Gnostic Gospel of Phillip - Overview and Discussion

This session we turn to the Gospel of Philip, one of the most enigmatic and rewarding texts of the Nag Hammadi library. Unlike the narrative gospels, Philip is a Valentinian anthology — a collection of meditations, aphorisms, and sacramental reflections that read less like a story and more like overheard fragments from an initiatory tradition. It is the text most famous for its passages on Mary Magdalene as the companion of Christ, but its real depth lies in its sacramental theology: Philip names five mysteries — baptism, chrism, eucharist, redemption, and the bridal chamber — and treats them not as rituals performed upon the initiate but as transformations of the initiate, stages by which the divided self is reunited with its angelic counterpart and restored to the Pleroma. Along the way Philip offers some of the most striking lines in all of Gnostic literature: that the world came into being through a mistake, that those who say they will die first and then rise are in error, and that "it is necessary to rise while still living." We'll work through the text's major themes — the bridal chamber, the meaning of resurrection, the rehabilitation of the feminine — and consider how Philip's sacramental vision stands apart from both proto-orthodox Christianity and the more mythologically elaborate Gnostic text. Prior experience with Gnosticism and the historical texts is recommended, but all curious minds are welcome. A link to the text can be found here: http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/gop.html

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