Gnostic History

The Cathars were different from the mainstream Catholic church in the 13th century. They openly rebelled against some of the hypocritical behavior by priests and leaders, and they established their own deviant beliefs according to the best ability of their conscience. But when it all came down to it, what did this mean? What were those belief systems? What did they think of the crusades in the Middle East? Learn more about the Cathars, a community that made a significant impact during a time of dictatorships, massacres, and persecution of supposed heretics.

One in four Americans rejects any affiliation with organized religion, and nearly half of those under 30 describe themselves as "spiritual but not religious". But as the airwaves resound with the haranguing of preachers and pundits, who speaks for the millions who find no joy in whittling the wonder of existence to a simple yes/no choice? Lesley Hazleton does.

Shortly after the birthing pangs of Christianity's birth subsided it faced a threat to its ideals and existence as we know it today. This threat was an internal one forged in the fires of desire to meld Greek philosophy with Christian teachings. The heat of the debates, books written, and sermons preached resulted in the first, but not well known, schism of the church. In this eight treatise in the Theological Threads series learn how Plato's ideas fractured the early church and how those ideas still threaten to pervert the understanding of Christians today.

With insights gained from the Individuation process of Carl Jung, The Gnostic Gospel of Thomas bursts into flames of gnosis, allowing us to see the truth about the deeper mysteries of life. If you have ever felt as if there was more to existence than you could see, that there was another world just behind the curtain of your mind, just out of reach, which contains the full truth, the words of Jesus according to The Gnostic Gospel of Thomas will echo within you and lead you into light.

Jack Staunton, an American businessman, makes a pilgrimage to war-torn Israel in hopes of rekindling his Christian faith. While traveling with his friend Punjeeh, an ER doctor from Jerusalem, Jack acquires an ancient scroll written by the Gnostics, a mystical group of early Christians, and his spiritual quest takes an unexpected turn. The scroll makes the startling claims that the Gnostics were the original followers of Jesus, and that they retained secret knowledge of Jesus that was not included in the Bible.

Truth has infinite patience. It can quietly wait for centuries looking for the right opportunity to reveal itself. More than two thousand years in the making, this is the revolutionary book we have been waiting for - one that can remove the shroud of misunderstanding hanging over the magnificent lives of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, to reveal, for the first time, their true human story. Here are some of the most important questions Avi addresses in this book: Who was Jesus and what was his actual message? Who was Mary Magdalene, and why is she one of the most despised and vilified women in the...

Comparative studies often reveal similarities between greatly different cultures, even if those cultures are geographically separated by thousands of miles or historically distinct by thousands of years. This has been especially true in religion where similar ideas have been propounded by tribes or clans that have on the surface no contact historically or geographically with one another. For the phenomenologist, this kind of transcultural link or synchronicity is important because it raises the question of how religious ideas emerge and develop over time.