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Gnosticism is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects. These various groups emphasized personal spiritual knowledge (gnosis) above the orthodox teachings, traditions, and authority of religious institutions. Gnostic cosmogony generally presents a distinction between a supreme, hidden God and a malevolent lesser divinity who is responsible for creating the material universe. Consequently, Gnostics considered material existence flawed or evil, and held the principal element of salvation to be direct knowledge of the hidden divinity, attained via mystical or esoteric insight. Many Gnostic texts deal not in concepts of sin and repentance, but with illusion and enlightenment.
Apologetics is the religious discipline of defending religious doctrines through systematic argumentation and discourse. Early Christian writers who defended their beliefs against critics and recommended their faith to outsiders were called Christian apologists. In 21st-century usage, apologetics is often identified with debates over religion and theology.
The Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam is a public research university in Amsterdam, Netherlands, being founded in 1880. The VU Amsterdam is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being the University of Amsterdam (UvA). The literal translation of the Dutch name Vrije Universiteit is "Free University". "Free" refers to independence of the university from both the State and the Dutch Reformed Church. Both within and outside the university, the institution is commonly referred to as "the VU". Although founded as a private institution, the VU has received government funding on a parity basis with public universities since 1970. The university is located on a compact urban campus in the southern Buitenveldert neighbourhood of Amsterdam and adjacent to the modern Zuidas business district.
The New Testament apocrypha are a number of writings by early Christians that give accounts of Jesus and his teachings, the nature of God, or the teachings of his apostles and of their lives. Some of these writings were cited as scripture by early Christians, but since the fifth century a widespread consensus has emerged limiting the New Testament to the 27 books of the modern canon. Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant churches generally do not view the New Testament apocrypha as part of the Bible.
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The Acts of John refers to a collection of stories about John the Apostle that began circulating in written form as early as the 2nd-century AD. Translations of the Acts of John in modern languages have been reconstructed by scholars from a number of manuscripts of later date. The Acts of John are generally classified as New Testament apocrypha.
Gilles Quispel was a Dutch theologian and historian of Christianity and Gnosticism. He was professor of early Christian history at Utrecht University.
The Acts of the Apostles is a genre of Early Christian literature, recounting the lives and works of the apostles of Jesus. The Acts are important for many reasons, one of them being the concept of apostolic succession. They also provide insight into the valuation of "missionary activities among the exotic races," since some of them feature missionary work done among, for instance, the Cynocephaly.
Birger A. Pearson is an American scholar and professor studying early Christianity and Gnosticism. He currently holds the positions of Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara and Professor and Interim Director of the Religious Studies Program at the University of California, Berkeley.
Reijer Hooykaas was a Dutch historian of science. He along with Eduard Jan Dijksterhuis were pioneers in professionalizing the history of science in the Netherlands. Hooykaas gave the prestigious Gifford Lectures at St. Andrews in 1975-77. H. Floris Cohen dedicated his historiographical text The Scientific Revolution to Hooykaas; its section on religion deals primarily with Hooykaas.
Rolf Hendrik Bremmer is a Dutch academic. He is professor of Old and Middle English, and extraordinary professor of Old Frisian, at Leiden University.
Edward Lipiński, or Edouard Lipiński, is a Polish-Belgian Biblical scholar and Orientalist.
Die Leugnung der Geschichtlichkeit Jesu in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart was a 1926 book in German by Arthur Drews on Christ myth theory.
Albertus Frederik Johannes Klijn was a Dutch scholar of the New Testament and early Judaism and Christianity at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. He was best known for his introductory work on the New Testament, and then later for his publications on early Christian apocryphal literature.
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Wouter Jacques "Wout" van Bekkum is a Dutch professor of Middle East Studies at the University of Groningen. His expertise lies in the field of Semitic languages and culture, especially the different varieties of the Hebrew language and Hebrew poetry from Late Antiquity until the Middle Ages.
Gerhardus Johannes "Gerard" van den Berg is a Dutch econometrician. He is professor of Economics at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the University of Bristol. He was awarded the 2009 Alexander von Humboldt Professorship at the University of Mannheim. His research lies in the fields of health economics and labour markets.
Erik Johan Anton (Erik) Scherder is a Dutch professor of neuropsychology who is connected to the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam (VU). Scherder followed his education to physiotherapist in the late seventies after which he worked in the Valeriuskliniek in Amsterdam. Afterwards he followed the study psychology at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam with a specialization in neuropsychology, in which he promoted in 1995.
Sofia Voutsaki is Professor of Greek Archaeology at the University of Groningen and a specialist in the archaeology of the Bronze Age Aegean and classical Greece. She has directed excavations and surveys in the Argolid and at the Mycenaean site of Ayios Vasileios near Sparta, and has also published works on social change, mortuary archaeology, archaeological science, and the history of 19th- and 20th-century Greek archaeology.
Bart J. Koet is Professor of New Testament and Early Christian Literature at Tilburg University and the Dean of Research at the same institution. He also is the president of the Centre for the Study of Early Christianity together with Bert Jan Lietaert Peerbolte of the Vrije Universiteit.
References
- 1 2 3 Hanneke Goudappel (30 January 2010). "Liberaal protestant zonder missiedrang zwaait af". Friesch Dagblad (in Dutch).
- 1 2 3 Rein Nauta (2010). "Van vrijgemaakt tot vrij geworden". In Justin E. A. Kroesen (ed.). Religie en cultuur in hedendaags Nederland (in Dutch). Uitgeverij Van Gorcum. pp. 44–51. ISBN 978-90-232-4609-1.
- ↑ Klaas van der Zwaag (28 January 2010). "Van orthodox naar scepticus". Reformatorisch Dagblad.
- ↑ "Bio of Jan N. Bremmer" (PDF). International Conference on the Ancient Novel. 2008. Retrieved 15 December 2015.
