Was ist Gnosis?

Gnosticism is regarded as an integral part of identity formation and the development of early Christianity. In this work, Barbara Aland provides contributions from four decades related to gnostic texts and topics and their contexts, all of which may be summarized in an attempt to define gnosticism. She explains it as a way of expressing fundamental Christian ideas (such as the fall, guilt and redemption extra nos) to non-Christian audiences using myths and metaphors or philosophical terminology. In order to illustrate this, the author draws on an enormous variety of materials and texts for her work.