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A study of gnosticism examines the various ways early Christians strove to define themselves in a pluralistic Roman society, while questioning the traditional ideas of heresy and orthodoxy that have previously influenced historians.
Lost for more than fifteen hundred years, the Gospel of Mary is the only existing early Christian gospel written in the name of a woman. Karen L. King tells the story of the recovery of this remarkable gospel and offers a new translation. This brief narrative presents a radical interpretation of Jesus' teachings as a path to inner spiritual knowledge. It rejects his suffering and death as a path to eternal life and exposes the view that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute for what it is--a piece of theological fiction. The Gospel of Mary of Magdala offers a glimpse into the conflicts and controversies that shaped earliest Christianity.
Lost in antiquity, rediscovered in 1896, and only recently accessible for study, The Secret Revelation of John offers a firsthand look into the diversity of Christianity before the establishment of canon and creed. Karen L. King offers an illuminating reading of this ancient text--a narrative of the creation of the universe and humanity and a guide to justice and salvation, said to be Christ's revelation to his disciple John. Freeing the Revelation from the category of "Gnosticism" to which such accounts were relegated, King shows how the Biblical text could be read by early Christians in radical and revisionary ways. By placing the Revelation in its social and intellectual milieu, she revis...
From the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author comes the gripping true story of a sensational religious forgery and the scandal that shook Harvard. In 2012, Dr. Karen King, a star religion professor at Harvard, announced a breathtaking discovery just steps from the Vatican: she’d found an ancient scrap of papyrus in which Jesus calls Mary Magdalene “my wife.” The mysterious manuscript, which King provocatively titled “The Gospel of Jesus’s Wife,” had the power to topple the Roman Catholic Church. It threatened not just the all-male priesthood, but centuries of sacred teachings on marriage, sex, and women’s leadership, much of it premised on the hallowed tradition of...
The instant New York Times bestseller interpreting the controversial long-lost gospel The recently unearthed Gospel of Judas is a source of fascination for biblical scholars and lay Christians alike. Now two leading experts on the Gnostic gospels tackle the important questions posed by its discovery, including: How could any Christian imagine Judas to be Jesus' favorite? And what kind of vision of God does the author offer? Working from Karen L. King's brilliant new translation, Elaine Pagels and King provide the context necessary for considering its meaning. Reading Judas plunges into the heart of Christianity itself and will stand as the definitive look at the gospel for years to come.
This edited volume brings together important scholars of religion in the ancient world to honor the impact of Karen L. King's scholarship in this field. Her work shows that Christianity was diverse from its first moments - even before the word "Christian" was coined - and insists that scholars must engage both in deep historical work and in ethical reflection. These essays honor King's intellectual impact by further investigating the categories that scholars have used in their reconstructions of religion, by reflecting on the place of women and gender in the analysis of ancient texts, and by providing historiographical interventions that illuminate both the ancient world and the modern scholarship that has shaped our field. Contributors:Carlin Barton, Giovanni B. Bazzana, Daniel Boyarin, Bernadette Brooten, Margaret Butterfield, Carly Daniel-Hughes, Benjamin H. Dunning, Judith Hartenstein, T. Christopher Hoklotubbe, Ronit Irshai, Denise Kimber Buell, Marcie Lenk, AnneMarie Luijendijk, Laura S. Nasrallah, Elaine Pagels, Silke Petersen, Taylor G. Petrey, Adele Reinhartz, Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, Sarah Sentilles, Angela Standhartinger, Stanley Stowers
Essays on the feminine face of God in Gnostic philsophy and theology are collected in a fascinating introduction to this early and often persecuted strand of Christian thought. Original.
World-renowned scholars honor Elizabeth Schüssler Fiorenza in this Festschrift.
Restores to the forefront of the Christian tradition the importance of the divine feminine • The first complete English-language translation of the original Coptic Gospel of Mary, with line-by-line commentary • Reveals the eminence of the divine feminine in Christian thought • Offers a new perspective on the life of one of the most controversial figures in the Western spiritual tradition Perhaps no figure in biblical scholarship has been the subject of more controversy and debate than Mary Magdalene. Also known as Miriam of Magdala, Mary Magdalene was considered by the apostle John to be the founder of Christianity because she was the first witness to the Resurrection. In most theologi...
Among the Gnostic treasures uncovered at Nag Hammadi in 1945 is this extraordinary spiritual narrative. In it, a third-century narrator known as Allogenes--the Foreigner--recounts a series of visions and divine revelations. He describes his spiritual progress: how he overcomes fear and ignorance and ascends into the divine realm as he experiences the transcendent Unknowable God. Karen King, a contributor to The Nag Hammadi Library in English, provides a new English translation of this work, along with complete original-language Coptic text, introduction, and extensive notes.