Wrestling with Archons

Gnosticism as a Critical Theory of Culture

Jonathan Cahana-Blum

This book demonstrates that ancient Christian Gnosticism was an ancient form of cultural criticism in a mythological garb. It establishes that, much like modern forms of critical theory, ancient Gnosticism was set on deconstructing mainstream discourses and cultural premises. Strains of critical theory dealt with include the Frankfurt School, queer theory, and poststructural philosophy. The book documents how in both ancient Gnosticism and modern critical theories issues that used to serve as premises for discussion or as concepts relegated to the realms of the “natural” and the “given” in their respective historical contexts, are transformed into objects of contention. The main aim of this book is to salvage the historical category of Gnosticism from its present scholarly disavowal, if only because Gnosticism, when read as a cultural, and not only a religious phenomenon, presents us an ancient form of culture criticism which would be hard to parallel until (post) modernity. While Hans Jonas remarked many years ago that “something in Gnosticism knocks at the door of our Being and of our twentieth-century Being in particular,” by the 21st century global world this something has already entered and lives with us. We can thus still benefit from another perspective, even if it comes from Mediterranean people who lived almost 2,000 years ago.

Lexington Books

Pages: 210 • Trim: 6¼ x 9

978-1-4985-6628-5 • Hardback • November 2018 • $90.00 • (£69.00)

978-1-4985-6629-2 • eBook • November 2018 • $85.50 • (£66.00)

Subjects: Religion / Gnosticism, Religion / Christianity / History, Religion / History, Religion / Sexuality & Gender Studies, Social Science / Gender Studies

Wrestling with Archons

Gnosticism as a Critical Theory of Culture

Hardback

eBook

Summary

This book demonstrates that ancient Christian Gnosticism was an ancient form of cultural criticism in a mythological garb. It establishes that, much like modern forms of critical theory, ancient Gnosticism was set on deconstructing mainstream discourses and cultural premises. Strains of critical theory dealt with include the Frankfurt School, queer theory, and poststructural philosophy. The book documents how in both ancient Gnosticism and modern critical theories issues that used to serve as premises for discussion or as concepts relegated to the realms of the “natural” and the “given” in their respective historical contexts, are transformed into objects of contention. The main aim of this book is to salvage the historical category of Gnosticism from its present scholarly disavowal, if only because Gnosticism, when read as a cultural, and not only a religious phenomenon, presents us an ancient form of culture criticism which would be hard to parallel until (post) modernity. While Hans Jonas remarked many years ago that “something in Gnosticism knocks at the door of our Being and of our twentieth-century Being in particular,” by the 21st century global world this something has already entered and lives with us. We can thus still benefit from another perspective, even if it comes from Mediterranean people who lived almost 2,000 years ago.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 210 • Trim: 6¼ x 9

978-1-4985-6628-5 • Hardback • November 2018 • $90.00 • (£69.00)

978-1-4985-6629-2 • eBook • November 2018 • $85.50 • (£66.00)

Subjects: Religion / Gnosticism, Religion / Christianity / History, Religion / History, Religion / Sexuality & Gender Studies, Social Science / Gender Studies

Author

Jonathan Cahana-Blum conducted postdoctoral research as a Fulbright Fellow at Harvard Divinity School and held a Sapere Aude fellowship from the Danish Council for Independent Research at Aarhus University. He has published in such venues as Numen, Journal of Religion, and Journal of the American Academy of Religion.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Gnosticism, Gnostics and their Discontents

Chapter 1: Methodology

Chapter 2: Gnosticism as Ancient Cultural Criticism: A Historical Approach

Chapter 3: Gnosticism and Modern Cultural Criticism: A Comparative Approach

Chapter 4: Paradigm Inversion: Gnosticism at the Origins of Christianity

Conclusions

Bibliography

About the Author

Reviews

Wrestling with Archons is a book for both scholars of religion and scholars skeptical of “religion.” Portraying a Gnosticism deeply engaged in its world, Wrestling with Archons offers intriguing possibilities for our own cultural criticism, recasting categories from matter and nature to religion and sex, and showing us the contemporary importance of these ancient texts.
— Karmen MacKendrick, Le Moyne College

Wrestling with Archons is like a bumblebee. It should not be able to fly, but it is—and it flies well. Who could imagine that the branch of early Christianity, which we label Gnosticism, can be fruitfully approached from the perspective of radical modern cultural criticism? Cahana shows that this approach is not only possible but also very productive. Gnosticism like modern cultural criticism ‘is questioning the unquestionable and deconstructing the “givens” of a respective culture, instead of arguing on their basis’. Cahana is a talented guide through these complicated matters.
— Anders-Christian Jacobsen, Aarhus University

Offering a creative and challenging intervention in the ongoing debates about the viability of “Gnosticism” as a historical and analytical category, Jonathan Cahana builds in unexpected ways on the legacy of Hans Jonas to reposition gnostic literature as a distinctively ancient mode of radical cultural critique. Through rereadings of ancient textual evidence and provocative comparisons to contemporary critical thinkers, Wrestling with Archons advances a bold thesis worthy of serious engagement.
— Benjamin H. Dunning, Fordham University

Wrestling with Archons

Gnosticism as a Critical Theory of Culture

Jonathan Cahana-Blum

Wrestling with Archons

Gnosticism as a Critical Theory of Culture

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