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Gnostic Truth and Christian Heresy: A Study in the History of Gnosticism

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Sep 1998 by Kelhoffer, James A

Gnostic Truth and Christian Heresy: A Study in the History of Gnosticism. By Alastair H. B. Logan. Peabody: Hendrickson, 1996, xxiv + 373 pp., $29.95.

Logan offers a study of gnostic texts commonly referred to as "Sethian" to reverse the current consensus on gnosticism's origin and development. Against scholars like G. W. MacRae, B. A. Pearson, Pheme Perkins, Kurt Randolph, J. M. Robinson, H.-M. Schenke and Gedaliahu Stroumsa, he argues that "Sethian Gnosticism" is "basically a Christian phenomenon" and represents a discrete system of thinking that can and should be understood apart from Judaism. Many scholars have concluded that the Sethian texts have pre-Christian roots in Judaism since they build on traditions of Seth in Genesis (cf. 4:25-26).

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Logan's approach relies heavily upon and seeks to revise one section of Simone Petrement's controversial book, Le Dieu separe (1984; ET: A Separate God: The Christian Origins of Gnosticism, 1990). Among other things, Petrement argues that the testimonies of Irenaeus and the Apocryphon of James point not to an early, seminal form of gnosticism but rather to the later, more developed Valentinians. Accordingly, Logan has no use for distinctions like pre- and post-Christian or proto- and "full-blown" gnosticism. Building on the premise that Irenaeus and the Apocryphon point to later forms of gnosticism (Petrement) and extending the study of ritual in gnostic circles (J.-M. Servin, Le dossier baptismal Sethien, 1986), Logan identifies "a central core of ideas" in the Sethian texts "based on and concretely expressed in the rite of initiations as a projection of Gnostic experience."

The author begins with the argument that the gnostics constructed "their own myth of origins in reaction to contemporary Jewish persecution, a myth which in its several variants was influenced by Johannine and Valentinian ideas and then underwent a 'Sethian' reinterpretation, largely in response to 'orthodox' Christian criticism" (p. xx). The second chapter studies the character of this myth, traces its series of redactions and analyzes its relationship "to a whole series of Gnostic texts and systems from the late first to the late third century CE" (p. xxi). The remaining six chapters support the above points through a detailed analysis of theogony, cosmogony, anthropogony, anthropology, soteriology and eschatology in the primary sources. An appendix discusses "the etymologies of Barbelo, the illuminators and Adamas." The author includes a bibliography and indices of names and ancient sources but no summary or conclusion.

The following comments address the author's arguments concerning gnostic origins and development. With regard to the former, Logan tries to answer one question (gnostic origins) with another (whether gnosticism of a later date can be traced directly to Judaism). He seems to think that because the Sethian myth reflects views distinct from Judaism, gnosticism could have only arisen in reaction to Christianity. Identifying a distinct mode of thought at one point in gnostic history (and, according to Logan, this is late), however, says nothing to the question of the possible borrowing of Jewish ideas in an earlier, less developed period. The various Christian influences are, of course, important, but here too caution is in order. Making comparisons can be a more complicated task than the author seems willing to admit.

Logan's explanation of how gnostic thought developed over time also rests on two dubious points. (1) A weak argument (pp. 1-13) supports the thesis that Irenaeus offered a rather complete and unbiased account of gnostic sects and the "Christian Gnostic myth of F?ather, Mother and Son" as known to him around AD 180. (2) Against Petrement's claim that Irenaeus knew the Apocryphon, Logan argues that the type of gnosticism described in Adu. haer. 1.29 "underwent progressive development including 'Sethianization', until it emerged in the latest form of the Apocryphon, the long recension" (p. xx). This rather complex theory of development in four stages (cf. the elaborate diagram, p. 55) from the group(s) described by the hostile Irenaeus to the more detailed Apocryphon of James lacks substantial confirmation in the primary sources.

As a study of a certain myth and its relation to ritual, Gnostic Truth and Christian Heresy will interest some specialists and probably be acquired by larger theological libraries. Logan's other theses should be read with care and compared with the studies of the scholars mentioned above. In light of the fact that Michael Allen Williams has recently argued that no ancient self-definition supports the modernist construct "gnosticism" (Rethinking "Gnosticism": An Argument for Dismantling a Dubious Category, 1996), debates over classifying and interpreting these sources will undoubtedly continue for some time.

James A. Kelhoffer The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL

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Gnostic Truth and Christian Heresy: A Study in the History of Gnosticism

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Sep 1998 by Kelhoffer, James A

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