Eduard Iricinschi Libri

The essays in this collection explore how late antique groups established their socio-political boundaries and secure identities through discourses on "heresy" and "heretics." By adopting a broader definition of these terms as forms of "internal opposition" and "internal enemies," the authors provide new insights into ancient sources and comparative analyses. Some contributors investigate the social context of heresiology and its role in regulating interactions between different communities. Others examine the dual function of heresy discourse, which both describes and disqualifies perceived dissenters. The authors collectively reassess the concept of 'heresy' in late antiquity, focusing on how groups defined themselves as righteous while depicting imagined communities as vicious. They analyze instances where authors or groups framed dangerous encounters by portraying the "other" using established heresiological conventions, clichés, and stock characters. Additionally, they explore how heresy-making discourses can simultaneously alienate and assimilate, as reflected in the Babylonian Talmud's notion of pushing away 'heretics' while incorporating their ideas and practices. This multifaceted examination sheds light on the complex dynamics of identity and community in late antiquity.

This volume gathers contributions from both junior and senior scholars whose studies have developed in dialogue with Elaine Pagels' work on Nag Hammadi literature and ancient heresiology. Published initially in 1979, Pagels' The Gnostic Gospels represents a landmark of scholarship in religious studies. It not only made the Nag Hammadi writings and Gnosticism popular topics in modern culture, it also invited scholars to rethink early Christianity from new perspectives. What were previously seen as dry theological arguments and intricate Gnostic mythologies received new interpretations in the Gnostic Gospels as echoes of political debates about orthodoxy and heresy, clerical authority, martyrdom and gender. After The Gnostic Gospels, Elaine Pagels extended her research in various directions, from perceptions of sexuality in early Christianity and identity politics in the Christian creation of the „Satan figure“ to ancient biblical interpretations, ritual in Nag Hammadi texts, and, recently, the Gospel of Judas and ancient apocalypses. The studies included in this volume engage each stage of Pagels' vast trajectory, and provide critical evaluations of the field of „Gnosticism studies“ as it has developed over the past four decades, in the subfields of the „Sethian“ and „Valentinian“ schools, and beyond. The studies include new interpretations of the Nag Hammadi texts and fresh analyses of ancient heresiological literature.