Gnóze jako světové náboženství – Quispel Gilles (2025)

This Czech-language book by Gilles Quispel (1916–2006), professor of early Christian history at Utrecht, historian of religion and one of the leading experts on ancient Gnosticism, was written shortly after the groundbreaking discovery of the Gnostic manuscripts at Nag Hammadi, whose release to the public he helped advance. It is an expanded version of four lectures given by the author in 1951 at the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich. Quispel offers an accessible introduction to the basic ideas of Gnosis and a clear guide through its labyrinth of myths and texts. He outlines its history from its beginnings through its decline at the end of antiquity, its rediscovery in the Middle Ages and modern times, and its phenomenological character. He draws chiefly on newly discovered Coptic sources, using texts such as The Secret Book of John as a key to understanding the original, perhaps even pre-Christian form of Gnosis. The later chapters explore both parallels and profound differences between Gnosis, early Christianity and Neoplatonism. Quispel persuasively supports the book’s central thesis that “Gnosis is the mythical projection of self-experience,” the most inward spiritual experience of a human being. As he summarizes it, Gnostic myths and hymns repeatedly emphasize that salvation comes when people remember their origin and recognize the divinity of their self, obscured by darkness.