Table Of ContentWhat Is Gnosticism?
KAREN L. KING
WHAT IS GNOSTICISM?
What Is Gnosticism?
KAREN L. KING
THE BELKNAP PRESS OF
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
2003
Copyright © 2003 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
King, Karen L.
What is Gnosticism? / Karen L. King.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index.
ISBN 0-674-01071-X (alk. paper)
1. Gnosticism. I. Title.
BT1390.K55 2003
299'.932—dc2i
2003041851
Contents
Preface vii
Abbreviations xi
Introduction
I
i Why Is Gnosticism So Hard to Define?
2 Gnosticism as Heresy 20
3 Adolf von Harnack and the Essence of Christianity 55
4 The History of Religions School 71
5 Gnosticism Reconsidered no
6 After Nag Hammadi I: Categories and Origins 149
7 After Nag Hammadi II: Typology 191
8 The End of Gnosticism? 218
Note on Methodology
Bibliography
Notes 277
Index 341
Preface
Historians are in the process of rewriting the history of earliest Chris
tianity, partly on the basis of newly discovered papyrus manuscripts con
taining a wealth of previously unknown early Christian texts. Not only do
we have new discoveries; but we also have new questions to address to
those materials. Issues of pluralism, colonialism, difference, and marginal
ity all appear in our scholarship with increasing frequency. Specialists are
developing new methods and reconsidering past theoretical paradigms
and frameworks. At this time we are only able to catch a glimpse of what
new narratives of early Christian history will look like. But one point is
assured by the new discoveries: early Christianity was much more diverse
and pluriform than anyone could have suspected a century ago. Moreover,
historians will have to write a story in which Christian triumph over pa
gan culture and Christian supersession of Judaism no longer have an un
ambiguous historical grounding, and in which women are an active pres
ence.
The surviving literature from antiquity attests that Christians of the
first centuries were deeply engaged in controversies over such basic issues
as the meaning of Jesus’ teaching, the significance of his death, the roles of
women, sexuality, visions of ideal community, and much more. When
disputes arose, however, there were no structures in place to decide who
was right or wrong—no New Testament canon, no Nicene Creed, no
fixed hierarchical male leadership, no Christian emperor. The history of
early Christianity is therefore not only the story of those controversies but
also the account of the invention of those structures.
My own interest, which lies primarily in early Christian identity forma
viii Preface
tion and the critique of current scholarly categories of analysis, has been
shaped largely through the study of Gnostic heresy. Supposedly emerging
in the Greek and Roman colonial world of the ancient Mediterranean,
Gnosticism has been defined both in antiquity and in contemporary dis
course by difference and marginality. It has been called heretical, syncre
tistic, Oriental, radical, rebellious, and parasitic. This book does not pro
vide a description of all the groups, texts, and ideas that have been
attributed to Gnosticism; nor is it an exhaustive account of the study of
Gnosticism in the twentieth century. Rather, it aims to contribute to the
larger enterprise of rewriting the history of Christianity by examining how
modern historiography came to invent a new religion, Gnosticism, largely
out of early Christian polemics intersecting with post-Enlightenment his
toricism, colonialism, and existential phenomenology.
This book also aims to identify where certain assumptions that were
formed in ancient battles against heresy continue to operate in the meth
ods of contemporary historiography, especially regarding those construc
tions of purity, origins, and essence in which difference is figured as divi
sive, mixing as pollution, and change as deviance. I suggest not only that
these assumptions are entangled in academic methodologies, but also that
they continue to support particular notions of religious normativity and
operations of identity politics in our own day. As a historian of the ancient
world, I am also concerned that the current understanding of Gnosticism
distorts our reading of the ancient texts, oversimplifies our account of
early Christianity, and confounds the use of historical resources for theo
logical reflection. Asking the question, “What is Gnosticism?” can help
remedy these problems and open new vistas for investigating the terrain of
ancient Christianity as well as the dynamics of contemporary identity pol
itics.
This book has been in the making for at least twenty years. During that
time, I have profited enormously from conversations with numerous col
leagues, friends, and students, to whom I owe a great debt for their criti
cisms and encouragement. Unfortunately, it is not possible for me to
name them all here, but I would like to acknowledge my appreciation. My
sincerest thanks go as well to the individual colleagues and organizations
who made it possible to present initial ideas and drafts on various occa
sions: at the Gaston Symposium, University of Oregon, Eugene; the
Preface ix
Annenberg Institute, Philadelphia; the Institute for Antiquity and Chris
tianity, Claremont, California; the Womens Studies Seminar of the Hun
tington Library, Pasadena, California; Harvard Divinity School, Cam
bridge, Massachusetts; the Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life,
Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut; The 1999 Showers Lectures in the
Christian Religion, University of Indianapolis, Indiana; Thomas L. King
Lecture in Religious Studies, Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas; Rem
sen Bird Lecture, Occidental College, Los Angeles, California; Fifth Inter
national Congress of Coptic Studies, 1992, Catholic University of Amer
ica, Washington, D.C.; Congress of the International Association of the
History of Religions, Rome (1990) and Mexico City (1995); a plenary ad
dress for the North American Patristics Society, Chicago, Illinois; and var
ious national meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature and the Ameri
can Academy of Religion, a plenary address at the 1998 regional AAR
meeting, and an invited lecture at the 1999 International SBL Meeting in
Helsinki and Lahti, Finland.
Earlier versions of a few points of my argument appeared in the follow
ing articles: “Translating History: Reframing Gnosticism in Postmoder
nity,” pp. 264-277 in Tradition und Translation. Zum Problem der inter
kulturellen Übersetzbarkeit religiöser Phänomene. Festschrift für Carsten
Colpe zum 6$. Geburtstag, ed. Christoph Elsas et al. (Berlin: Walter de
Gruyter, 1994); “Mackinations on Myth and Origins,” pp. 157-172 in
Reimagining Christian Origins: A Colloquium Honoring Burton L. Mack
(Harrisburg, Penn.: Trinity Press International, 1996); and “The Politics
of Syncretism and the Problem of Defining Gnosticism,” pp. 461-479 in
Historical Reflections/Reflexions Historiques 27.3 (2001).
Warm thanks go to Tom Hall, who edited the entire manuscript sans
remboursement; his wit, wisdom, and unforgiving attitude toward misuse
of the English language saved me from many infelicities while providing
many a chuckle. My thanks also to Margaretta Fulton, my editor at Har
vard University Press, for her support, and to Christine Thorsteinsson for
her editorial labor.
I would also like to offer special thanks to colleagues who at various
points gave me invaluable feedback and encouragement: Virginia Burrus,
Anne McGuire, Patricia Cox Miller, Laura Nasrallah, Karen Jo Torjesen,
and Dale Wright. My deepest gratitude belongs to Daniel Boyarin, Elaine
X Preface
Pagels, Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, and Hal Taussig for their constant
support, unfailingly helpful criticism, and generosity in giving precious
time to reading full drafts of the manuscript. The book’s remaining short
comings are my own, but many strengths came from their help at crucial
moments. Most precious of all to me is the sweetness of this friendship
among colleagues; for that there is warmest affection.
