Chaldean Catholic Archbishop kidnapped in Baghdad

This just in my e-mail from the Mandaean list-serve. More bad news from Baghdad. When is this going to end?

From the Associated Press:

Gunmen abducted a Chaldean Catholic archbishop soon after he left Mass in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the latest in what church members called a series of attacks against Iraq's small Christian community.

The gunmen killed three people who were with Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, said Iraqi Brig. Gen. Khalid Abdul Sattar, a spokesman for the Ninevah province police.

It was not known who was behind the kidnapping, said an aide to Iraq's Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, leader of the church.

"This act of abduction against a Christian clergy member will increase our fears and worries about the situation of Christians in Iraq," said Archbishop Andreos Abouna.

The Chaldean church is an Eastern-rite denomination that recognizes the authority of the pope and is aligned with the Roman Catholic Church. The Vatican said in a statement the fact that the gunmen knew Rahho had been celebrating a religious rite indicated the kidnapping was premeditated.

MORE...

Apocryphote of the Day: 2-29-08

The Lord answered James, saying, "If you are oppressed by Satan and persecuted and you do the Father's will, I say that he will love you, and make you equal with me, and consider you beloved by his providence and by your own choice. So will you not stop loving the flesh and being afraid of suffering?...Remember my cross and my death, and you will live!"

Apocryphon of James 4.35-5.10, 34-35 (ca. 150-200, a Valentinian text) trans. by DeConick

Erhman on Suffering

One of my undergraduate students this week asked me about the problem of suffering in relation to Bart Ehrman's newest book, saying that although Ehrman does not try to convert his reader to agnosticism, that my student now realizes that the challenges theodicy poses to Christianity are enormous.

For those of us who study these materials this is not a new problem. In fact it goes back to the first century in Christian literature. And we know that the problem was actually solved by many groups of Christians in the early second century. Look at the Valentinians. They argued that suffering is part of God's own experience as he-she developed self-consciousness. It is part of God's nature, and resulted in the creation of this world through a lesser (although not evil) creator god (whom Jesus actually saves in the end!). So the descent of the redeemer is about God joining humans in our suffering in order to alleviate it through the redemptive plan that he put into place, an alleviation that will happen at the end of time as we know it.

I say this because theodicy is not a problem for Christians UNLESS God is conceived as the ONLY God who is all-powerful, all-knowing, AND all-loving. If your religious system allows for polytheism like Marcionite Christianity which has the good merciful God who intervenes in a world not his own run by an just and wrathful God named Yahweh - no problem. If your religious system allows for a God whose right hand is good and whose left hand is evil as some forms of Judaism promoted - no problem. If your religious system allows for karma as Buddhism and Hinduism - no problem. Or, as in the case of the Valentinian Christians, if suffering is in God's nature, and there are lesser beings who become responsible for creation, then theodicy is no problem.

I write this to say again how important it is to remember the "others", the forms of Christianity that did not win the day. They did not lose the day because they didn't have solutions to age old problems. In fact, these forms of Christianity developed to SOLVE these age old problems. In the end, it was not theology that distinguished the Apostolic church and gave them the upper hand. The more I study the problem, the clearer it becomes to me that the reasons for victory had more to do with politics and social issues than anything else.

Apocryphote of the Day: 2-28-08

We are joyful!
Enlightened by your knowledge.
We are joyful!
You have shown us yourself.
We are joyful!
While we were in bodies,
you have made us divine through your knowledge...
We have known you,
Light of Mind.
Life of life,
we have known you.
Womb of every creature,
we have known you.
Womb pregnant with the Father's nature,
we have known you.
Eternal continuance of the Father who gives birth,
we have worshiped your goodness.
We ask one wish,
we wish to be sustained in knowledge.
We wish one protection,
that we do not stumble in this kind of life.

The Prayer of Thanksgiving 64.15-65.2 (early Hermetic prayer preserved in Nag Hammadi collection) trans. by DeConick

Commentary: This prayer was used for the purposes of achieving heavenly ascent and transformation into an immortal being. It is similar to what we find in the Hermetic Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth. The petitioners are being born again from God's womb. Following this prayer and ascent initiation, the community members turn and embrace each other, and eat a vegetarian meal together ("holy food which has no blood in it").

