sea Scrolls near Khirbet Qumran in 1946 are commonly reckoned as the most important archaeological finds of the twentieth century for the study of early Christianity and ancient Judaism. Yet, impeded by academic insularity and delays in publication, scholars never conducted a full-scale, comparative investigation of these two sensational corpora—until now. Featuring articles by an all-star, international lineup of scholars, this book offers the first sustained, interdisciplinary study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Codices.

Dead Sea scrolls. --- Nag Hammadi codices. --- Bible. --- New Testament. --- Nag Hammadi codices --- Dead Sea scrolls --- Jerusalem scrolls --- ʻAin Fashka scrolls --- Jericho scrolls --- Scrolls, Dead Sea --- Qumrân scrolls --- Rękopisy z Qumran --- Shikai bunsho --- Megilot Midbar Yehudah --- Dodezee-rollen --- Kumránské rukopisy --- Documentos de Qumrán --- Textos de Qumrán --- Rollos del Mar Muerto --- Manuscritos del Mar Muerto --- Manuscrits de la mer Morte --- Dödahavsrullarna --- Kumranin kirjoitukset --- Kuolleenmeren kirjoitukset --- Qumranhandskrifterna --- Qumranin kirjoitukset --- Qumran Caves scrolls --- Nag Hammadi library --- Chenoboskion manuscripts --- Nag Hammadi manuscripts --- Khenoboskion manuscripts --- Najʻ Ḥammādī texts --- Nag Hammadi texts --- Ba-yon Tipan --- Bagong Tipan --- Jaji ma Hungi --- Kainē Diathēkē --- New Testament --- Nouveau Testament --- Novo Testamento --- Novum Testamentum --- Novyĭ Zavet --- Novyĭ Zavi︠e︡t Gospoda nashego Īisusa Khrista --- Novyĭ Zavit --- Nuevo Testamento --- Nuovo Testamento --- Nye Testamente --- Perjanjian Baru --- Dhamma sacʻ kyamʻʺ --- Injīl

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Just as we speak of "dead" languages, we say that religions "die out." Yet sometimes, people try to revive them, today more than ever. 'New Antiquities' addresses this phenomenon through critical examination of how individuals and groups appeal to, reconceptualize, and reinvent the religious world of the ancient Mediterranean as they attempt to legitimize developments in contemporary religious culture and associated activity. 0Drawing from the disciplines of religious studies, archaeology, history, philology, and anthropology, this book explores a diversity of cultic and geographic milieus, ranging from Goddess Spirituality to Neo-Gnosticism, from rural Oregon to the former Yugoslavia. As a survey of the reception of ancient religious works, figures, and ideas in later twentieth-century and contemporary alternative religious practice, New Antiquities will interest classicists, Egyptologists, and historians of religion of many stripes, particularly those focused on modern Theosophy, Gnosticism, Neopaganism, New Religious Movements, Magick, and Occulture.

Altertum. --- Esoterik. --- New Age movement. --- New Age movement. --- Nouvel Âge (Mouvement). --- Religion. --- Religions. --- Religions. --- Religions. --- Rezeption. --- New Age.

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In The Platonizing Sethian Background of Plotinus’s Mysticism, Zeke Mazur offers a radical reconceptualization of Plotinus with reference to Gnostic thought and praxis. A crucial element in the thought of the third-century CE philosopher Plotinus—his conception of mystical union with the One—cannot be understood solely within the conventional history of philosophy, or as the product of a unique, sui generis psychological propensity. This monograph demonstrates that Plotinus tacitly patterned his mystical ascent to the One on a type of visionary ascent ritual that is first attested in Gnostic sources. These sources include the Platonizing Sethian tractates Zostrianos (NHC VIII,1) and Allogenes (NHC XI,3) of which we have Coptic translations from Nag Hammadi and whose Greek Vorlagen were known to have been read in Plotinus’s school

Platonists --- Neoplatonism --- Sethians --- Mysticism --- One (The One in philosophy) --- Plotinus --- Platonists. --- Neoplatonism. --- Sethians. --- Mysticism. --- Plotinus. --- 273.1*36 --- 248.2 "00/04" --- 273.1*36 Gnosis. Gnosticisme--?*36 --- Gnosis. Gnosticisme--?*36 --- 248.2 "00/04" Mystieke theologie. Mystiek. Mysticisme--?"00/04" --- Mystieke theologie. Mystiek. Mysticisme--?"00/04"