April D. DeConick, Ph.D. (1994), The University of Michigan, is the Isla Carroll and Percy E. Turner Professor of Biblical Studies at Rice University. She has published monographs, translations, and many essays on Gnosticism, Nag Hammadi, mysticism and ancient esotericism, including The Thirteenth Apostle: What the Gospel of Judas Really Says (Continuum, 2007, 2009) and Recovering the Original Gospel of Thomas: A History of the Gospel and Its Growth (T&T Clark, 2005, 2006). Gregory Shaw, Ph.D. (1987), University of California, Santa Barbara, is Professor of Religious Studies at Stonehill College. He is an expert on religions in antiquity and Neoplatonism. He has published many articles on these subjects, including his monograph Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus (Penn State Press, 1995). John D. Turner, Ph.D. (1970), Duke University, is the Cotner Professor of Religious Studies and the Charles J. Mach University Professor of Classics and History. He has published extensively in Sethianism, Gnosticism and later Platonism. Along with editions and translations of Nag Hammadi texts, he has edited and authored a number of articles and books, including his monograph Sethian Gnosticism and the Platonic Tradition (Québec, 2001).

"This carefully structured festschrift [...] is a fitting tribute to Birger Pearson. [...] the essays offer significant new perspectives on various types of Gnostic practices [...] the volume will be widely consulted by scholars in the field.' - Paul Foster, University of Edinburgh, in: The Expository Times 126/3 (2014)

• April D. DeConick, Introduction to Practicing GnosisA Tribute to Birger A. PearsonGeorge W.E. Nickelsburg, For Birger Pearson: A Scholar Who Both Studies and Embodies SyncretismGerald James Larson, Religionsgeschichtliche Schule, Religionswissenschaft,Piano, Oboe and BourbonGregory Shaw, Birger Pearson: Scholar, Professor and MentorBirger A. Pearson, A BibliographyInitiatory PracticesApril D. DeConick, The Road for the Souls is through the Planets: The Mysteries of the Ophians MappedRoger Beck, Ecstatic Religion in the Roman Cult of MithrasBas van Os, Gospel of Philip as Gnostic Initiatory Discourse Elliot Wolfson, Becoming Invisible: Rending the Veil and the Hermeneutic of Secrecy in the Gospel of PhilipErin Evans, Ritual in the Second Book of JeuNicola Denzey Lewis, Death on the Nile: Egyptian Codices, Gnosticism, and Early Christian Books of the DeadRecurrent PraticesEinar Thomassen, Going to Church with the ValentiniansMadeleine Scopello, Practicing ‘Repentance’ on the Path to Gnosis in Exegesis on the SoulEdward Butler, Opening the Way of Writing: Semiotic Metaphysics in the Book of ThothFernando Bermejo Rubio, “I Worship and Glorify”: Manichaean Liturgy and Piety in Kellis’ Prayer of the EmanationsJason BeDuhn, The Manichaean Weekly Confessional RitualJorunn Buckley, Ritual Ingenuity in the Mandaean Scroll of Exalted KingshipTherapeutic PracticesNaomi Janowitz, Natural, Magical, Scientific or Religious? A Guide to Theories of Healing Grant Adamson, Astrological Medicine in Gnostic TraditionsMarvin Meyer, The Persistence of Ritual in the Magical Book of Mary and the Angels: P. Heid. Inv. Kopt. 685Rebecca Lesses, Image and Word: Performative Ritual and Material Culture in the Aramaic Incantation Bowls Ecstatic PracticesJohn D. Turner, From Baptismal Vision to Mystical Union with the One: The Case of the Sethian GnosticsNiclas Förster, Marcosian Rituals for Prophecy and ApolytrosisJames Davila, Ritual Praxis in the Hekhalot LiteraturePhilosophic PracticesZeke Mazur, The Platonizing Sethian Gnostic Interpretation of Plato’s SophistMichael Williams, Did Plotinus’ “Friends” Still Go to Church? Communal Rituals and Ascent ApocalypsesKevin Corrigan, The Meaning of “One”: Plurality and Unity in Plotinus and Later NeoplatonismGregory Shaw, Theurgy and the Platonist’s Luminous Body