The Jungian Gnosticism of the Ecclesia Gnostica
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsnr.37615Keywords:
Gnosticism, Valentinianism, Jungianism, bricolage, religious innovationAbstract
This article examines the ways in which Stephan Hoeller, head of the Ecclesia Gnostica, has transformed a very diverse set of late antique currents, with doctrines phrased in a mythic language unfamiliar to most moderns and rituals only sketchily documented in the sources, into a form of lived religiosity relevant for contemporary audiences.
References
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----- 1888. The Secret Doctrine. London: Theosophical Publishing Society. http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd-hp.htm
Brakke, David. 2011. The Gnostics: Myth, Ritual, and Diversity in Early Christianity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Broek, Roelof van den. 2006. “Simon Magus.” In Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, edited by Wouter J. Hanegraaff, in collaboration with Antoine Faivre, Roelof van den Broek and Jean-Pierre Brach, 1069–1073. Leiden: Brill.
Burkitt, F. C. 1932. Church and Gnosis: A Study of Christian Thought and Speculation in the Second Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Burns, Dylan M. 2007. “Seeking Ancient Wisdom in the New Age: New Age and Neo-Gnostic Commentaries on the Gospel of Thomas.” In Polemical Encounters: Esoteric Discourse and its Others, edited by Olav Hammer and Kocku von Stuckrad, 253–289. Aries Book Series 6. Leiden: Brill.
----- 2014. Apocalypse of the Alien God: Platonism and the Exile of Sethian Gnosticism. Divinations. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812209228
Clarke, John J. 1997. Oriental Enlightenment: The Encounter between Asian and Western Thought. New York: Routledge.
DeConick, April D. 2008. “Conceiving Spirits: The Mystery of Valentinian Sex.” In Hidden Intercourse: Eros and Sexuality in the History of Western Esotericism, edited by Wouter J. Hanegraaff and Jeffrey J. Kripal, 23–48. Aries Book Series 7. Leiden: Brill.
Ecclesia Gnostica. n.d. “A Gnostic Reading List…”. http://www.gnosis.org/readlist.htm
Ellwood, Robert. 1999. The Politics of Myth: A Study of C. G. Jung, Mircea Eliade, and Joseph Campbell. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Faivre, Antoine. 1994. Access to Western Esotericism. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Grimstad, Kirsten A. 2002. The Modern Revival of Gnosticism and Thomas Mann’s Doktor Faustus. Woodbridge: Camden House.
Hanegraaff, Wouter J. 1992. “A Dynamic Typological Approach to the Problem of ‘Post-Gnostic’ Gnosticism.” Aries 16: 5–43.
----- 2012. Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hankins, James. 2003. Humanism and Platonism in the Italian Renaissance. 2 volumes. Rome: Edizioni di storia e letteratura.
Hoeller, Stephen A. n.d.a. “An Introduction to the Ecclesia Gnostica.” http://www.gnosis.org/ecclesia/ecclesia.htm
----- 1982. The Gnostic Jung and the Seven Sermons to the Dead. Wheaton, IL: Quest.
----- 1989. Jung and the Lost Gospels: Insights into the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Library. Wheaton, IL: Quest.
----- 2002. Gnosticism: New Light on the Ancient Tradition of Inner Knowing. Wheaton, IL: Quest.
----- n.d.b. “Gnostic Scriptures and the Gnostic Church.” http://www.gnosis.org/gnscript.html
Holzhausen, Jens. 2006. “Valentinus and Valentinians.” In Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, edited by Wouter J. Hanegraaff, in collaboration with Antoine Faivre, Roelof van den Broek and Jean-Pierre Brach, 1144–1157. Leiden: Brill.
Huss, Boaz. 2015. “Kabbalah and the Politics of Inauthenticity: The Controversies over the Kabbalah Center.” Numen 62: 197–225. https://doi.org/10.1163/15685276-12341363
Hutton, Ronald. 1999. The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198207443.001.0001
Jung, Carl. G. 2009. The Red Book. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.
