This series of interconnected studies in the ritual
practice of the groups associated with the early
Christian movement which are now usually now described
as 'Gnostic', is a modest essay towards a survey of
the subject, last undertaken by Bousset in 1907 and
Fendt in 1922.
Of the three main groups of sects which became
distinguishable during the investigation, these studies
are concerned with two:- those here designated 'Cults
of Power', and those showing signs of having their
origin in the separation of church from synagogue.
A consideration of the third group, here entitled 'The
Gentile Counter-Churches', is omitted, to keep this
dissertation within manageable compass; it would have
been comparatively brief, because of the paucity of
evidence. At the outset, it had been expected that
general characterizations would be possible. However,
the repeated discovery that the expectation of unifying
characteristics, or even of some sort of underlying
unitive rite, was not substantiated hy the material,each
detectable ritual association on its own, with
the minimum recourse to evidence from other contexts,
except to note the clearest parallels and probable
borrowings.
Chapter One lists the questions asked; surveys the
present literature and the sources (both patristic
and sectarian); lists and classifies the sects to be
examined; and discusses method.
Chapter Two examines the 'Cults of Power', after
a definition of that term and a characterization of
such cults, past and present. The topics are:- Simon
Magus; Menander; Satornil; Cerdo; the Carpocratians;
Marcus and the Marcosiansj and Elchasai. In the course
of this chapter, in connection with Marcus, a major
suggestion is made as to the original order of
Adversus Haereses I, which affects all presentations
of Valentinian liturgy, and hence of all 'Gnostic'
worship in general.
Chapter Three argues liturgical
continuity, combinin baptismal devotion with 'Ascentof-
the-Soul' Ri aI, can be traced through the users
of the Gosp of Thomas, the Peratae, the Naassenes/Chapter Three argues that a degree of liturgical
continuity, combining a baptismal devotion with
'Ascent '-ritual, can be traced through the users of
the Gospel of Thomas, the Peratae, the Naassenes/Ophites,
Justin the Gnostic and the 'Phibionites' of Epiphanius,
and certain Jewish-Christians who claimed a 'James'-
tradition. (Apparently cognate groups, the users of
pokryphon of John and of the Petrine apocrypha
from Nag Hammadi, offer insufficient liturgical data
to be incorporated here). It is argued that this complex
of sects derives from the chaos of the separation of
Christianity from Judaism.