Alexandria: Search for Hidden Gnosis:
The Gnostics
(continued)
2. “Hermetic Gnosticism”:
Amis, Robin. A Different Christianity: Early Christian Esotericism and Modern Thought. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995.
Boehme, Jacob. The Way to Christ. New York: Paulist Press, 1978. From the Publisher: “This volume contains an introduction to the thought and spirituality of Jacob Boehme (1575-1624), a German Lutheran and one of the greatest Christian mystics. The Way to Christ is a collection of nine treatises intended to serve as a meditation guide.”
Bulgakov, Sergius, 1879-1944. Sophia: The Wisdom of God. Hudson: Lindisfarne, 1993. From the Publisher: “ ‘[Bulgakov] was a torchbearer for what was coming to be called Sophiology.... His championship of Sophia was clearly an attempt to revitalize Orthodoxy and to reestablish the spirit of the divine feminine, so that the Church should not remain off-balanced by its Christocentric view.’ —Caitlin Matthews, author of Sophia—Goddess of Wisdom.
“There is a great hunger to recover the feminine aspect of the Divinity. But much searching has left Christians disappointed and seeking the "Goddess" elsewhere. In this brave theological work, Bulgakov shows how the Divine Sophia, in whom all things are created, is present in the Holy Trinity itself and how, as the "creaturely Sophia," she works together with her divine counterpart in the work of the Holy Spirit for the redemption of the world.
“Sergei Bulgakov (1879-1944) is considered by some to be the greatest Russian Orthodox theologian of the twentieth century. Early in the century, he progressed from Marxism through idealism to an acceptance of the Christian faith, becoming a Russian Orthodox priest in 1918. He was one of the most active figures in the Russian religious renaissance. During the 1920s, following in the footsteps of Vladimir Solovyov and Pavel Florensky, be began to develop a profound and original vision of Sophia. He was exiled from the Soviet Union in 1922 and moved to Paris, where he began the most fruitful period of his life. By the mid-1930s, his work had won enough disfavor with the Church hierarchy that he was censured and barred from teaching and performing priestly duties. Nevertheless, at his funeral he was eulogized as a ‘Christian sage, a teacher of the Church in the purest and most lofty sense ... enlightened by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Wisdom, the Spirit of Understanding, the Comforter,’ to whom he'd devoted his life.”
Charlesworth, James H. and Michael A. Daise, eds. Light in a Spotless Mirror: Reflections on Wisdom Traditions in Judaism and Early Christianity. Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, 2003. Contains: Israel's wisdom / Roland Murphy-- Wisdom finds a home / Peter Schafer-- Gospel of John and Philo of Alexandria / Peder Borgen-- John and the Synoptics / D. Moody Smith-- Lady Wisdom and the Johannine Christology / James H. Charlesworth.
Cheetham, Tom. The World Turned Inside Out: Henry Corbin and Islamic Mysticism. New Orleans: Spring Journal, 2003. From the Publisher: “ ‘A deep reading of Tom Cheetham's The World Turned Inside Out could have the effect of turning the reader inside out! Not only will a person discover in this book a thorough understanding of the remarkable and important vision of Henry Corbin, the great French scholar of Iranian Islam. The reader will also be engaged by a politically useful understanding of the religion of Islam generally, of mystical and negative theology, of monotheism, of the philosophy of imagination, of language and the textures of textuality, and of the nature of reading and thinking. Among other things, a careful reading of this book can inform current interpretations of the politics of terrorism, its wars and the wars against it. In short, there exists here a shaking of the foundations of human perspectives that comes to nothing short of a radical revisioning of all attempts to make sense of the life and meaning of being in the world.’ – David L. Miller, Watson-Ledden Professor of Religion, Emeritus, Syracuse University, Core Faculty Member, Pacifica Graduate Institute. ‘A remarkable creative synthesis of the genius of Henry Corbin, the silent precursor of archetypal psychology. Tom Cheetham gives the gift of a metaphysics of interiority balancing pervasive, destructive, suffocating, spectator consciousness. And it is a convivial interiority, filled with spiritual presences. The soul can breathe again because it has found its homeland, the Soul of the World.’ – Robert Sardello, author of Freeing the Soul from Fear and The Power of the Soul: Living the Twelve Virtues.”