----- 1966. The Spirit in Man, Art and Literature. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
King, Charles W. 1887. The Gnostics and their Remains. London: Bell & Daldy.
King, Karen L. 1988. Images of the Feminine in Gnosticism. Studies in Antiquity and Christianity 10. Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International.
----- 2003. What Is Gnosticism? Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Layton, Bentley, ed. 1989. Nag Hammadi Codex II, 2-7. Together with XIII, 2*, Brit. Lib. Or. 4926(1), and P. Oxy. 1, 654, 655. 2 volumes. Nag Hammadi Studies 20. Leiden: Brill.
Lévi-Strauss, Claude. 1966. The Savage Mind. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
Löhr, Winrich A. 2006. “Sethians.” In Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, edited by Wouter J. Hanegraaff, in collaboration with Antoine Faivre, Roelof van den Broek and Jean-Pierre Brach, 1063–1069. Leiden: Brill.
MacRae, George. 1970. “The Jewish Background of the Gnostic Sophia Myth.” Novum Testamentum 12: 86–101. https://doi.org/10.1163/156853670X00171
Maillard, Christine. 2011. Art, sciences et psychologie. Autour du Livre rouge de Carl Gustav Jung (1914–1930). Recherches germaniques, hors serie no. 8. Strasbourg: Université de Strasbourg.
Markschies, Christoph. 2003. Gnosis: An Introduction. London: T&T Clark.
Mead, G. R. S. 1900. Fragments from a Faith Forgotten. London: Theosophical Publishing Society.
Pagels, Elaine. 2014. “Strategies of Esoteric Exegesis.” In Hidden Truths from Eden: Esoteric Readings of Genesis 1–3, edited by Caroline Vander Stichele and Susanne Scholz, 237–245. Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature.
Pearson, Birger. 2007. Ancient Gnosticism: Traditions and Literature. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
----- 2005. “Basilides the Gnostic.” In A Companion to Second-Century Christian “Heretics,” edited by Antti Marjanen and Petri Luomanen, 1–31. Vigiliae Christianae Supplements 76. Leiden: Brill.
Rasimus, Tuomas. 2009. Paradise Reconsidered in Gnostic Mythmaking: Rethinking Sethianism in Light of the Ophite Evidence. Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 68. Leiden: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004173231.i-380
Ribi, Alfred. 2013. The Search for Roots: C. G. Jung and the Tradition of Gnosis. Hollywood, CA: Gnosis Archive.
Schwab, Raymond. 1984. The Oriental Renaissance: Europe’s Rediscovery of India and the East 1680–1880. New York: Columbia University Press.
Segal, Robert. 1992. The Gnostic Jung. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Smith, Richard. 1995. “The Revival of Ancient Gnosis.” In The Allure of Gnosticism, edited by Robert A. Segal, 204–223. Chicago and La Salle: Open Court.
Stuckrad, Kocku von. 2005. Western Esotericism: A Brief History of Secret Knowledge. Sheffield: Equinox.
Thomassen, Einar. 2008. The Spiritual Seed: The Church of the “Valentinians.” Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 60. Leiden: Brill.
Thoth, Ladislaus. 2006. “Gnostic Church.” In Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, edited by Wouter J. Hanegraaff, in collaboration with Antoine Faivre, Roelof van den Broek and Jean-Pierre Brach, 400–403. Leiden: Brill.
Turner, John D. 2000. “Ritual in Gnosticism.” In Gnosticism and Later Platonism, edited by John D. Turner and Ruth Majercik, 83–139. Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature.
Waldstein, Michael and Frederik Wisse, eds. and trans. 1995. The Apocryphon of John: Synopsis of Nag Hammadi Codices II,1;III,1; and IV,1 with BG 8502,2. Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 33. Leiden: Brill.
