Pre-Print: Esoteric Knowledge in Ancient Sciences
The Max Planck Institute has made available a pre-print for what looks to be an absolutely amazing volume: Markham J. Geller and Klaus Geus, edd. Esoteric Knowledge in Antiquity (TOPOI […]
forthcoming book: Alexandria
A large collection of what appear to be lovely papers on ancient Alexandria, and its relationship to ancient Judaism and Christianity, is due to be published in January of 2021. […]
EASR 2021: Resilient Religion
The website for the 2021 conference, in Pisa, Italy, of the European Association for the Study of Religion (EASR) has been launched. It is full of important information regarding the […]
New edition of Aristoxenus from Carl Huffman
Lovers of the Pythagoreans — the actual followers of the historical Pythagoras, or those following those followers — will be excited to see that Carl Huffman, who has done us […]
Two new books on providence and fate: Burns, Did God Care?; Brouwer and Vermicati (eds.), Fate, Providence and Free Will
The end of summer has brought us not one but two new titles dealing with providence, fate, and free will in Roman philosophical and religious literature of the first centuries […]
initial impressions of Ariel Sabar’s Veritas: a Harvard Professor, a Con Man, and the Gospel of Jesus’s Wife
Followers of this website (and contemporary media on ancient Christianity in general) may be familiar with the fiasco of the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife that transpired ca. 2012-2016. (See here.) […]
new book: Proclus and the Chaldean Oracles
I’m excited to see that Nicola Spanu‘s new book on the great Neoplatonist Proclus ‘the Successor’ and theurgy will be published in August 2020, by Routledge. Surely one that will […]
new book: Valentinian Christianity
I’ve been waiting for this one for a long time – a new reader of Valentinian sources, with Greek and Coptic facing new English translations, by Geoffrey S. Smith of […]
new book: Gardner, The Founder of Manichaeism
Iain Gardner, one of the world’s foremost experts on Manichaeism, has recently published with Cambridge a biography of the prophet of light himself, Mani. Here is the description from the […]
Sinatti on Neoplatonic Demons and Angels
A new book on demons and angels in Neoplatonism has just been reviewed in BMCR by Cesare Sinatti – you can read the review here. The book is: Luc Brisson, […]
What is Coptic magic?
‘The Coptic Magical Papyri: Vernacular Religion in Late Roman and Early Islamic Egypt is a five-year research project (2018-2023) based at the Chair of Egyptology of the Julius Maximilian University […]
Dillon on Banner, Philosophic Silence and the ‘One’ in Plotinus
Courtesy of BMCR: Nicholas Banner, Philosophic Silence and the ‘One’ in Plotinus. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018. Pp. ix, 299. ISBN 9781107154629. £75.00. Reviewed by John Dillon, Trinity […]
Zellmann-Rohrer on Faraone, The Transformation of Greek Amulets
Michael Zellmann-Rohrer (Oxford University) has just published a review at BMCR of a Christopher Faraone, The Transformation of Greek Amulets in Roman Imperial Times. Empire and after (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania […]
Daglish on Mastrocinque, the mysteries of Mithras
Attilio Mastrocinque’s work is nothing if not distinctive. His From Jewish Magic to Gnosticism is one of those books that comes at the old problems from a very different perspective. […]
New book: The Tradition of Hermes Trismegistus
An up-to-date study of the ancient Hermetica in their Egyptian context with attention to Egyptian, Greek, and Gnostic sources alike – a sort of sequel to Mahé’s Hermès en Haute-Égypte – […]
CFP: Charms, Charmers, and Charming
Conference: Charms, Charmers, and Charming When: May 22 – 24, 2019 Where: University of Chieti-Pescara (Italy) Deadline for abstracts: December 1, 2018 From the organizers: The Department of Lingue, Letterature […]
Hermetica II: The Excerpts of Stobaeus, Papyrus Fragments, and Ancient Testimonies in an English Translation with Notes and Introduction
Since the ’90s, the standard English translation of the Corpus Hermeticum has been Copenhaver’s Hermetica. It remains a very useful tool, but one way in which it is inferior to […]
God’s Library and Variant Readings
Brent Nongbri’s work will be familiar to many followers of this website, principally his terrific book Before Religion, a wonderful critique of the usage of the category ‘religion’ in the […]
Digital Syriac Corpus
Via PaleoJudaica (in turn reblogging AWOL): The Digital Syriac Corpus has been around for some time, and is starting to have a significant corpus of digitized Syriac texts available for […]
CFP: ESSWE7 Western Esotericism and Consciousness
ESSWE7: Western Esotericism and Consciousness, Visions, Voices, Altered States Where: University of Amsterdam When: July 2-4, 2019 Deadline: October 1st, 2018 Website From the organizers: The history of Western esotericism […]
Gnosis volume 3.1: Hermetism
Courtesy of April DeConick: the newest issue of Gnosis: Journal for Gnostic Studies is guest-curated by Christian Bull, and features a collection of new papers on Hermetism. (It doesn’t get […]
New Book: The Nag Hammadi Codices and Late Antique Egypt
There are loads of new volumes including papers on the Nag Hammadi texts these days. The study of Gnosticism really has transformed over the last twenty years, in wonderful and […]
New Book: Philosophic Silence and the ‘One’ in Plotinus
I am very happy to draw attention to the forthcoming publication of Nicholas Banner’s Philosophic Silence and the ‘One’ in Plotinus (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018). I was lucky enough […]
New book: Apocalyptic Thinking in Early Judaism
From the website at Brill: Apocalyptic Thinking in Early Judaism. Engaging with John Collins’ ‘The Apocalyptic Imagination.’ Edited by Cecilia Wassen and Sidnie White Crawford. Supplements to the Journal for the Study […]
Podcast: Secret History of Western Esotericism
NSEA members and readers of this blog will want to know about the Secret History of Western Esotericism Podcast (SHWEP). Created by Earl Fontainelle, a researcher of esotericism, the podcast […]
Greek Fragments of the First Apocalypse of James discovered
The (First) Apocalypse of James is an early Christian Gnostic apocalypse extant in two different Coptic versions, Nag Hammadi Codex V and the Tchacos Codex. These Coptic works are generally […]
New Book: Women and Knowledge in Early Christianity
This new volume of papers looks terrific, and includes a number of studies about Gnosticism as well as ancient wisdom traditions more generally. The volume is a Festschrift for Prof. […]
New Books of Interest
Two new volumes may be of interest to lovers of ancient esotericism. We have, forthcoming: Gods and Humans in the Ancient Near EastTyson L. PutthoffHardbackISBN: 9781108490542$ 99.99 (C) CUP says: […]
Two New Books
A couple of new titles have come through the inbox which may be of interest to scholars of antique esotericism. The first is a new Cambridge Companion to Apocalyptic Literature. […]
A new commentary on Philo’s On the Contemplative Life
Brill’s Philo series marches on with a new trans and comm on one of the Alexandrian’s greatest (and most esoteric) works, wherein he describes a group of Jewish-Platonist sages doing […]
The Three Amigos: Solomon, Jesus, and Aristotle
A curious-looking little book is out from De Gruyter, by Yaacov Shavit from Tel Aviv University. It focuses ‘on places and instances where Solomon’s legendary biography intersects with those of […]
New book on sacrifice in later antiquity
In a new book Robert J. Daly S.J. examines the concept of sacrifice in the ancient Mediterranean world, and discusses how the rise of bloodless Christian sacrifice, and the use […]
