The Gnostic New Age: How a Countercultural Spirituality Revolutionized Religion from Antiquity to Today by April D. DeConick

Abstract

GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUSThe Gnostic New Age: How Countercultural Spirituality Revolutionized Religion from Antiquity to Today. By April D. DeConick. (New York: Columbia University Press. 2016. Pp. xii, 380. $35.00. ISBN 978-0-231-17076-5; $34.99 ebook ISBN 978-0-231-54204-3.)In The Gnostic New Age April DeConick offers interpretation of Gnosticism as distinctive that has manifested itself in numerous incarnations from antiquity to modern age. The book's eleven chapters include discussions of many specific historical figures, texts, or movements- e.g., Greco-Egyptian Hermetic literature; so-called Sethian sources; Simon Magus; Naassenes; Ophians; Peratics; Justin the Gnostic; Valentinus and Valentinians; Manichaeans; Jeuians (from Books of Jeu) and Pistis Sophia; and Mandaeans. Each of these has been classified as by at least some scholars. DeConick's definition of gnosticism is surely among most expansive, embracing not only some of more familiar candidates mentioned above but others from Shirley MacLaine and modern New Agers, to Paul Apostle and Gospel of John. She considers gnosticism to be not single social movement or religion but rather an innovative religious identity that emerged in first century CE when number of religious people began to claim that they possessed new kind of knowledge (p. 9).DeConick avers that gnosticism is a form of spirituality that in ancient memory was associated with five ideal characteristics (pp. 11-12): (1) direct experiential knowledge (gnosis) of transcendent God; (2) unity with this God experienced in ecstatic states; (3) an innate nature in humans guaranteeing survival of self after death, but also enabling restoration of psychological and physical wellness in this life; (4) countercultural transgressive talk that set Gnostics at odds with conventional religions; and (5) incorporation into their religious discussions [of] everything but kitchen sink (Homer, Plato, magic, astrology, ancient brain science, fantastic cosmologies), but with location of spiritual authority in individual's soul or spirit.DeConick is learned scholar with extensive knowledge of ancient and lateancient traditions and experience in analyzing them. Her format, aimed at general readers, is not burdened with footnotes or constant citation of ancient or modern sources, even though specialists might be aware of DeConick's more meticulous arguments elsewhere in articles and monographic research. She certainly provides nonspecialists with much information about groups and writings that she counts as gnostic spirituality. Also, distinctive feature is that each chapter discussing those examples is framed with comparison to motion picture or television series (The Matrix, The Truman Show, Man of Steel, Star Trek, etc.). Others have drawn similar comparisons, but DeConick puts hers to maximal use. If analogies with ancient materials are sometimes strained, device does serve as effective attention-getter. DeConick's style is accessible and employs jargon intended to connect with her audience-e. …