Williams, Michael A. 1996. Rethinking “Gnosticism”: An Argument for Dismantling a Dubious Category. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Yates, Frances. 1964. Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Znamenski, Andrei A. 2007. The Beauty of the Primitive: Shamanism and Western Imagination. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195172317.001.0001
----- 1888. The Secret Doctrine. London: Theosophical Publishing Society. http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd-hp.htm
Brakke, David. 2011. The Gnostics: Myth, Ritual, and Diversity in Early Christianity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Broek, Roelof van den. 2006. “Simon Magus.” In Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, edited by Wouter J. Hanegraaff, in collaboration with Antoine Faivre, Roelof van den Broek and Jean-Pierre Brach, 1069–1073. Leiden: Brill.
Burkitt, F. C. 1932. Church and Gnosis: A Study of Christian Thought and Speculation in the Second Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Burns, Dylan M. 2007. “Seeking Ancient Wisdom in the New Age: New Age and Neo-Gnostic Commentaries on the Gospel of Thomas.” In Polemical Encounters: Esoteric Discourse and its Others, edited by Olav Hammer and Kocku von Stuckrad, 253–289. Aries Book Series 6. Leiden: Brill.
----- 2014. Apocalypse of the Alien God: Platonism and the Exile of Sethian Gnosticism. Divinations. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812209228
Clarke, John J. 1997. Oriental Enlightenment: The Encounter between Asian and Western Thought. New York: Routledge.
DeConick, April D. 2008. “Conceiving Spirits: The Mystery of Valentinian Sex.” In Hidden Intercourse: Eros and Sexuality in the History of Western Esotericism, edited by Wouter J. Hanegraaff and Jeffrey J. Kripal, 23–48. Aries Book Series 7. Leiden: Brill.
Ecclesia Gnostica. n.d. “A Gnostic Reading List…”. http://www.gnosis.org/readlist.htm
Ellwood, Robert. 1999. The Politics of Myth: A Study of C. G. Jung, Mircea Eliade, and Joseph Campbell. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Faivre, Antoine. 1994. Access to Western Esotericism. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Grimstad, Kirsten A. 2002. The Modern Revival of Gnosticism and Thomas Mann’s Doktor Faustus. Woodbridge: Camden House.
Hanegraaff, Wouter J. 1992. “A Dynamic Typological Approach to the Problem of ‘Post-Gnostic’ Gnosticism.” Aries 16: 5–43.
----- 2012. Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hankins, James. 2003. Humanism and Platonism in the Italian Renaissance. 2 volumes. Rome: Edizioni di storia e letteratura.
Hoeller, Stephen A. n.d.a. “An Introduction to the Ecclesia Gnostica.” http://www.gnosis.org/ecclesia/ecclesia.htm
----- 1982. The Gnostic Jung and the Seven Sermons to the Dead. Wheaton, IL: Quest.
----- 1989. Jung and the Lost Gospels: Insights into the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Library. Wheaton, IL: Quest.
----- 2002. Gnosticism: New Light on the Ancient Tradition of Inner Knowing. Wheaton, IL: Quest.
----- n.d.b. “Gnostic Scriptures and the Gnostic Church.” http://www.gnosis.org/gnscript.html
Holzhausen, Jens. 2006. “Valentinus and Valentinians.” In Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, edited by Wouter J. Hanegraaff, in collaboration with Antoine Faivre, Roelof van den Broek and Jean-Pierre Brach, 1144–1157. Leiden: Brill.
Huss, Boaz. 2015. “Kabbalah and the Politics of Inauthenticity: The Controversies over the Kabbalah Center.” Numen 62: 197–225. https://doi.org/10.1163/15685276-12341363
Hutton, Ronald. 1999. The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198207443.001.0001
Jung, Carl. G. 2009. The Red Book. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.
----- 1966. The Spirit in Man, Art and Literature. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
King, Charles W. 1887. The Gnostics and their Remains. London: Bell & Daldy.
King, Karen L. 1988. Images of the Feminine in Gnosticism. Studies in Antiquity and Christianity 10. Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International.