Chittick, William C. Imaginal Worlds: Ibn al-'Arabi and the Problem of Religious Diversity. New York: SUNY Press, 1994. From the Publisher: "In this book Chittick explains Ibn al-Arabi's concept of human perfection, his World of Imagination, and his teachings on why God's wisdom demands diversity of religious expression. He then suggests how these teachings can be employed to conceptualize the study of world religions in a contemporary context. Ibn al-Arabi, known as the 'Greatest Master,' is the most influential Muslim thinker of the past 600 years. This book is an introduction to his thought concerning the ultimate destiny of human beings, God and the cosmos, and the reasons for religious diversity. It summarizes many of Ibn al-Arabi's teachings in a simple manner. The ideas discussed are explained in detail. The book is divided into three parts. In the first part Chittick explains Ibn al-Arabi's concept of human perfection; in the second part he looks at various implications of the World of Imagination; and in the third part he exposes Ibn al-Arabi's teachings on why God's wisdom demands diversity of religious expression, and he suggests how these teachings can be employed to conceptualize the study of world religions in a contemporary context. William C. Chittick is Associate Professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He is the author of Faith and Practice of Islam; A Shi'ite Anthology; The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn al- Arabi's Metaphysics of Imagination; and The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, as well as many other works.
Corbin, Henry. Alone with the Alone: Creative Imagination in the Sūfism of Ibn 'Arabī. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998. From the Publisher: "Henry Corbin's works are the best guide to the visionary tradition.... Corbin, like Scholem and Jonas, is remembered as a scholar of genius. He was uniquely equipped not only to recover Iranian Sufism for the West, but also to defend the principal Western traditions of esoteric spirituality."--From the introduction by Harold Bloom. Ibn 'Arabi (1165-1240) was one of the great mystics of all time. Through the richness of his personal experience and the constructive power of his intellect, he made a unique contribution to Shi'ite Sufism. In this book, which features a powerful new preface by Harold Bloom, Henry Corbin brings us to the very core of this movement with a penetrating analysis of Ibn 'Arabi's life and doctrines. Corbin begins with a kind of spiritual topography of the twelfth century, emphasizing the differences between exoteric and esoteric forms of Islam. He also relates Islamic mysticism to mystical thought in the West. The remainder of the book is devoted to two complementary essays: on "Sympathy and Theosophy" and "Creative Imagination and Creative Prayer." A section of notes and appendices includes original translations of numerous Sufi treatises. Harold Bloom's preface links Sufi mysticism with Shakespeare's visionary dramas and high tragedies, such as The Tempest and Hamlet. These works, he writes, intermix the empirical world with a transcendent element. Bloom shows us that this Shakespearean cosmos is analogous to Corbin's "Imaginal Realm" of the Sufis, the place of soul or souls. Some topics discussed: Between Andalusia and Iran: A Brief Spiritual Topography; Divine Passion and Compassion; The Prayer of the Heliotrope; Unio Mystica as Unio Sympathetica; Sophiology and Devotio Sympathetica; The Sophianic Poem of a Fedele d'amore; The Dialectic of Love; The Creative Feminine; The Creation as Theophany; The Creative Imagination as Theophany, or the "God from Whom All Being Is Created"; The God Manifested by the Theophanic Imagination; The "God Created in the Faiths"; The Recurrence of Creation; The Twofold Dimension of Beings; Theophanic Imagination and Creativity of the Heart; The Field of the Imagination; The Heart as a Subtile Organ; The Science of the Heart; Man's Prayer and God's Prayer; The Method of Theophanic Prayer; The Secret of the Divine Responses; The "Form of God"; The Hadith of the Vision; Around the Mystic Ka'aba."
