Gnosticism

[Miss Modular]

Does anyone know any good books on Gnosticism? I'm curious to read up on it, particularly on Egyptian and Italian/Roman gnosticism.

[Sethomas]

The most useful resource I've had in discussing gnosticism has been The Catholic Encyclopedia, available online at http://www.newadvent.org. I think the article on "Apocrypha" had some interesting gnostic works discussed.

[Miss Modular]

Thank you, sir. :)

[theapportioner]

There is an article on a new book by Elaine Pagels in the NY Times today. You should be interested.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/15/books/review/15KERMODT.html

[theapportioner]

Has anyone else noticed a spike in interest in stuff like the gnostic gospels, the Templars, etc.? The new fad, I guess.

[Sethomas]

One of my scout leaders was a Mason who eats all this shit up. I think it's just come full circle, like a certain crowd was in love with an image of history that exaggerates certain occult entities. So now they've found a somewhat mystic chapter of history and are all over it. I think the Cathars have a special appeal to the developing character of Protestant Generation Y, being an example of the faithful opposing the norm. That being said, the Templars are simply badass and serve as one of the most romantic true stories in history, so I'm really quite surprised that they haven't really been capitalized upon in the more mainstream media.

[Miss Modular]

My own interest in Gnosticism comes out of reading about a "scholar" (and I use that term loosely) I once admired whose analysis of Gnosticism was supposedly off the mark. So I'd like to see for myself how off the mark this particular scholar is.