New Antiquities - Transformations of Ancient Religion in the New Age and Beyond - Dylan Michael Burns
Studying the “Gnostic Bible”: Samael Aun Weor and the Pistis Sophia
New Antiquities - Transformations of Ancient Religion in the New Age and Beyond - Dylan Michael Burns
Franz Winter [+]
Vienna University
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Franz Winter has received Ph.D.s in Classical Studies (1999) and Religious Studies (2005) from the University of Vienna, and a Habilitation in Religious Studies (2010) from the same university, after having studied and done research at the Universities of Graz, Salzburg, Vienna, in Rome, at Boston University (Fulbright), and in Tokyo and Kyoto. He currently teaches at the University of Vienna and works at the Austrian Bundesstelle für Sektenfragen in Vienna. Among his major areas of interest are the history of contact between Europe and Asia from antiquity to modern times, new religious movements in East and West, history of Buddhism, Western Esotericism, religion and the media.
Description
In 1983, a book entitled El Pistis Sophia Develado (Pistis Sophia Unveiled) by the Colombian esoteric writer Samael Aun Weor, born Víctor Manuel Gómez Rodríguez (1917–1977), was published posthumously. It is considered a commentary to an important ancient Gnostic text, Pistis Sophia, that is read according to the Neo-Gnostic teachings of the author. This article provides insight into Weor’s specific approach to this text and the ‘Procrustean bed’ of interpretation he applied to it.