Tonight in Farnsworth Pavilion, Rice University

Just a reminder. If you live in the area, the Friends of the Fondren Library are hosting an event celebrating Rice authors, artists, composers and editors. I will be one of five people speaking on a panel, sharing with those who come why I wrote my book, The Thirteenth Apostle. There will be a reception following the program, and books of all authors will be available for purchase according to the literature that was sent to me. 5:30 p.m. Questions: call 713-348-5157 or 5908.

Guest Post: Luedeman on "What does Athens have to do with Jerusalem?"

Professor Luedeman has asked me to post this guest post contribution to the Blog Co-op.

"Why I'm a Secularist," by Gerd Luedeman

Secularism not only teaches us to base our lives and thinking on the findings of critical scholarship in both the sciences and the humanities, but also persuades us to apply critical investigative tools in every field of academic endeavor. My lifelong study of the Christian religion illustrates both of these principles.

Theology is a scholarly discipline when it observes the intellectual protocols of the modern university and bids farewell to deductive epistemological principles of any kind - including revealed truth and any privileged knowledge God. Theology becomes a valid academic discipline insofar as it employs the historical-critical method's three presuppositions of causality, the potential validity of analogies, and the reciprocal relationship between historical phenomena. But this adoption of the atheistic methodology of secularism demands that traditional religion undergo a Copernican revolution.

However it may disenchant the world, true objectivity means relinquishing the canonicity or sacredness of particular writings, any claims to a revelation, and all distinctions between orthodoxy and heresy except those found in historical discourse. This same even-handedness outlaws dogmatic and theological judgments unsupported by empirical evidence, and refuses to deal with questions of religious truth except to compare different truth claims. The scholar of religion must steer clear of ideologies, but it is obliged to use the methods and insights of the sciences and humanities, including those derived from such neighboring disciplines as sociology, psychology and ethnology, for their illumination of historical phenomena is often decisive. Its assumptions and conclusions must remain open to peer review and revision on the sole basis of best evidence.

Therefore petitionary prayer by academic theologians amounts to self-betrayal. As Huck Finn says, "You can't pray a lie." Still, though excluded from the ranks of true believers, we can be religious spirits without religion, hoping by critical secularism to make the world a better place.

(First published in Free Inquiry 25 (2005/6), p. 35.)

What has Athens to do with Jerusalem? My perspective

How we answer this question depends upon where we stand, though this doesn't make it a "relative" answer.

If my task is to reconstruct history, than Athens can have nothing to do with Jerusalem. If we allow our faith issues to cloud the historical process, we cannot do the job of a historian. Why? Because faith agendas will control our history, even to the point of creating a history that looks like or supports whatever our faith is.

The question of the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus is a fine example of this as we have discussed on this blog and others in the past. As a historian, this is not a historical event because dead bodies don't rise. It is a faith event. Even the second century Valentinians seem to have understood this. What did the Valentinian teacher tell Rheginus about this? He said quite bluntly, "For, my child, 'the dead shall rise!' belongs to the domain of faith, not of argument."

If my task is to understand whether or not Athens has anything to do with Jerusalem as a believer, this is quite a different thing. Here each person must decide whether faith needs reason. This means that one must decide what "faith" is. I think that certain forms of Christianity have usurped the meaning of faith over the centuries so that today it is often tauted as believing doctrines that go against science or logic. When I study the ancient sources, however, "pistis" is something quite different from this modern definition. It is a person's relationship with "the holy," a relationship that is lived through imitation of saintly people and piety.

My own feeling on this issue is that faith without reason is futile, that a reasoned faith is necessary. This is not to say that reason is the entire realm of our knowledge. There is knowledge other than reason. But even this is supported by reason which is necessary in order to grasp and translate this kind of knowledge into something recognizable.

Apocryphote of the Day: 2-27-08

The world's farming relies on four things. A harvest is gathered into the barn because of water, earth, wind, and light. God's farming likewise relies on four things - faith, hope, love and knowledge. Faith is our earth in which we take root. Hope is the water with which we are nourished. Love is the wind by which we grow. Knowledge is the light by which we [ripen].

Gospel of Philip 79.18-30 (a Valentinian text; late second c.) trans. by DeConick

An apropos parable for this Blog co-op day.

What does Athens have to do with Jerusalem? Open Post

This is an open post space for those of you who wish to address Tertullian's age-old question. Please use the comment space to post.

