Presents a readable and appealing introduction to what otherwise might seem an inaccessible religion of late antiquity.

This book contains a collection of 18 articles written by the author in the last 30 years on methodological, terminological and historical problems concerning the field of his discipline at Leipzig University, namely Religious Studies. Some articles are rewritten, others only revised or complemented. Much influenced at this University in considering the field of Religious Studies as an area based primary on history and philology, independent of theology and philosophy, this work focuses a.o. on terms like Myth, Mythology, Demythologizing, and Syncretism; on subjects like Mohammed, the...

A collection of 40 or so of the author's essays and contributions to the study of Gnosis, the Mandaeans and Manichaeism, published in the course of the past 40 years. Most have been revised for this new edition. Subjects treated include on the one hand source problems (Nag Hammadi, Manichaean finds and texts, Mandaean manuscripts), and on the other hand the situating of the gnostic-cum-Manichaean tradition in the context of late-antique religious history, especially with regard to the early Christian Church and its environment.
Contributions on the history of research set out the issues...

Translated by R. McL. WilsonA full-scale study based on the documents of the Coptic Gnostic library found at Nag Hammadi providing a comprehensive survey of the nature, the teachings, the history and the influence of this religion.