Morton Smith and the Carpocratians

Before the publication of Morton Smith’s scholarly and popular monographs on the Letter to Theodore ascribed to Clement of Alexandria, scholars generally summarized rather than critically interrogated the heresiological sources about the Carpocratians. Smith’s historical reconstruction of the belief...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Kok, Michael (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Peeters 2021
In: Ephemerides theologicae Lovanienses
Year: 2021, Volume: 97, Issue: 4, Pages: 629-645
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Smith, Morton 1915-1991 / Karpokratianer
IxTheo Classification:BF Gnosticism
KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity
KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history
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Description
Summary:Before the publication of Morton Smith’s scholarly and popular monographs on the Letter to Theodore ascribed to Clement of Alexandria, scholars generally summarized rather than critically interrogated the heresiological sources about the Carpocratians. Smith’s historical reconstruction of the beliefs and praxis of Carpocrates, Epiphanes, and their followers, therefore, represented a significant advance in the academic study of the Carpocratians. Further, he added the Letter to Theodore to the database on the Carpocratians, though there is no consensus among scholars regarding the authenticity of this document. Nevertheless, Smith’s interpretations of the Patristic and Medieval testimonies about the Carpocratians have become outdated in the light of recent scholarship. More specifically, Smith undervalued the philosophical underpinnings of the Carpocratians’ worldview and overemphasised the antinomian and magical practices that were attributed to the Carpocratians by their Christian opponents.
ISSN:1783-1423
Contains:Enthalten in: Ephemerides theologicae Lovanienses
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.2143/ETL.97.4.3290078