Dual Unto Others
The Missing Gospels: Unearthing the Truth Behind Alternative Christianities
by Darrell L. Bock
Nelson, 2006
(230 pages, $21.99, hardcover)
reviewed by Mike Aquilina
Evangelical scholar Darrell Bock has produced a much-needed orthodox introduction to the major texts produced by the ancient heretics usually described as “Gnostic.” Until now, the most accessible introductions to Gnosticism and its “gospels”—the Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Philip, Gospel of Mary, and so on—have been written by scholars who are sanguine toward the heresies and critical or dismissive of orthodox Christianity.
Bock, a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, begins by giving non-academics a fascinating tour of the last century’s scholarship related to “early Christianities.” The Missing Gospels is an excellent complement to N. T. Wright’s recent study, Judas and the Gospel of Jesus (reviewed in last month’s Touchstone).
The two books overlap somewhat as general introductions to Gnosticism and to the “new school” of Christian origins. Bock’s longer book, however, covers a wide range of texts, while Wright focuses almost exclusively on the Gospel of Judas (which was still unpublished and unavailable for study when Bock was writing).
Problem Gnostics
Bock begins by outlining the particular problems related to the study of the ancient world in general and “Gnosticism” in particular.
The term is indeed difficult to apply with consistency, since the polymorphous groups we usually call “Gnostic” recognized no earthly authority and produced no visible hierarchy. Still, like many scholars, Bock is able to settle on a minimal list of attributes common to all Gnostic texts.
First, they are characterized by a dualism in the supernatural order: The true god, the god of light, is opposed to the inferior god who created the universe. Thus, second, these writings depict a dualism in the world, where spirit (which belongs to the god of light) is imprisoned in matter and flesh (the province of the creator).
Third, the Gnostic gospels teach a salvation by means of esoteric knowledge, not faith, and they understand salvation as having one’s soul released from its fleshly prison. The body is neither saved nor savable. Bock notes other distinctive Gnostic traits as well, including their peculiar rituals.
Similarly, he distills a minimal list of attributes common to all texts associated with proto-orthodox Christianity (the canonical New Testament and the apostolic fathers). In all orthodox Christian texts, there is, for example, a concern for tradition, which bound far-flung communities in common belief, and for mission, which propelled the mainstream Church outward, while the Gnostics turned ever more inward upon themselves.
Mike Aquilina is vice president of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology (www.salvationhistory.com) and a general editor of The Catholic Vision of Love catechetical series.
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