_____________. Cyclical Time and Ismaili Gnosis. London, New York: Kegan Paul International, 1985.
_____________. History of Islamic Philosophy. London, New York: Kegan Paul International, 1993.
_____________. The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism. New Lebanon, NY: Omega Publications, 1994.
_____________. Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989. From the publisher: "An analysis of interrelated themes in Iranian religion, including the angelology of Mazdaism and Islamic Shi'ite concepts of spirit-body identity.'[O]ne of the most important and ground-breaking works of Corbin whose original French version . . . revealed a whole domain and 'climate' of the spiritual universe of the Persian sages and mystics.'— Seyyéd Hossein Nasr."
_____________. Swedenborg and Esoteric Islam. West Chester, PA: Swedenborg Foundation, 1995. From the Publisher: "Two essays by French Islamic scholar Henry Corbin: 'Mundus Imaginalis, or the Imaginary and the Imaginal' and 'Comparative Spiritual Hermeneutics.' Corbin called Swedenborg 'the prophet of the internal sense of the Bible' and compared his biblical symbolism to the Quranic interpretations of the great Islamic mystics.
_____________. Temple and Contemplation. London, New York: KPI in association with Islamic Publications; New York: Distributed by Metheuen: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986.
_____________. The Voyage and the Messenger: Iran and Philosophy. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 1998. Contents: Foreword / Jacob Needleman -- Preface / Stella Corbin -- Introduction / Christopher Bamford -- Iranian Studies and Comparative Religion. The Growth of Comparative Religious Science in the Nineteenth Century. Difficulties of Terminology. Towards a Hierology. Iranian Studies and Hierology -- Iranian Studies and Philosophy. The Term "Iranology" Difficulties of the Term "Arab" Iran in Western Philosophy. Philosophers in Iran -- Problem and Method in Religious History -- A Theory of Visionary Knowledge -- The Theme of the Voyage and the Messenger. The Transition from Theoretical Teaching to Real Event of the Soul. The Theme of the Spiritual Voyage in Avicenna and 'Attar. The Theme of the Spiritual Voyage in Suhrawardi. The Theme of the Spiritual Voyage and the Metaphysics of the Imaginal World -- A Shiite Liturgy of the Grail. The Ritual of the Cup. The Figure of Abu'l-Khattab. Doctrines. "The Wine of the Malakut" -- Prophetic Philosophy and the Metaphysics of Being -- Sufism and Sophia. The Musical Sense of Persian Mysticism.
Epstein, Perle. Kabbalah: The Way of the Jewish Mystic. Boston: Shambhala, 2001.
The Kybalion: a Study of the Hermetic Philosophy of Ancient Egypt and Greece by Three Initiates. Chicago: Yogi Publication Society, 1908, 1998.
Moravieff, Boris. Gnosis: Study and Commentaries on the Esoteric Tradition of Eastern Orthodoxy. Vol 1: The Exoteric Cycle; Vol 2: The Mesotheric Cycle; Vol 3: the Esoteric Cycle. Newbury MA: Praxis, 1989.
Rebisse, Christian. Rosicrucian History and Mysteries. Translated by Richard Majka. San Jose, CA: Grand Lodge of the English Language Jurisdiction, AMORC, 2005.
Saint-Martin, Louis Claude de. Theosophic Correspondence between Louis Claude de Saint-Martin (The “Unknown Philosopher”) and Kirchberger, Baron de Liebistorf. Pasadena: Theosophical University Press, 1982.
Smoley, Richard and Jay Kinney. Hidden Wisdom: A Guide to the Western Inner Traditions. New York: Penguin/Arkana, 1999.
Smoley, Richard. Inner Christianity: A Guide to the Esoteric Tradition. Boston, MA: Shambhala, 2002.
