Mystery and Secrecy in the Nag Hammadi Collection and Other Ancient Literature: Ideas and Practices ─ Studies for Einar Thomassen at Sixty

Scholars of religion from Europe and North America explore mystery and secrets in the Nag Hammadi and related Gnostic writings and in Christian and other practices, texts, and material culture. The 23 essays in this collection include discussions of mystery and secrecy in The Secret Revelation of John, the Sethian books of the Nag Hammadi library as secret books, esotericism and Evagrius of Pontus in the Egyptian desert, the secret of an early Christian mystical experience, mystery and secrecy in Paul, a suggestion on the origins of Christological fish symbolism, initiation into the Eleusinian mysteries, the Mithras Liturgy as mystery and magic, and the secret hymn in Hermetic texts. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Liv Ingeborg Lied, Dr.Art. (2007) in the History of Religions, University of Bergen (Norway), is Associate Professor in Religious Studies at MF Norwegian School of Theology in Oslo. She has published on the Pseudepigrapha and their reception history. Christian H. Bull, is Ph.D-student in the History of Religions, University of Bergen (Norway). He has published on Hermetism.John D. Turner, Ph.D. (Duke, 1970) in Religion, is Cotner Professor of Religious Studies and C. J. Mach University Professor of Classics and History at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, specializing in Biblical Studies, Gnosticism, and the History of Hellenistic/Graeco-Roman Religions.