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Michael A. Williams

Rethinking "Gnosticism": An Argument for Dismantling a Dubious Category Paperback – April 12, 1999

by Michael Allen Williams (Author)

(17)

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Most anyone interested in such topics as creation mythology, Jungian theory, or the idea of "secret teachings" in ancient Judaism and Christianity has found "gnosticism" compelling. Yet the term "gnosticism," which often connotes a single rebellious movement against the prevailing religions of late antiquity, gives the false impression of a monolithic religious phenomenon. Here Michael Williams challenges the validity of the widely invoked category of ancient "gnosticism" and the ways it has been described. Presenting such famous writings and movements as the Apocryphon of John and Valentinian Christianity, Williams uncovers the similarities and differences among some major traditions widely categorized as gnostic. He provides an eloquent, systematic argument for a more accurate way to discuss these interpretive approaches.

The modern construct "gnosticism" is not justified by any ancient self-definition, and many of the most commonly cited religious features that supposedly define gnosticism phenomenologically turn out to be questionable. Exploring the sample sets of "gnostic" teachings, Williams refutes generalizations concerning asceticism and libertinism, attitudes toward the body and the created world, and alleged features of protest, parasitism, and elitism. He sketches a fresh model for understanding ancient innovations on more "mainstream" Judaism and Christianity, a model that is informed by modern research on dynamics in new religious movements and is freed from the false stereotypes from which the category "gnosticism" has been constructed.

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Print length

360 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Princeton University Press
Publication date

April 12, 1999
Dimensions

6 x 0.81 x 9.25 inches
ISBN-10

0691005427
ISBN-13

978-0691005423

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Editorial Reviews

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"Rare is the book on gnosticism that is thoroughly grounded in the primary sources in the ancient languages, widely conversant with the secondary literature, controlled and sophisticated in its historical method--and still intelligible and interesting, not only for experts in its field, but also for religious historians and educated readers in general. Michael Williams's Rethinking `Gnosticism' is such a book. It is essential reading for scholars of ancient Christianity and for anyone who wishes to use the terms `gnostic' and `gnosticism,' but it can be read with profit by all historians concerned with issues of methodology in studying religious people of the past." ― Church History

"There can hardly be a category more misused in contemporary scholarly and not-so-scholarly discourse than `gnosticism,' so it was probably inevitable that a serious scholar would come along with an argument for the abandonment of the category altogether. In this provocative book Williams does just that." ― Religious Studies Review

Review

"Michael Williams presents the first treatment of gnosticism in book form that endeavors, and succeeds, to get out of beaten tracks by questioning the very definition and description of this phenomenon. He conducts a detailed analysis of the clichés that have been in circulation for decades and shows convincingly how they have contributed to a distorted and biased approach to the sources. This book will be epoch-making for the field of gnostic studies and should attract a very large reading audience."―Paul-Hubert Poirier, Université Laval

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Princeton University Press
Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 12, 1999
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 360 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0691005427
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0691005423
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.19 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.81 x 9.25 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #2,150,774 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #942 in Christian Bible Apocrypha & Pseudepigrapha
- #3,112 in General History of Religion
- #4,006 in History of Religions
Customer Reviews:
(17)

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kurt
Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on October 2, 2015
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I'll look carefully the notes. Thank you really much.

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L. Akin
A good book for someone who wants to examine the constructs of what 'gnosticism' is and isn't
Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2015
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
For those with any interest in 'gnosticism' this book should be read as it examines and shows what the foundations are and what isn't really 'gnostic'. The word has been adopted and applied to any number of teachers and philosophies and theologies and all too many are not that well research and all too many self-serving rather than serving a higher cause.
More books on the subject are being written and in time I'll read those...but I really appreciate the organization of the author to show where the term has been mis-applied or worse. With those sort of tools it's easier to analyse what might truly be 'gnostic' and what isn't.