Solovyov, Vladimir Sergeyevich, 1853-1900. Lectures on Divine Humanity. Revised and edited by Boris Jakim. Esalen Institute/Lindisfarne Press Library of Russian Philosophy. Hudson NY: Lindisfarne Press, 1995. From the Publisher: “These lectures, given by Solovyov in St. Petersburg in 1878, mark a seminal moment not only in Russian but also in world philosophy. Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, and other luminaries were in the audience. It was recognized by everyone that something astonishing had occurred. The young philosopher, mystic, and visionary, Solovyov, had given unexpectedly concise, intellectual expression to the reality of the evolution of consciousness and religion. He had spoken movingly of the actualization of Divine Humanity in eternity and time, of the divine world and the fall of spiritual beings into sin, of the origin and meaning of the natural world, and the incarnation of Christ, leading to the redemption of the visible and invisible worlds in the full revelation of Divine Humanity. Sophia, whom Solovyov experienced three times in his life, inspires this great work.
“He conceives Sophia in a variety of ways: as the eternal ideal prototype of humanity, as the world soul actively engaged in actualizing this idea, and as the fully developed divine-human being. This Sophia is both the active principle in the process of creation and its realized goal: the kingdom of God.
“Vladimir Solovyov (1853-1900), one of the greatest philosophers of the nineteenth century, was the founder of a tradition of Russian spirituality that brought together philosophy, mysticism, and theology with a powerful social message. A close friend of Dostoevsky, a Platonist, and a gnostic visionary, Solovyov was a prophet, having been granted three visions of Sophia, Divine Wisdom. He was also a poet and a profoundly Christian metaphysicist. His most important works include Lectures on Divine Humanity, The Justification of the Good, and War, Progress, and the End of History: Three Conversations.”
Versluis, Arthur. Theosophia: Hidden Dimensions of Christianity. Hudson: Lindisfarne, 1994. From the Publisher: “Theosophia traces the long-hidden esoteric stream of Christian gnostic theosophy, revealing a "chivalric" religion of the Holy Spirit at the heart of Christianity. It shows that all three major branches of Christianity bear within them interrelated esoteric traditions. A deeply affirmative book, Theosophia introduces wholly unexpected aspects of Christian tradition. Where mainstream Christianity seems ‘anti-nature,’ Christian theosophy affirms a profound nature-mysticism; where it seems anti-erotic, theosophy affirms a powerful religious eroticism; and where it is portrayed as rigidly patriarchal, theosophy affirms a mysticism founded in the divine Sophia, the feminine personification of wisdom. Theosophia reveals hidden dimensions of our spiritual heritage that speak directly to our current social, ecological, and religious crises. ‘A collection of very precious clues to the sources of the Western spiritual tradition, pointing to the hidden currents both in history and in our own selves.’ — Jacob Needleman.
________. Wisdom's Children: A Christian Esoteric Tradition. SUNY Series in Western Esoteric Traditions. Albany NY: State University of New York Press, 1999. From the Publisher: “The first book in English to provide an in-depth introduction to the Christian theosophic tradition that began with Jacob Böhme, Wisdom's Children brings us into a startling new world of experiential spirituality that is in fact the Christian equivalent of Sufism and Kabbalism. With biographic introductions to major theosophers and detailed discussions of theosophic authors such as John Pordage, Jane Leade, Dionysius Freher, and Johann Gichtel--as well as a survey of their major theosophic cosmological and metaphysical teachings--this book is an indispensable guide to the hidden history of Protestantism and its ramifications today.
" ‘Wisdom's Children fills a major gap in the history of religion. It sympathetically introduces information and thought about a highly important and much neglected strand of modern Western spiritual philosophy.’ -- Jacob Needleman, San Francisco State University.
“With chapters discussing theosophy in relation to Gnosticism, magic, astrology, alchemy, and other Western esoteric traditions, Wisdom's Children is situated solidly in its historical context using primary works from the tradition itself. The book also provides unexpected insights into how this modern gnostic tradition speaks to us today, and suggests how this tradition could spark a "new Renaissance" to link spirituality, the arts, and the sciences in a new and encompassing vision. Arthur Versluis is Assistant Professor of American Thought and Language at Michigan State University.
