Urbanization, Religious Pluralism, Cultural Continuity, and the Expansion of Gnostic Communities
Gnosticism has been perceived as a Jewish heresy, a Hellenistic Christian heresy, an Oriental pre-Christian religious movement, an independent religious movement, and an existential response to experiences of alienation. More recently, King has argued that within a pluralistic cultural environment,...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
[2006]
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| In: |
Interdisciplinary journal of research on religion
Year: 2006, Volume: 2, Pages: 1-20 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei registrierungspflichtig) |
| Summary: | Gnosticism has been perceived as a Jewish heresy, a Hellenistic Christian heresy, an Oriental pre-Christian religious movement, an independent religious movement, and an existential response to experiences of alienation. More recently, King has argued that within a pluralistic cultural environment, Gnosticism was an integral part of early Christianity's identity-formation process. But how did this process operate? Expanding Stark's sociological analysis of the diffusion of Christianity, I argue that the diffusion of Gnosticism during the first two centuries of the common era is tied to the existence of population thresholds in larger urban centers, participation in a loosely regulated religious marketplace, and the maintaining of cultural continuity with existing religious movements. Data for twenty-two Greco-Roman cities are subjected to correlation and logistic regression analysis. Findings indicate that the so-called Gnostic communities were more likely to emerge earlier in urban locations where churches were present already and in larger urban centers. |
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| ISSN: | 1556-3723 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Interdisciplinary journal of research on religion
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