Here are links to others who have already posted on the subject:

IHSOUS Blog by Solomon Landers
"This blog is devoted to translations from the Canonical Gospels, but I found your theme to be interesting, and made an exception by posting my thoughts on it there."

Overbeck Studies Blog
"In my study of Franz Overbeck, I have dealt with this question over and over again."

Sufficiency Blog by Bob MacDonald
"It is an excerpt from a longer story. The story in outline is in 365 parts of which this is pericope 21."

Exploring Our Matrix Blog by James McGrath
"Here's a link to my post for the 'blog co-op.'"

Merkavah Vision blog by Deane

Tim Ashcraft
"Here is a link to my post on the Co-Op. It's an attempt to briefly answer Tertullian's question from a conservative Christian viewpoint."

Jim West

Mandaean baptism objected to by local residents in Australia

I find it so disheartening that we cannot find a solution to support the Mandaean community more than we have. This is a minority religion, the only living Gnostic religion left. Because these people are not Jews or Christians or Muslims or Buddhists or Hindus or something we commonly recognize, they remain unknown and their practices suspect to many of people.

The Mandaeans are Gnostics whose movement was connected with John the Baptist. They use multiple baptisms in flowing rivers as part of their ritual life. These rituals are not what Protestants think - only symbols. These rituals must be performed exactly as they always have been, because, as in the Catholic tradition, they actually affect the soul. So it saddens me to read in an Australian newspaper that a local community is hindering the Mandaeans who live there from baptizing in the Nepean River because 50 residents have complained about the color of a cloth they use.

The Daily Telegraph reports:

A RARE and ancient religious culture is battling for survival because residents in Sydney's west do not fancy the group's chosen shade of white.

The followers of John the Baptist were all but wiped out after 2000 years of oppression that reached a genocidal crescendo during the Iraq war.

But it could be Wallacia locals who inadvertently finish what fanatics started, by objecting to a Mandaean baptismal pool for reasons such as the colour of shade cloths.

For more of the news story click here.

Apocryphote of the Day: 2-26-08

"Those who have an independent conscience will remove themselves from the babbling of nature and will bear witness to the testimony on the whole. They will strip off the burden of darkness. They will put on the world of light. They will not be kept back in the least of places. And what they possess from the power of mind, they will give to faith...From now on, proceed with faith to shine in the depths of creation."

The Paraphrase of Shem 42.25-43.4, 41.20 (An unknown Gnostic system of three generative principles) trans. by DeConick

Reminder: What has Athens to do with Jerusalem? Blog Post Co-op for Wednesday 27th. Consider writing on the subject on your own blog or on the open post I will put up tomorrow.

Apocryphote of the Day: 2-25-08

The Savior swallowed up death. You know this. When he put aside the perishable world, he changed himself into an imperishable Aeon. He rose, having swallowed the visible through the invisible. He gave us the way to our immortality. As the Apostle said of him, "We suffered with him, we arose with him, we ascended with him"...This is the resurrection of the spirit, which swallows up the resurrection of the soul in the same way as the resurrection of the flesh. But if someone does not believe, he cannot be persuaded. For, my child, "the dead shall rise!" belongs to the domain of faith, not of argument.

The Treatise on the Resurrection 45.15-30, 40-46.9 (a Valentinian letter written to Rheginus) trans. by DeConick

Commentary: ca. 150-200 CE. Well, I opened the Treatise and my eye fell on this passage. Strange coincidence given that we are heading toward Wednesday 29th, for the Blog Post Co-op: What has Athens to do with Jerusalem? A couple readers have already sent me links to things they have written on the subject, but I'm reserving all until then!

Teaching Valentinianism

Tony has a nice post on the joys and frustrations of teaching Valentinianism. Since he has opened the subject, I thought it would be fun to say a few words about it myself, since I teach this area all the time. I personally find the Valentinian mythology utterly fascinating, particularly how these Christians assumed a Platonic worldview, combined that with a cosmology they knew from the Sethian Gnostics, and reworked all to make it function within the Apostolic Christian tradition as the first complete systematic theology. And as Tony realizes through his wonderful classroom exercise (I think I'll try it too), they did this through exegesis of scriptures, Jewish and Christian alike, in the same was that other Alexandrian fathers did, especially Clement and Origen. When I teach Valentinus along with other fathers, it becomes soon clear that his system and that of his students is not very far removed from Origen in particular.