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2 people found this helpful

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Stephen Manning PhD
Fertilizing a field in danger of being burned over
Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2000
Format: Paperback
I will confess to having read William's book only once. It deserves at least a second reading. His careful and critical attention to all the texts of the Gnostic tradition requires sustained attention. His point of view, however, is very welcome. Gnosticism has been rather too easily straight-jacketed into a monolithic & dogmatic form: elitist, dualist, either puritanical or libertine, world-hating and earth-hating. On the other hand, it has been romanticized by the hermeneutics of victimization as a feminist harbor in a sea of patriarchy. What Williams concludes is that the common thread among the "Gnostics falsely so-called" (pace Irenaeus) is "biblical demiurgism". This means first, a deep attachment to the biblical narrative and second, a deep dissatisfaction with the biblical deity. The use of myth, imagination, subversive re-reading of texts and the primacy of experience are common, too, as ways of retaining the story and transcending the deity. Gnosticism has too often served for orthodoxy the role that Modernism played for early 20th Century Catholicism; it was given far more ideological coherence & unity of purpose than really existed. I am a great admirer of Gnostic tradition, but the despisal of matter and the physical creation always stuck in my craw. The sin of Balaam: beating the donkey which saves you from the the avenging angel you can't see. Anyway, this book enables me to inhabit that tradition more integrally, being myself a "biblical demiurgist". It encourages a more respectful reading of the texts, without readymade lenses. And while I'm at it, despite Christian assertions of the goodness of creation and its enshrinement in the sacramental system, Christian practice --along with the practice of many religions-- performs a functional equivalent of "Gnosticism" in demonizing matter as the sinful flesh...forgetting that in the Story, it was a proud and beautiful angel who engineered the fall of the universe. I'll read this book again with more care and I encourage anyone with an interest in the subject and some familiarity with the tradition to do so, too. It did not erase the Gnostic tradition for me, but opened it up. Great work, Professor Williams. Thanks.

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49 people found this helpful

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Pedro Corvelo
Disapointed
Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2024
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
This book arrived with is cover damaged and with hand writings in it's pages. Not new as expected, nor in pristine conditions.

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Stephen P. Manning
Fertilizing a field in danger of being burned over
Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2005
Format: Paperback
(I wrote this review back in 2000 and spelled my name slightly differently, so it got separated from my other reviews; I'm copying it here to live with the rest of my immortal opinions...) I will confess to having read William's book only once. It deserves at least a second reading. His careful and critical attention to all the texts of the Gnostic tradition requires sustained attention. His point of view, however, is very welcome. Gnosticism has been rather too easily straight-jacketed into a monolithic & dogmatic form: elitist, dualist, either puritanical or libertine, world-hating and earth-hating. On the other hand, it has been romanticized by the hermeneutics of victimization as a feminist harbor in a sea of patriarchy. What Williams concludes is that the common thread among the "Gnostics falsely so-called" (pace Irenaeus) is "biblical demiurgism". This means first, a deep attachment to the biblical narrative and second, a deep dissatisfaction with the biblical deity. The use of myth, imagination, subversive re-reading of texts and the primacy of experience are common, too, as ways of retaining the story and transcending the deity. Gnosticism has too often served for orthodoxy the role that Modernism played for early 20th Century Catholicism; it was given far more ideological coherence & unity of purpose than really existed. I am a great admirer of Gnostic tradition, but the despisal of matter and the physical creation always stuck in my craw. The sin of Balaam: beating the donkey which saves you from the the avenging angel you can't see. Anyway, this book enables me to inhabit that tradition more integrally, being myself a "biblical demiurgist". It encourages a more respectful reading of the texts, without readymade lenses. And while I'm at it, despite Christian assertions of the goodness of creation and its enshrinement in the sacramental system, Christian practice --along with the practice of many religions-- performs a functional equivalent of "Gnosticism" in demonizing matter as the sinful flesh...forgetting that in the Story, it was a proud and beautiful angel who engineered the fall of the universe. I'll read this book again with more care and I encourage anyone with an interest in the subject and some familiarity with the tradition to do so, too. It did not erase the Gnostic tradition for me, but opened it up. Great work, Professor Williams. Thanks.

