A Gnostic Reading List

[INTRODUCTORY READINGS]
Holroyd, Stuart. The Elements of Gnosticism. Shaftesbury, Dorset, Eng., and Rockport, Mass.: Element Books, 1994. An excellent, brief introduction to the teachings, history, and literature of Gnosticism. The approach is sympathetic, with emphasis on the relevance of Gnosticism for today.

Pagels, Elaine. The Gnostic Gospels. New York: Random House, 1978. A popular classic, introducing the Nag Hammadi scriptures and Gnosticism within a useful historical context. Perhaps the first major book to be free of the anti-Gnostic heresiological bias.

Seymour-Smith, Martin. Gnosticism: The Path of Inner Knowledge. San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1996. A small coffee table book, attractively illustrated in color, with a mildly sympathetic treatment of the subject. Brief but informative.

Singer, June. Knowledge of the Heart: Gnostic Secrets of Inner Wisdom. Rockport, Mass.: Element, 1999. Delightful labor of love of Gnosis by a noted Jungian. Consists of Gnostic sacred texts arranged for reading according to the monastic hours and days of the week. Commentaries of Jungian and Gnostic inspiration are appended to the texts. An instrument for deepening of one's gnosis. (This book was previously published as A Gnostic Book of Hours: Keys to Inner Wisdom. San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1992.)

[INTERMEDIATE READINGS]
Churton, Tobias. The Gnostics. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1987. A comprehensive, well researched, and objective study, encompassing Gnostic teachings and literature. Includes a useful chronological table. (This book was written to accompany a television documentary, The Gnostics, produced in Great Britain by Boarder Television in 1987.)

Dart, John. The Laughing Savior: The Discovery and Significance of the Nag Hammadi Gnostic Library. New York: Harper & Row, 1976. Journalistic, slightly superficial sampling of the Nag Hammadi scriptures, with mildly informative contextual information.

Doresse, Jean. The Secret Books of the Egyptian Gnostic: An Introduction to the Gnostic Coptic Manuscripts Discovered at Chenoboskion. New York: Viking, I960. Personal account by one of the discoverers of the Nag Hammadi scriptures. Includes an early translation of the Gospel of Thomas. The author manifests an anti-Gnostic bias. Grant, Robert M. Gnosticism and Early Christianity. New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1966. A moderately useful treatment of the subject, marred by the negative attitude of the author, rooted in a heresiological bias.

Guirdham, Arthur. The Great Heresy. Jersey, Eng.: Neville Spearman, 1977. Study of the teachings of the medieval Gnostics known as the Cathars. Part 1 of the book is highly informative and insightful. Part 2 is based on alleged communications from discarnate entities and therefore is of questionable value. Hoeller, Stephan A. Jung and the Lost Gospels. Wheaton, IL: Theo-sophical Publishing House, Quest Books, 1989. A study showing the relationship of Jung's psychology to the principal Gnostic myths and to four of the Nag Hammadi gospels.

Jonas, Hans. The Gnostic Religion. Boston: Beacon, 1958, 2001. A classic work, employing existential principles of analysis to Gnostic teachings (the author was a student of Heidegger). Contains many valuable quotations, including many from Mandaean and Manichaean sources. Written before the publication of the Nag Hammadi scriptures, it contains only scant references to these sources.

Lacarriere, Jacques. The Gnostics. New York: Dutton, 1977. Reprint, San Francisco: City Lights, 1989. A poetic meditation on Gnosticism and Gnostic teachings. The author's antiestablishment, left-wing orientation needs to be discounted, but it contains useful information and is sympathetic to Gnosticism. Includes a worthwhile foreword by Lawrence Durrell.

Merkur, Dan. Gnosis: An Esoteric Tradition of Mystical Visions and Unions. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993. Startlingly creative and insightful work that sees Gnosticism as originating in a certain kind of spiritual experience akin to C. G. Jung's “active imagination.” Includes cognate material from Christian, Jewish, and Islamic mysticism. Well documented and readable.

Oldenbourg, Zoe. Massacre at Montségur: A History of the Albigensian Crusade. New York: Minerva, 1968. A classic work on the bloody war and persecution of the medieval Gnostic (Cathar) religion in the Languedoc, France. The first historical work to unmask this persecution in its full horror. Written by a noted medievalist and historical novelist.

Perkins, Pheme. The Gnostic Dialogue: The Early Church and the Crisis of Gnosticism. New York: Paulist Press, 1980. Informative study, marred by the author's Roman Catholic bias and obvious attempt to counteract the pro-Gnostic effect of Elaine Pagel's work, The Gnostic Gospels.

Rudolph, Kurt. Gnosis: The Nature and History of Gnosticism. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1983. Detailed and scholarly exposition, equally valuable to scholar and lay person. The author's point of view is objective and in the main uninfluenced by heresiological bias. Includes excellent documentation, as well as Mandaean materials obtained by the author in his personal research.

