Dylan M. Burns's Books

Apocalypse of the Alien God

Platonism and the Exile of Sethian Gnosticism

By: Dylan M. Burns

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Apocalypse of the Alien God

Platonism and the Exile of Sethian Gnosticism

By: Dylan M. Burns

In the second century, Platonist and Judeo-Christian thought were sufficiently friendly that a Greek philosopher could declare, "What is Plato but Moses speaking Greek?" Four hundred years later, a Christian emperor had ended the public teaching of subversive Platonic thought. When and how did this philosophical rupture occur? Dylan M. Burns argues that the fundamental break occurred in Rome, ca. 263, in the circle of the great mystic Plotinus, author of the Enneads. Groups of controversial Christian metaphysicians called Gnostics ("knowers") frequented his seminars, disputed his views, and then disappeared from the history of philosophy—until the 1945 discovery, at Nag Hammadi, Egypt, of codices containing Gnostic literature, including versions of the books circulated by Plotinus's Christian opponents. Blending state-of-the-art Greek metaphysics and ecstatic Jewish mysticism, these texts describe techniques for entering celestial realms, participating in the angelic liturgy, confronting the transcendent God, and even becoming a divine being oneself. They also describe the revelation of an alien God to his elect, a race of "foreigners" under the protection of the patriarch Seth, whose interventions will ultimately culminate in the end of the world. Apocalypse of the Alien God proposes a radical interpretation of these long-lost apocalypses, placing them firmly in the context of Judeo-Christian authorship rather than ascribing them to a pagan offshoot of Gnosticism. According to Burns, this Sethian literature emerged along the fault lines between Judaism and Christianity, drew on traditions known to scholars from the Dead Sea Scrolls and Enochic texts, and ultimately catalyzed the rivalry of Platonism with Christianity. Plunging the reader into the culture wars and classrooms of the high Empire, Apocalypse of the Alien God offers the most concrete social and historical description available of any group of Gnostic Christians as it explores the intersections of ancient Judaism, Christianity, Hellenism, myth, and philosophy.

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341

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University of Pennsylvania Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0812245792

ISBN 13

9780812245790

Did God Care?

Providence, Dualism, and Will in Later Greek and Early Christian Philosophy

By: Dylan M. Burns

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Did God Care?

Providence, Dualism, and Will in Later Greek and Early Christian Philosophy

By: Dylan M. Burns

In Did God Care? Dylan Burns offers the first comprehensive survey of providence (pronoia) in ancient philosophy, from Plato to Plotinus, that takes into full account the importance and innovations of early Christian thinkers, including Coptic Gnostic and Syriac sources.

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419

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BRILL

Published Date

ISBN 10

900443299X

ISBN 13

9789004432994

Apocalypse of the Alien God

Platonism and the Exile of Sethian Gnosticism

By: Dylan M. Burns

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Apocalypse of the Alien God

Platonism and the Exile of Sethian Gnosticism

By: Dylan M. Burns

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Page Count

341

Publisher

University of Pennsylvania Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0812245792

ISBN 13

9780812245790

Did God Care?

Providence, Dualism, and Will in Later Greek and Early Christian Philosophy

By: Dylan M. Burns

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Did God Care?

Providence, Dualism, and Will in Later Greek and Early Christian Philosophy

By: Dylan M. Burns

Is God involved? Why do bad things happen to good people? What is up to us? These questions were explored in Mediterranean antiquity with reference to 'providence' (pronoia). In Did God Care? Dylan Burns offers the first comprehensive survey of providence in ancient philosophy that brings together the most important Greek, Latin, Coptic, and Syriac sources, from Plato to Plotinus and the Gnostics. Burns demonstrates how the philosophical problems encompassed by providence transformed in the first centuries CE, yielding influential notions about divine care, evil, creation, omniscience, fate, and free will that remain with us today. These transformations were not independent developments of 'Pagan philosophy' and 'Christian theology,' but include fruits of mutually influential engagement between Hellenic and Christian philosophers"--

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Page Count

397

Publisher

Studies in Platonism, Neoplato

Published Date

ISBN 10

9004432973

ISBN 13

9789004432970

Book's by Dylan M. Burns

Apocalypse of the Alien God

Apocalypse of the Alien God

Did God Care?

Did God Care?

Apocalypse of the Alien God

Apocalypse of the Alien God

Did God Care?

Did God Care?

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