The Gnostic New Age: How a Countercultural Spirituality Revolutionized Religion from Antiquity to Today by April D. DeConick (review)

In The Gnostic New Age April DeConick offers an interpretation of "Gnosticism" as a distinctive "countercultural spirituality" that has manifested itself in numerous incarnations from antiquity to the modern age. The book's eleven chapters include discussions of many specific historical figures, texts, or movements—e.g., the Greco–Egyptian Hermetic literature; so-called "Sethian" sources; Simon Magus; Naassenes; Ophians; Peratics; Justin "the Gnostic"; Valentinus and Valentinians; Manichaeans; "Jeuians" (from the Books of Jeu) and the Pistis Sophia; and Mandaeans. Each of these has been classified as "gnostic" by at least some scholars. DeConick's definition of gnosticism is surely among the most expansive, embracing not only some of the more familiar candidates mentioned above but others from Shirley MacLaine and modern New Agers, to Paul the Apostle and the Gospel of John. She considers gnosticism to be not a single social movement or religion but rather "an innovative religious identity that emerged in the first century CE when a number of religious people began to claim that they possessed a new kind of spiritual knowledge (gnosis)" (p. 9).

DeConick avers that gnosticism is "a form of spirituality that in ancient memory was associated with five ideal characteristics" (pp. 11–12): (1) direct experiential knowledge (gnosis) of a transcendent God; (2) unity with this God experienced in "ecstatic states"; (3) "an innate spiritual nature" in humans guaranteeing survival of the self after death, but also enabling restoration of "psychological and physical wellness" in this life; (4) countercultural "transgressive talk that set Gnostics at odds with conventional religions"; and (5) incorporation "into their religious discussions [of] everything but the kitchen sink" (Homer, Plato, magic, astrology, ancient brain science, fantastic cosmologies), but with the location of "spiritual authority in the individual's soul or spirit."

DeConick is a learned scholar with extensive knowledge of ancient and late-ancient traditions and experience in analyzing them. Her format, aimed at general readers, is not burdened with footnotes or constant citation of ancient or modern sources, even though specialists might be aware of DeConick's more meticulous arguments elsewhere in articles and monographic research. She certainly provides nonspecialists with much information about groups and writings that she counts as "gnostic spirituality." Also, a distinctive feature is that each chapter discussing those examples is framed with a comparison to a motion picture or television series (The Matrix, The Truman Show, Man of Steel, Star Trek, etc.). Others have drawn similar comparisons, but DeConick puts hers to maximal use. If the analogies with the ancient materials are sometimes strained, the device does serve as an effective attention-getter. DeConick's style is accessible and employs jargon intended to connect with her audience—e.g., "dark lords" throughout for cosmic powers of various sorts; the sci-fi "star gate" (e.g., pp. 221–12) if sources mention "gates" controlled by such powers or other heavenly portals; and "sky trekking" for ascents into the supernal realms.

One feature that stands out, as compared with most conventional introductions to gnosticism, is DeConick's inclination to highlight functional rather than dysfunctional elements, as in her contention that "the Gnostics belong to one of the biggest stories of our species, the story of the human quest for health and wholeness" (p. 197). DeConick may oversell this angle in certain instances, and yet many movements and writings she discusses do, in fact, often reveal far more interest in and even optimism about life in the body than has usually been recognized.

However, DeConick's typology of gnostic spirituality is applied across such an array of data that analytical leverage seems reduced and awareness of diversities retreats into a cloud of rather vague mysticism. For example, she asserts that "Mani's metaphysics is Gnostic spirituality on steroids" (p. 313). Yet the crucial soteriological process...