The study concerns forms of resilience typical of Gnostic contexts towards the majority Christianity (or Christianity of the Great Church) of the first centuries. This resistance is investigated in the context of the changes both internal to Christianity itself and relative to the society in which it was imposing itself. In particular, we intend to study resilient tendencies expressed by Valentinian sources of the second century, such as, for example, the 'Valentinian Doctrinal Letter': the anonymous author tends to reduce the descending graduation of the Pleroma, in order to be less criticizable by the heresiologists; in fact Irenaeus and Tertullian are more tender with this position. Another Gnostic source under investigation is the Gnostic Ptolemy's 'Letter to Flora'; we intend to verify if, as some scholars have argued, it presents a 'blunt' Gnosticism to be better received by the faithful of the Great Church. It should be noted that this is a sort of intra-ecclesial and more ancient resilience, to be distinguished from a second, later and extra-ecclesial form of resilience, such as that expressed by the so-called 'secondary Christianization' typical of 'Sethian' Coptic texts, a strategy on which the studies of the Coptologists have insisted and which in any case deserves to be investigated.
Lo studio riguarda forme di resilienza proprie di contesti gnostici nei confronti del cristianesimo maggioritario (o cristianesimo della Grande Chiesa) dei primi secoli. Tale resistenza viene indagata nel quadro dei cambiamenti ora interni al cristianesimo stesso ora relativi alla società in cui esso andava imponendosi. In particolare si intende studiare tendenze resilienti espresse da fonti valentiniane del II secolo, quali quella, ad esempio, della 'Lettera Dottrinale Valentiniana': l'anonimo autore tende a ridurre la graduazione discendente del Pleroma, allo scopo di risultare meno criticabile da parte degli eresiologi; in effetti Ireneo e Tertulliano sono più teneri con questa posizione. Altra fonte gnostica sottoposta a indagine è la 'Lettera a Flora' di Tolomeo gnostico; si intende verificare se, come hanno sostenuto alcuni studiosi, essa presenta uno gnosticismo 'smussato' per essere meglio accolto dai fedeli della Grande Chiesa. Va osservato che si tratta di una sorta di resilienza intra-ecclesiale e più antica, da distinguere da una seconda forma di resilienza più tarda ed extra-ecclesiale, come quella espressa dalla cosiddetta 'cristianizzazione secondaria' propria di testi copti 'sethiani', strategia sulla quale hanno insistito gli studi dei coptologi e che comunque merita di essere – in tale direzione - indagata.
Chiapparini, G., Strategie gnostiche di resilienza: "sethiani" e valentiniani di fronte alla Grande Chiesa (II-IV sec.), in Cerutti, M. V. (ed.), Allo specchio dell'altro. Strategie di resilienza di "pagani" e gnostici tra II e IV secolo d.C., Cantagalli, Siena 2023: 193- 229 [https://hdl.handle.net/10807/235775]
Strategie gnostiche di resilienza: "sethiani" e valentiniani di fronte alla Grande Chiesa (II-IV sec.)
Chiapparini, Giuliano
2023
Abstract
The study concerns forms of resilience typical of Gnostic contexts towards the majority Christianity (or Christianity of the Great Church) of the first centuries. This resistance is investigated in the context of the changes both internal to Christianity itself and relative to the society in which it was imposing itself. In particular, we intend to study resilient tendencies expressed by Valentinian sources of the second century, such as, for example, the 'Valentinian Doctrinal Letter': the anonymous author tends to reduce the descending graduation of the Pleroma, in order to be less criticizable by the heresiologists; in fact Irenaeus and Tertullian are more tender with this position. Another Gnostic source under investigation is the Gnostic Ptolemy's 'Letter to Flora'; we intend to verify if, as some scholars have argued, it presents a 'blunt' Gnosticism to be better received by the faithful of the Great Church. It should be noted that this is a sort of intra-ecclesial and more ancient resilience, to be distinguished from a second, later and extra-ecclesial form of resilience, such as that expressed by the so-called 'secondary Christianization' typical of 'Sethian' Coptic texts, a strategy on which the studies of the Coptologists have insisted and which in any case deserves to be investigated.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.