• Symbolic Loss, Memory, and Modernization in the Reception of Gnosticism

    Author(s):
    M. Dillon (see profile)
    Date:
    2019
    Subject(s):
    Gnosticism, Church history--Primitive and early church, Bible, Reader-response criticism, Psychoanalysis
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    Early Christianity, Reception of the Bible, Religious studies
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/qp4s-ty16
    Abstract:
    Social scientist of religion Peter Homans has demonstrated that symbolic loss, cultural memory, and modernization are tightly intertwined. As a consequence of modernization, Western culture has lost a shared relationship to the symbols of its Christian past, leading to religious mourning. This article demonstrates that the category gnosticism opened up an imaginative possibility for individuals to reinterpret the cultural memory of the Christian past and achieve rapprochement with the tradition. The argument proceeds through case studies of psychologist Carl Jung, visionary artist Laurence Caruana, and public speaker Jonathan Talat Phillips. Each case exhibits how symbolic loss of the Christian tradition throws the individual into a period of inner turmoil. When each of them read ancient gnostic texts, they do so to reinterpret the symbols of Christianity, specifically Christ, in ways that respond to forces of modernization. The article concludes that popular and religious interpretations of the ancient gnostics should be recognized as attempts by those who lost Christianity in the West to re-envision its cultural memory and reimagine Christianity in the present.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    https://doi.org/10.1163/2451859X-12340015
    Publisher:
    Brill
    Pub. Date:
    2019-5-28
    Journal:
    Gnosis
    Volume:
    1
    Issue:
    1-2
    Page Range:
    276 - 309
    ISSN:
    2451-8581,2451-859X
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    2 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved

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