I usually start my lecture on the subject by saying to the students that I am going to tell them a story that never happened but everything in it is true (from the perspective of the Valentinian Christians that is). I also mention that the main concern of the myth is how this imperfect world of suffering is connected to a transcendent Good God. Or as Valentinus himself said in a letter, how our spirits can come to dwell in this "toilet" (he actually uses language I can't post!).

Then we go on to discover how Plato and Sethian mythology is recombined in a thoroughly Christian context, with the result that our first systematic Christian theology is born. Part of this systematic theology is the use of sacraments, and probably the development of a few additional sacramental practices. What do they do? Nothing less than release and protect the fallen spirit so that it can return home. Marriage as a sacrament is part of this process, and since the Valentinians thought that their own marriages were highly charged sexually in order to conceive children with the strongest spirits, well it is a fun time in class finally getting away from the obscene asceticism of so many of the early currents.

Jim Davila reviews The Thirteenth Apostle

Thanks to Jim Davila for posting a very thorough review of my book, The Thirteenth Apostle: What the Gospel of Judas Really Says.

That Platonic Daimon again...

Every now and then when browsing on the internet, I come across discussions of "daimon" and statements that because Plato used the term to indicate "spirit" so could the Gnostics. I am rebuffed with the simple statement that "the Gnostics relied on Plato." This in fact is the exact argument that Bart Ehrman put forward during the Judas book session at the San Diego SBL. Oh, and also I am criticized because "angels" (a positive term) is used as well to describe the Archons.

I say, "Hold your horses!" (yes, I actually say this, because I'm an equestrian - and now I live in Texas!).

Let's think about this. The Gnostics had taken biblical theology to a new level by merging it with Platonic thought. But did Platonic thought (or biblical theology for that matter) look the same after the merger?

Plato had a demiurge, a creator god. Was he good or evil? He was good. And he worked hard to create the best possible world as a reflection of the world of forms. The world he created was the best that could be given the fact that it was a reflection of the higher world in the realm of matter. The soul can work to be freed from matter by pious living, and upon death, ascend back to the Good.

The Sethian Gnostics had a demiurge, Ialdabaoth. Was he good or evil. He was evil, an opponent to the high god, in a war against the high god. Because he was the one who created the world, it is a world of suffering and imprisonment. The only hope for freedom of the soul is for a redeemer to come and teach it how to get out of the cycle of imprisonment that contains it through Ialdabaoth's rule and destroy Ialdabaoth's army. No amount of righteous living is going to free the soul from the clutches of the demiurge. Only a redeemer more powerful than Ialdabaoth could do it. The redeemer comes as a spy in disguise, and ends up double-crossing the Archons, vanquishing them when he was crucified. He wins the war and saves the soul. This is NOT Plato's universe, but it is the Gnostics'.

Yes the Archons are called angels. But what kind of angels are they? They are the fallen or jealous angels who are battling the high god (cf. the fall of Satan myth, which was a myth that these Gnostics also merged with the Platonic myth). The good angels (the ones that didn't fall) are the Aeons who live beyond this cosmos. The daimons are the demons, which is another class of malicious beings created from a different substance than the angels. So in Sethian mythology the two nasty assistants to Ialdabaoth are Nebro(el) who is called a demon (daimon), and Saklas a jealous angel.

All of this is to say two things:
1. We have to be very cautious not to assume that the same word used in one tradition means exactly the same thing in another. This was the downfall of the History of Religions School, and we cannot make this same mistake twice! When a word is reappropriated (as the Gnostics did with Plato's ideas), meanings alter sometimes substantially. So what we have to do is figure out the tradition that has reappropriated the term, and how this reappropriation has been done.

2. The same word can be used in these texts to mean different things, and this wouldn't have been problematic for the audience who knew the bigger myth. Yes, Saklas may be called an angel, but he certainly wasn't one of God's good ones! Nor were any of the lesser Archons and their numerous assistants who dwelled in their heavens. They were literally called "armies" of angels (often translated "hosts"), and their enemy was the supreme God and his Son.

