Gnostic Return in Modernity by C. O'Regan

Gnostic Return in Modernity by C. O'Regan

Gnostic Return in Modernity demonstrates the possibility that Gnosticism haunts certain modern discourses. Studying Gnosticism of the first centuries of the common era and utilizing narrative analysis, the author shows how Gnosticism returns in a select band of narrative discourses that extends from the seventeenth century German mystic Jacob Boehme through Hegel and Blake down into the contemporary period. The key concept is that of narrative grammar. Unlike the hypothesis of an invariant narrative, a Gnostic narrative grammar allows room for the differences between modern and ancient forms of Gnosticism, and respects the dignity of both periods.

"This volume is an auspicious beginning to one of the most ambitious projects in contemporary scholarship. It is nothing less than mapping the Gnostic and, of necessity, esoteric genealogy of the intellectual giants of the modern world. Many have given us portions of this grand narrative; O'Regan promises to provide us with as complete an account as scholarship currently makes possible." - David Walsh

Details: 

• Paperback
• Very good
• ISBN: 97807910222
• Publishing House: State University of New York Press, 2001