On 2007-07-27 Carol Grizzard, wrote: King, who has published widely in the field of gnostic literature, provides a good overview of scholarly writings on gnosticism, evaluating the different views on the subject in a scholarly way that is easy to understand without in any sense being oversimplified. Gnosticism has long been understood as a perversion of ´normative´ Christianity (and, of course, there´s disagreement over what that was or is); this has led people to evaluate gnosticism in light of Christianity rather than looking at what gnosticism is in and of itself; there is still disagreement over the roots of gnosticism and how its original practitioners understood it. King´s work addresses the issues that have become attached to the study of this movement, interpreting them and offering her own conclusions as well. Chapter titles include ´Gnosticism as Heresy,´ ´Adolf von Harnack and the Essence of Christianity,´ and ´The History of Religions School.´ She deals with the Nag Hammadi finds in some depth as well.
This book would be particularly helpful for people who are new to the study of Gnosticism; it is not necessary to be a scholar to understand King´s writing. . And summed up by saying A helpful overview of a complex field. Currently What Is Gnosticism? has an overall rating of 6 over 10.
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Belknap Press of Harvard University Press claimed A distinctive Christian heresy? A competitor of burgeoning Christianity? A pre-Christian folk religion traceable to ´Oriental syncretism´? How do we account for the disparate ideas, writings, and practices that have been placed under the Gnostic rubric? To do so, Karen King says, we must first disentangle modern historiography from the Christian discourse of orthodoxy and heresy that has pervaded--and distorted--the story. Exciting discoveries of previously unknown ancient writings--especially the forty-six texts found at Nag Hammadi in 1945--are challenging historians of religion to rethink not only what we mean by Gnosticism but also the standard account of Christian origins. The Gospel of Mary and The Secret Book of John, for example, illustrate the variety of early Christianities and are witness to the struggle of Christians to craft an identity in the midst of the culturally pluralistic Roman Empire. King shows how historians have been misled by ancient Christian polemicists who attacked Gnostic beliefs as a ´dark double´ against which the new faith could define itself. Having identified past distortions, she is able to offer a new and clarifying definition of Gnosticism. Her book is thus both a thorough and innovative introduction to the twentieth-century study of Gnosticism and a revealing exploration of the concept of heresy as a tool in forming religious identity. (20050401)
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