Spiritual Seed — The Church of the 'Valentinians'

Einar Thomassen obtained his Ph.D. from the University of St Andrews in 1982, and has been Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Bergen since 1993. His publications include Le Traité Tripartite (1989) and numerous articles and books about Gnosticism and ancient religions generally.

"The author has a good sense of the philosophical and theological issues at stake and situates the tradition well in the intellectual world of the second century… a very ambitious and very learned reconstruction of the Valentinian tradition. This monograph will make a major contribution to the study of early Christian life and thought." – Harold W. Attridge, University of Notre Dame"The Spiritual Seed is in my opinion the most important book on Valentinian Gnostic Christianity published since the discovery of the Nag Hammadi Codices 60 years ago." – Birger A. Pearson, Professor Emeritus, University of California, Santa Barbara"Einar Thomassen's The Spiritual Seed is a magisterial work, the most comprehensive and authoritative study of Valentinian Christianity now available. Through his close readings of the often fragmentary ancient sources, Thomassen pieces together a compelling reconstruction of the history, teachings, and rituals of this fascinating branch of the early Christian movement. The book concludes with an original portrait of Valentinus himself. Newcomers to the study of Valentinianism will profit from the book's clear introduction to the important questions and figures, while specialists will find fresh insights and seasoned judgments on nearly every page. This is the one book that anyone interested in Valentinian Christianity should read." – David Brakke, Indiana University"At slightly over 500 pages, Einar Thomassen's The Spiritual Seed: The Church of the "Valentinians" is by far the most important, thorough, and authoritative treatment of Valentinian Christianity in the 60 years since the publication of François Sagnard's La gnose valentinienne et le témoignage de saint Irenée in 1947. Its 32 chapters contain an exhaustive and careful analysis of all extant Valentinian literature from the Nag Hammadi library, the commentaries of Heracleon, Theodotus' Excerpts, and Ptolemy's Letter to Flora, and all the patristic testimonies that in turn were based on nearly a score of no-longer extant texts, well as all the fragmentary but non-systematic remains of psalms, homilies and letters that can be attributed to Valentinus himself. […] All-in-all, this clearly and patiently written work is a "blockbuster" that now gives a reliable account of Valentinian theology, ritual, and intellectual history. The Spiritual Seed is now the definitive treatment of Valentinianism and its biblical and philosophical bases, a "must have" for all scholars-and their research libraries-of ancient Gnosticism, second-century Christian history and thought, and historians of later Greek philosophy." – John D. Turner, University of Nebraska at Lincoln

• PART I VALENTINIANISM EAST AND WEST1 The Valentinians of Irenaeus2 “Valentinus” in Iren. Haer. I 11:13 The doctrine of Theodotus4 The two “schools”5 The soteriology of The Tripartite Tractate6 The soteriology of Irenaeus’ system7 The soteriology of Exc. 43:2–658 The soteriology of Iren. Haer. I 7:29 The soteriology of Hipp. Haer. VI 29–3610 Provisional conclusions11 Eastern soteriologies: The Treatise on the Resurrection12 Eastern soteriologies: The Interpretation of Knowledge13 Eastern soteriologies: The Gospel of Philip14 The soteriology of Heracleon15 The position of PtolemyPART II THE THREE DIMENSIONS OF VALENTINIANISM16 Salvation in history and ritual17 Salvation in history and protological myth18 Protology, salvation history, and ritual19 Conclusion to Part IIPART III VALENTINIAN PROTOLOGY20 The pleromatology21 The myth of separation and restoration22 Chronology of the protologies23 The meaning and origins of Valentinian protology24 The transformation of eschatology to protologyPART IV VALENTINIAN INITIATION25 The sources26 Initiation: Synopsis of the actsy of the initiation ritual28 The historical position of Valentinian initiation29 A ritual for the dyingPART V VALENTINUS AND THE “VALENTINIANS”30 Valentinus: biography and sources31 Valentinus: a study of the fragments32 Valentinians: fragments of the history of Valentinianism