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8 people found this helpful

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Scoop39
Four Stars
Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2016
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
This is a fine book.

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Amazon Customer
Demiurgal urges
Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2006
Format: Paperback
"Gnostics" have had a bad press, especially among orthodox Christian historians. They've been booted out of the household of faith, pontificated over and generalized to death. Williams does the decent thing and brings them out from under the grey clouds of polemic so we can get a clearer view.

Untangling some of the specific groups that have been squeezed into the "gnostic" pigeonhole, it becomes apparent that these people were as different in their day as differing sects in American Christianity are now.

I wouldn't make this my first venture into reading on this subject - but it will be stimulating for anyone who knows the basics. Anyone who wants to make an intelligent comment on "gnosticism" in the early church needs to come to grips with the issues Williams raises.

Readable and provocative... what more could you ask!

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10 people found this helpful

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What's in a name?
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 10, 2010
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

It is a spirit of the age I suppose to wring one's hands in despair and agonise over what nomenclature we should use when referring to other groups of people. This even extends it seems to groups of people who have been dead for the best part of two thousand years.

We all know the kind of groups we are talking about when we speak of Gnosticism, but Williams has a problem with this terminology. Yes, we know that there was not a single Gnostic religion and, as scholarship on the Nag Hammadi corpus has progressed, we know that even such great scholars of a few decades past such as Jonas and Rudolph were incorrect to see certain traits common to all Gnostic groups, even as defining Gnosticism.

Yet Williams still has a problem with using the phrase "Gnosticism" as a catch all. It can of course be easily demonstrated that this term was never used in antiquity, but does this mean that we moderns cannot use it as a convenient term? Williams instead proposes "biblical demiurgical traditions", a clumsy coinage which, having very early on introduced it, he proceeds to drop for most of the remainder of the book preferring instead to use "Gnosticism" albeit always quoted.

The majority of the book concerns itself with deeper examination of the various characteristics which have been regarded at various times as "defining" Gnosticism, for example: world-rejection, hatred of the body, asceticism or libertinism. As is apparently de rigueur amongst all present-day scholars, Williams rejects altogether any testimony of Irenaeus and other heresiologists contemporary to the Gnostics, as well as disagreeing with much of what more recent scholarship has said. Williams ably demonstrates the variety and complexity of Gnostic beliefs.

On the perennial question of the origin of Gnosticism, while finding much to criticise in other authors' works attempting to arrive at an answer, Williams himself is not one to stick his neck out and postulate. He does however feel confident that his new category of "biblical demiurgical traditions" will somehow give new scholars fresh ammunition to attack the problem.

This is a work of somewhat scholarly tone and style, sometimes excessively so. Williams is not the sort of person to say "the sky is blue" when he could instead say that "the prevailing daytime atmospheric luminescence is of a pronounced bluish colouration".

So what are we left with? An interesting and certainly extremely valuable book, examining the wide ranging beliefs and practices of Gnostics. But is it really breaking new ground in the way that Williams himself believes?

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5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars

4.0 out of 5 stars A good book for someone who wants to examine the constructs of what 'gnosticism' is and isn't

5.0 out of 5 stars Fertilizing a field in danger of being burned over

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5.0 out of 5 stars Fertilizing a field in danger of being burned over

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5.0 out of 5 stars Demiurgal urges

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4.0 out of 5 stars What's in a name?

Five Stars

A good book for someone who wants to examine the constructs of what 'gnosticism' is and isn't

Fertilizing a field in danger of being burned over

Disapointed

Fertilizing a field in danger of being burned over

Four Stars

Demiurgal urges

What's in a name?