----- 2003. What Is Gnosticism? Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Layton, Bentley, ed. 1989. Nag Hammadi Codex II, 2-7. Together with XIII, 2*, Brit. Lib. Or. 4926(1), and P. Oxy. 1, 654, 655. 2 volumes. Nag Hammadi Studies 20. Leiden: Brill.
Lévi-Strauss, Claude. 1966. The Savage Mind. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
Löhr, Winrich A. 2006. “Sethians.” In Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, edited by Wouter J. Hanegraaff, in collaboration with Antoine Faivre, Roelof van den Broek and Jean-Pierre Brach, 1063–1069. Leiden: Brill.
MacRae, George. 1970. “The Jewish Background of the Gnostic Sophia Myth.” Novum Testamentum 12: 86–101. https://doi.org/10.1163/156853670X00171
Maillard, Christine. 2011. Art, sciences et psychologie. Autour du Livre rouge de Carl Gustav Jung (1914–1930). Recherches germaniques, hors serie no. 8. Strasbourg: Université de Strasbourg.
Markschies, Christoph. 2003. Gnosis: An Introduction. London: T&T Clark.
Mead, G. R. S. 1900. Fragments from a Faith Forgotten. London: Theosophical Publishing Society.
Pagels, Elaine. 2014. “Strategies of Esoteric Exegesis.” In Hidden Truths from Eden: Esoteric Readings of Genesis 1–3, edited by Caroline Vander Stichele and Susanne Scholz, 237–245. Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature.
Pearson, Birger. 2007. Ancient Gnosticism: Traditions and Literature. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
----- 2005. “Basilides the Gnostic.” In A Companion to Second-Century Christian “Heretics,” edited by Antti Marjanen and Petri Luomanen, 1–31. Vigiliae Christianae Supplements 76. Leiden: Brill.
Rasimus, Tuomas. 2009. Paradise Reconsidered in Gnostic Mythmaking: Rethinking Sethianism in Light of the Ophite Evidence. Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 68. Leiden: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004173231.i-380
Ribi, Alfred. 2013. The Search for Roots: C. G. Jung and the Tradition of Gnosis. Hollywood, CA: Gnosis Archive.
Schwab, Raymond. 1984. The Oriental Renaissance: Europe’s Rediscovery of India and the East 1680–1880. New York: Columbia University Press.
Segal, Robert. 1992. The Gnostic Jung. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Smith, Richard. 1995. “The Revival of Ancient Gnosis.” In The Allure of Gnosticism, edited by Robert A. Segal, 204–223. Chicago and La Salle: Open Court.
Stuckrad, Kocku von. 2005. Western Esotericism: A Brief History of Secret Knowledge. Sheffield: Equinox.
Thomassen, Einar. 2008. The Spiritual Seed: The Church of the “Valentinians.” Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 60. Leiden: Brill.
Thoth, Ladislaus. 2006. “Gnostic Church.” In Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, edited by Wouter J. Hanegraaff, in collaboration with Antoine Faivre, Roelof van den Broek and Jean-Pierre Brach, 400–403. Leiden: Brill.
Turner, John D. 2000. “Ritual in Gnosticism.” In Gnosticism and Later Platonism, edited by John D. Turner and Ruth Majercik, 83–139. Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature.
Waldstein, Michael and Frederik Wisse, eds. and trans. 1995. The Apocryphon of John: Synopsis of Nag Hammadi Codices II,1;III,1; and IV,1 with BG 8502,2. Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 33. Leiden: Brill.
Williams, Michael A. 1996. Rethinking “Gnosticism”: An Argument for Dismantling a Dubious Category. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Yates, Frances. 1964. Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Znamenski, Andrei A. 2007. The Beauty of the Primitive: Shamanism and Western Imagination. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195172317.001.0001
Published
2018-12-07
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Hammer, O. (2018). The Jungian Gnosticism of the Ecclesia Gnostica. International Journal for the Study of New Religions, 9(1), 33-56. https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsnr.37615
