Practicing Gnosis: Ritual, Magic, Theurgy and Liturgy in Nag Hammadi, Manichaean and Other Ancient Literature: Essays in Honor of Birger A Pearson

Ritual, magic, liturgy, and theurgy were central features of Gnosticism, and yet Gnostic practices remain understudied. This anthology is meant to fill in this gap and address more fully what the ancient Gnostics were doing. While previously we have studied the Gnostics as intellectuals in pursuit of metaphysical knowledge, the essays in this book attempt to understand the Gnostics as ecstatics striving after religious experience, as prophets seeking revelation, as mystics questing after the ultimate God, as healers attempting to care for the sick and diseased. These essays demonstrate that the Gnostics were not necessarily trendy intellectuals seeking epistomological certainities. They were after religious experiences that relied on practices. The book is organized comparatively in a history-of-religions approach with sections devoted to Initiatory, Recurrent, Therapeutic, Ecstatic, and Philosophic Practices. This book celebrates the brilliant career of Birger A. Pearson.

April D. DeConick, Ph.D. (1994), The University of Michigan, is the Isla Carroll and Percy E. Turner Professor of Biblical Studies at Rice University. She has published monographs, translations, and many essays on Gnosticism, Nag Hammadi, mysticism and ancient esotericism, including The Thirteenth Apostle: What the Gospel of Judas Really Says (Continuum, 2007, 2009) and Recovering the Original Gospel of Thomas: A History of the Gospel and Its Growth (T&T Clark, 2005, 2006).

Gregory Shaw, Ph.D. (1987), University of California, Santa Barbara, is Professor of Religious Studies at Stonehill College. He is an expert on religions in antiquity and Neoplatonism. He has published many articles on these subjects, including his monograph Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus (Penn State Press, 1995).

John D. Turner , Ph.D. (1970), Duke University, is the Cotner Professor of Religious Studies and the Charles J. Mach University Professor of Classics and History. He has published extensively in Sethianism, Gnosticism and later Platonism. Along with editions and translations of Nag Hammadi texts, he has edited and authored a number of articles and books, including his monograph Sethian Gnosticism and the Platonic Tradition (Québec, 2001).