The conclusion remains that daimon in the Sethian context is negative. It means demon. And when you add "13" to the title (Thirteen Demon), the particular demon referenced is Ialdabaoth who dwells in the thirteenth realm. This is common Sethian mythology discussed in texts that were written in the same time period as the Gospel of Judas.

Call for Blog Post Co-op on Wednesday, February 27th

Consider participating in a Blog Post Co-op on Wednesday, February 27th. Fellow bloggers and readers, the subject for a Co-op post on that day is the age-old question that Tertullian asked:

What does Athens have to do with Jerusalem?

If you participate in the Co-op by addressing this question on your own blog, I will collect links to your posts and put them up here as well. Just send me your link, adeconick@rice.edu.

I will also have an open post for those of you who would like to post something but don't have a personal blog space to do it.

I hope that this Blog Post Co-op will generate a healthy conversation among us!

Apocryphote of the Day: 2-22-08

"Rich is the person who has mercy on many, and imitating God, gives what he has. For God has given all things to his creation. Wealthy people, you should understand that you ought to minister, for you have received more than you yourselves need. Learn that others lack the things you have in abundance. Be ashamed to keep things that belong to others. Imitate the fairness of God, and no one will be poor."

Preachings of Peter (as quoted by John of Damascus, Parall. A. 12) (ca. early second century). This writing may have been one of the sources that the author of the Pseudo-Clementines relied on, although past attempts to recover it from this work have not been very successful. We have quotations from the Preachings of Peter preserved in some of the works of the Church Fathers.

Apocryphote of the Day: 2-21-08

Not only is he called "Without-Beginning" and "Without-End"
because he is unborn and immortal
but also because, just as he has no beginning and no end, He-Is.
He is incomprehensible in his greatness
inscrutable in his wisdom
invincible in his power
and unfathomable in his sweetness.
Truly, he alone is the good unborn and perfect Father
who is complete
who is filled with all his offspring
and with every virtue
and with everything of value...
It is not possible for mind to conceive him,
nor can words convey him,
nor can eyes see him,
nor can bodies touch him,
because of his inscrutable greatness
and incomprehensible depth
and immeasurable height
and boundless will.
This is the nature of the Unbegotten One.

Tripartite Tractate 52.35-53.11, 54.15-25 (a Valentinian creed about the Father, ca. 180-210 CE)
(translated by DeConick)

Book Note: Eyes That See Not (G. Luedemann)

There just arrived in my mailbox today Weststar's newest book on the historical Jesus. Eyes That See Not: The Pope Looks at Jesus by Gerd Luedemann.

This book is particularly important in my opinion because it critically dismantles Pope Benedict's so-called historical approach in his book Jesus of Nazareth. What is significant, is not the historical Jesus that Professor Luedemann reconstructs, but that he shows how the academic process and the critical portrait of Jesus is different from the doctrinal. These are separate quests, with separate sets of assumptions. Luedemann writes, "The historian is obliged to present objective evidence for his or her assertions. The rules of the game do not permit one to rely on uncorroborated testimony or claims of authority."

Why did Professor Luedemann feel that it is necessary to respond to the Pope's book? He says that there are two reasons. First, "the enthusiastic response it has received even among educated people reflects the fact that the very existence of biblical criticism is widely unknown." Second, he worries that many Catholic biblical scholars might be intimidated by writing an honest evaluation of the Pope's work. So he has undertaken the task of defending historical reason.

Luedemann hopes that his historical-critical approach to each passage that the Pope also discusses will help readers learn "how reasonable twenty-first century people" can read the Bible outside its normal doctrinal interpretation.

I think this book would be a valuable book to use in adult education church groups, read slowly alongside the Pope's book. When finished, I bet that the adult education classes would have a good idea how the historical method works in comparison with the theological.

Friends of Fondren honor 2007 Rice Authors and Artists

If you are in the Houston area, you might be interested in this event.

Thursday, February 28, 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Farnsworth Pavilion, Ley Student Center, Rice University

Program and Panel Discussion sponsored by The Friends of Fondren Library
to honor the 2007 Rice Authors, Artists, Composers, and Editors

I have been asked to be one of five panelists, to talk about my book The Thirteenth Apostle: What the Gospel of Judas Really Says. The moderator will be asking us questions, as well as the audience.

A reception follows, and books by all authors will be available for purchase.

For more information, call 713-348-5157 or 5908