Images of the Feminine in Gnosticism

by Karen L. King (Editor)

In this groundbreaking collection of essays, King and other contributors engage in a systematic study of issues of gender in Gnosticism. Using a variety of critical methods, the writers ask questions such What is the relationship of gendered images to the real lives of women and men? Did ascetic or libertine practices offer an attractive alternative to women in a patriarchal society? Are the images of strong, female goddesses, saviors, and heroines an indication Gnosticism would have been attractive to women? Is it plausible that women in some gnostic groups were authors, teachers, and leaders? Is it possible that some of the Gnostic texts we possess were written by women? What parts did women play in ritual? Did asceticism or libertinism have a different set of social functions for women than for men? These lucid essays offer significant insights into the cultural context and religious practices of Gnosticism.

Genres: Feminism, Gnosticism, Religion

480 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1988

Reviews

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a collection of several really fascinating articles with critical responses from other scholars. Definitely a book for specialists, though if one has a fair degree of intellectual endurance and persistence it would actually make a decent introduction to the field of gender-critical approaches to Gnostic studies. It is certainly FAR more nuanced than any of the pop-gnosticism popularized by today's anti-institutional and anti-traditional sentiments. Edited by Karen King, a world class Harvard prof. and leading expert on second century Christianities typically labeled gnostic, this is a volume which remains useful even decades after its composition.

I read this for my ThM thesis on Irenaeus' theology of the Holy Spirit, whom he identifies as Sophia (like some of the Christianities labeled as Gnostic) - Wisdom. Sophia-Wisdom is quite overtly a divine maternal figure in Valentinian (Gnostic Christian) mythology; Irenaeus takes their mythology to be an insult to Sophia not for her gender but because they make her the mother of the material creation and, because they have a negative view of material creation, their mythology includes a 'fall' for Sophia. During her passion, her sin (which is essentially an adulterous act in which she audaciously births the created order apart from her male divine consort), she becomes the mother of our world, but this is a bad thing in Valentinian myth as understood by Irenaeus. Irenaeus, in contrast, identifies Sophia with the Holy Spirit and positions the created order as a rather positive thing that is consistent with God's creative will. There are hints that he thinks of Sophia as a maternal figure, but he never says it as overtly as the Valentinians.

This negative view of Sophia may be an incorrect interpretation of Valentinian myth on Irenaeus' part, though. At least one of the articles in this book directly challenges it, arguing on the basis of structural similarities with older Classical Greek mythologies that the Valentinian myth is actually designed to depict Sophia as a Greek goddess figure. Still, both Irenaeus and the Gnostic systems are highly androcentric (as we'd expect, given the time period).

Anyhow, excellent and fascinating book - a lot of really top notch scholars in here on a fascinating and oft-misunderstood subject.