Guy StroumsaReseñas

Geïnteresseerde lezers zullen nadenken over de provocerende suggesties en beweringen in deze uitgebreide agenda. Stroumsa geeft over het algemeen een overtuigende uiteenzetting van zijn basisstelling dat esoterie – in de zin van een beperkende, persoonlijke mondelinge uiteenzetting van geschreven geschriften die van leraar op leerling wordt doorgegeven – wel degelijk een aantoonbare rol speelt in de vroegste lagen van de christelijke literatuur: het concept zelf van een "apostolische opvolging" en de sociale betekenis van laatstgenoemde bij de vorming van vroege christelijke gemeenschappen, zouden anders zinloos zijn. Dergelijke leringen ondersteunen waarschijnlijk de productie van de vele overgebleven apocriefe evangeliën, handelingen en apocalypsen. Eenmaal geschreven, vergroten en versterken ze op hun beurt de autoriteit van de groep die ze bezit, terwijl ze tegelijkertijd de groei van nieuwe mondelinge tradities voor zelfverheldering stimuleren. Maar ik ben het niet eens met Stroumsa wat betreft een veronderstelde verstarring van interpretatietradities in 'gnostische mythe'. De exegetische tradities zijn er zeker, opnieuw gemythologiseerd, maar ze worden nu op hun beurt het brandpunt van verklarende aandacht van volgende generaties handelaars. Men hoeft alleen maar te wijzen op het groeiende bewijs voor de voortdurende vitaliteit van gnostische mythemen binnen de op de bijbel gebaseerde religies lang na de veronderstelde teloorgang van het zogenaamde klassieke gnosticisme; zo'n lange levensduur lijkt het bestaan ​​van een levende (esoterische) interpretatietraditie te vereisen.

In this collection, Guy Strousma briefly exponds on five aspects of the great spiritual metamorphosis of Late Antiquity: 1) the increasing interiority of spiritual practice; 2) the rise of the written word as a vessel of religious meaning as embodied in the invention of the codex; 3) the transformation of sacrifice from a replicated public rite to a single event manifested in the purity of the sage or in person of Christ; 4) the change from civic-based to community-based worship; and 5) the role of the teacher from the paid, indifferent, and elitist philosopher to the unpaid, impassioned, and accessible saint (he notes that both pagan and Christian priests are more concerned with rites than with people).

What's fascinating here for a student of the era is the emphasis on Judaism as a precursor to these changes due to the radical alterations imposed by the destruction of the Second Temple, the suggestion that paganism had already evolved into a monotheistic faith prior to the rise of Christianity, and the idea that transformation happened within individuals as often as it did across individuals. With respect to sacrifice, Strousma shows that it had largely died out within pagan culture before the establishment of Christianity under Constantine. This is part of his broader critique, which is based on transformations arising internally in paganism, Judaism, and Christianity.

This book, based on a series of lectures, is more evocative than demonstrative. It confirms the incredible richness of thought that arose in the eastern Mediterranean during this tumultuous era.

This volume, which its author admits to lack "conclusive results," doesn't overcome its origin as a collection of disparate papers and lectures on a common theme. All of the details are interesting, and often deeply considered, but there seems to be a shortage of overarching argument. At some points the book is strangely at odds with itself, most conspicuously when declaring that the "inner logic of Christian soteriology was fundamentally anti-esoteric," (133) while adducing in chapter after chapter persuasive evidence for esoteric mechanisms and doctrines in the earliest strata of Christianity.

Strousma looks at various cultural formations of late antiquity that could have been tied to (and in any case help to illuminate) the esoteric dimensions of early Christianity. Among these are Neoplatonist hermeneutics, Gnostic mythopoesis, Manicheanism, and esoteric Judaism. Strousma is especially insistent on the last of these, perhaps in (over-?) reaction to what he views as a neglect in the secular "history of religions" discipline, where the emphasis has been on Hellenistic pagan mystery cults. When he writes, "It is hard to believe in a Valentinian influence on Jewish circles," (198) my reaction is: why? Strousma himself very correctly demonstrates that "Judaism and Christianity in the second century can be perceived as sister religions, rather than standing in a filial relationship." (89)

The final chapter, new in the 2005 edition, is on "Judeo-Christian and Gnostic 'Theologies of the Name'." It should be of special interest to both ceremonial magicians and esoteric Freemasons.