Spierenburg, H. J., ed. H. P. Blavatsky: On the Gnostics. San Diego, Calif.: Point Loma Publications, 1994. Compilation of the writings of various lengths on the Gnostics by the seminal figure of the nineteenth-century occult revival. It proves Blavatsky's excellent insight into matters Gnostic, as well as the intimate compatibility between Gnosticism and modern Theosophy.

[ADVANCED READINGS]
Blackman, E. C. Marcion and His Influence. London: SPCK, 1948. Reprint, New York: Ames, 1978. Classic study of Marcion's teachings and their impact on various disciplines, including biblical criticism. Arguably the most complete work on Marcion yet written.

Culianu, Ioan P. The Tree of Gnosis: Gnostic Mythology from Early Christianity to Modern Nihilism. San Francisco: Harper, 1992. Highly imaginative but somewhat immature study of the Gnostic tradition, with a strong historical emphasis. Creative but turgid.
Filoramo, Giovanni. A History of Gnosticism. Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1990. Excellent and sympathetic study of Gnosticism, including insightful exegeses of Gnostic scriptures. One of the best scholarly works available.

Hedrick, Charles W., and Robert Hodgson, eds. Nag Hammadi Gnosticism and Early Christianity. Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1986. Several valuable studies, primarily concerning the Nag Hammadi collection of Gnostic scriptures, by fourteen noted scholars of this field.

King, C. W. The Gnostics and Their Remains, Ancient and Medieval. 1887. Reprint, San Diego, Calif..: Wizards Bookshelf, 1982. A classic nineteenth-century work, depicting and explaining primarily items of talismanic art of the Gnostic tradition.
King, Karen L., ed. Images of the Feminine in Gnosticism. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988. Transactions of a conference bearing the same title, held in 1985 at the Institute of Antiquity and Christianity in Claremont, California. Contains thirty-two essays and responses by scholars. The contents are of mixed value.

Klimkeit, Hans-Joachim. Gnosis on the Silk Road: Gnostic Texts from Central Asia. San Francisco: Harper, 1993. A useful brief introduction to Manichaeanism, along with a large collection of beautiful Manichaean texts obtained from materials uncovered in Central Asia during the last century.

Lieu, Samuel N. C. Manichaeism in the Late Roman Empire and Medieval China. 2nd rev. ed. Tubingen: Mohr, 1992. A highly detailed discussion of Manichaeanism, and perhaps the best current modern work on the subject. Of particular importance, this work includes very comprehensive notes and a bibliography listing essentially every important extant work on Manichaeanism. ——. Manichaeism in Mesopotamia and the Roman East. Leiden: Brill, 1994. A collection of Lieu's essays, most highly specialized in nature, which complement his previous work, Manichaeism in the Late Roman Empire and Medieval China. ——. Manichaeism in Central Asia and China. Leiden: Brill, 1998. A further collection of Lieu's essays, again highly specialized in nature, which complement his previous works.

Lupieri, Edmondo. The Mandaeans: The Last Gnostics. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2002. One of the very few works available on the Mandaean religion. Well researched and readable. Contains numerous translations of Mandaean scriptures. Highly recommended.
Mead, G. R. S. Simon Magus: An Essay. London: Theosophical Publishing Society, 1892.

Pagels, Elaine. H. The Johannine Gospel in Gnostic Exegesis: Heracleon's Commentary on John. Nashville and New York: Abingdon, 1973. Useful exposition of Valentinian interpretations of the Gospel of John, including material on John the Baptizer. ——. The Gnostic Paul: Gnostic Exegesis of the Pauline Letters. Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1975. An examination of the Valentinian Gnostic reading of the Pauline letters, offering a new perspective on Pauline studies. ——.Adam, Eve, and the Serpent. New York: Random House, 1988. The impact of the first three chapters of Genesis on the political thought of Christendom. Chapter 3 is of singular interest to Gnostic studies.

Perkins, Pheme. Gnosticism and the New Testament. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993. A scholarly account of the interaction of Gnosticism and New Testament Christianity. Primarily useful to readers with an interest in a biblical perspective in regard to Gnosticism.

Petrement, Simone. A Separate God: The Christian Origins of Gnosticism. San Francisco: Harper, 1990. An important study, viewing Gnosticism as a purely Christian phenomenon. The somewhat obscure style of the author makes it slightly difficult reading.

Roukema, Reimer. Gnosis and Faith in Early Christianity. Harrisburg, Pa.: Trinity Press International, 1999. A basic introduction to the relationship of Gnosticism to early Christianity. The author represents a Calvinist Protestant position and relies heavily on the heresiologist patristic sources. The work contains a rare exposition of the convergences between Gnosticism and Plato, Philo, and other Platonic teachers.

Stoyanov, Yuri. The Other God: Dualist Religions from Antiquity to the Cathar Heresy. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000. An excellent historical study tracing the possible origins of Gnosticism to Egyptian and Zoroastrian sources and showing unusually keen insight into the Bogomil and Cathar religions.

Welburn, Andrew. Mani, the Angel and the Column of Glory. Edinburgh: Floris, 1998. A useful annotated anthology of Manichaean texts edited and presented by a distinguished scholar. Contains some texts not frequently available. The perspective of the author is considerably influenced by the teachings of Rudolph Steiner.