Contains: Includes bibliographical references (p. 353-366) and index. Pt. 1. History. 1. Bohme. 2. Johann Georg Gichtel and His Circle. 3. The Visionary Science of Dr. John Pordage. 4. Jane Leade, the Philadelphians, and the Doctrine of Universal Restoration. 5. Dionysius Andreas Freher, Allen Leppington, and William Law. 6. Johannes Kelpius and Pennsylvania Theosophy. 7. Christopher Walton and His Theosophic College -- Pt. 2. The Cycle of Foundational Doctrines. 8. The Divine Nature. 9. The Divine Emanation of Worlds. 10. The Fall of Lucifer, Humanity, and Nature. 11. Spiritual Regeneration. 12. Angelology and Paradise -- Pt. 3. The Art of the Soul's Transmutation. 13. The Science of Imagination. 14. The Eye in the Heart. 15. The Physiology of the Soul. 16. Turning Wrath into Love. 17. Penetrating the Merely Astral -- Pt. 4. Contexts. 18. Theosophy and Gnosticism. 19. Alchemy and Theosophy. 20. Theosophy and Chivalry. 21. Theosophy, Herbal Medicine, Magic, and Astrology -- Pt. 5. Implications. 22. Theosophy and Modern Science. 23. Toward a New Psychology. 24. Hierohistory and Metahistory. 25. Revelation, Authority, and the Apostolic Tradition. Conclusion. Notes. Selected Bibliography.
________, ed. Wisdom's Book: The Sophia Anthology. St Paul: Paragon House, 2000. From the Publisher: “Wisdom's Book: The Sophia Anthology is a remarkable collection of rare texts that reveal what we well may call the Nag Hammadi Library of modern times. For there is a virtually unknown spiritual Sophianic tradition that has developed since the seventeenth century and that still exists today. Non-sectarian, often suppressed, this lay mystical tradition is the Christian equivalent of Sufism in Islam, and of Kabbalah in Judaism.
“Wisdom's Book reveals for the first time in a single volume the texts of this rare tradition, many of which have never before been published. This is the theosophic tradition of Jacob Böhme, and all the main figures of the tradition are represented here, including many never before published. Wisdom's Book is a treasure trove of Western esoteric writings, and will be of great interest to a wide range of readers interested in unveiling and understanding this hitherto hidden tradition of Christian spirituality. Contains: Introduction. I. In Praise of Wisdom: The Book of Wisdom. II. Robert Ayshford: Aurora Sapientae. III. Jacob Böhme: On Virgin Wisdom, Guidance to Holy Sophia. IV. Thomas Bromley: The Way to the Sabbath of Rest, or the Soul’s Progress in the Work of the New Birth (1654). V. John Pordage: A Philosophical Epistle on the True Stone of Wisdom, Sophia: The Graceful Eternal Virgin of Holy Wisdom, or Wonderful Spiritual Discoveries and Revelations That the Precious Wisdom Has Given to a Holy Soul (1675). VI. Gottfried Arnold: The Mystery of Holy Sophia (1700). VII. Johann Georg Gichtel: Theosophia Practica (1722 ed.). VIII. Jane Leade: The Laws of Paradise Given Forth by Wisdom to a Translated Spirit (1695). IX. Anne Bathurst: Journals (1678-1679). X. Friedrich Christoph Œtinger: Wisdom of God (Sophia), The Wisdom Out of God in Man. XI. Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin: Divine Wisdom and Spiritual Ministry (1802). XII. Georg von Welling: Eternal Wisdom (1784). XIII. Johann Jakob Wirz: Testimonies and Revelations of the Spirit Through Jacob Wirz. XIV. Franz von Baader: Letters to Marie Robel, On the Relationship of the Logos to Sophia in God, On a Lasting Spiritual Manifestation Here below (1839). XV. Leopold Ziegler: On the Mothergodhead (1953). XVI. Nicholas Berdyaev: Sophia and the Androgyne (1914).
Zetter, Kim. Simple Kabbalah. Berkeley: Conari Press, 2000.
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