{"collection":"Gnosticism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/gno/fff/index.htm","path":"gno/fff/index.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/gno/fff/index.htm","text":"This is one of the best books about the Gnostics\nwritten prior to the Nag Hammadi discoveries.\nG.R.S. Mead, who also translated the\nPistis Sophia,\nsummarizes what was known about the Gnostics at the turn of the 20th century.\nAt that time, a better picture of the Gnostics was emerging,\nbased on several papyri which had been recently discovered.\nAlthough there had been a lot of academic research on this subject,\nmost of the key works were in German or French.\nTherefore this book\nand The Gnostics and Their Remains are the\nonly two major books in English on this subject currently in the public domain.\nIt was becoming increasingly obvious that early Christianity\nwas a wide spectrum of sects, the record of which had been subsequently\nforgotten or suppressed by the Church.\nThe Gnostics had deep connections with ancient Mystery religions,\nPythagoreanism, Hinduism and other ancient beliefs.\nMost of the sacred texts of Gnosticism were long lost\nor survived only in small quotes.\nMead draws on information provided both by the Early Church Fathers\nhostile to Gnosticism, and the available corpus of\nactual Gnostic documents at the time, cryptic and fragmentary as it was.\nHe includes excerpts from previously untranslated manuscripts, and extensive\nsummaries of the Pistis Sophia and the writings of the critics of Gnosticism.\nThis book is required reading for anyone who wants to understand Gnosticism\nand the development of early Christianity.","title":"Fragments of a Faith Forgotten Index","type":"page"}