Lost and Found

[xephyr]

I picked up Needleman's book Lost Christianity about a week ago, and I'm just about finished with it now. I had a strong feeling of having gone full circle, without any remaining desire to either consider myself 'Christian' or to style myself thusly.

Comments

Blasphemy

[abrasax]

Looks like you're well on your way to a balanced understanding of Gnostic Christianity. Might I recommend "The Jesus Mysteries" for your next book. They discuss the ecoteric significance of the crucifixion, descent, and resurrection in detail. They also discuss this in relation to the neo-platonic eidelon/daimon dichotomy.

Elaine Pagels is another good, accessible author with a lot of good infoormation on this subject. "The Gnostic Paul" reinforces much of this material as well.

Both these authors present a completely metaphorical interpretation of scripture, which I find to be a much more reasonable, logical, and valuable than the literalist drivel.

Beyond that, you can find parallels between the gospels and Crowley as well. Particularly in his treatment of the INRI and IAO formulas.

Re: Blasphemy

[xephyr]

Thanks for the pointers. I like Pagels' stuff a lot, and I'd like to find a reason to appreciate Paul. I'd probably want to scan Jesus Mysteries to make sure I hadn't seen most of the material in other places. Like I said, this was like completing a circle, so all the historic and esoteric, gnostic and heretical reading I've done came together with something I had long regarded as an unknown, making the connections so apparent.

One of the best parts of the book are where this "Father Sylvan" is quoted, because he sounds so much like Crowley in many places that it's kind of disturbing. I made quite a number of mental cross-references between Crowley's work and what this "Father Sylvan" had to say. It's not what I would have expected, but strangely satisfying: as if to say that I know now where I've been and I can see how to move forward.