Gnosticism and the Formation of Christianity

Introduction:

The goal of the project is to examine, on the basis of first-hand sources, how so-called Gnostic groups contributed to the emergence of Christianity as we now know it. The shape of what later became the orthodox Christianity was formed in the boundary drawing over against other forms of early Christianity. In the works of its opponents, Gnostic Christianity became the marginalized other of the true Christianity. This image persisted since the texts written by Gnostic Christians themselves fell victim to censorship in the Christian Roman empire and sank to oblivion. Yet new discoveries, such as the Nag Hammadi Library and Codex Tchacos, have brought to daylight these texts, and they enable us to lend a voice to the marginalized other of early Christianity.

Since debates between early Christians were not only intellectual but also involved social conflicts, the project devotes special attention to the latter aspect. The individual topics addressed by the members of the project include, for example, rhetorical conventions of early Christian polemics; debates between Gnostic and other Christians about the resurrection of body and immortality of soul, and about the true church; different views about Christian identity; Gnostic attitudes toward society and Judaism; and attitudes towards philosophy and education in Gnostic and Jewish-Christian texts.

The research group is funded by the Academy of Finland (2007-2009) and University of Helsinki (Doctoral School of Early Christianity, 2008-2011). The project continues the work of three earlier research projects at the Department of Biblical Studies (The International Gospel of Thomas Project; Gnosticism and Early Christian Culture; Myth and Social Reality in Gnostic and Related Documents).

The project is led by Professor Ismo Dunderberg, and it hosts four doctoral students (Risto Auvinen, Minna Heimola, Ulla Tervahauta and Päivi Vähäkangas). Professor Antti Marjanen and two post-doc scholars funded by the Academy of Finland (Outi Lehtipuu and Tuomas Rasimus) take also actively part in the project's work.