Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
Book Tree (2003), 108 pages
Description
Simon Magus was originally a Christian and disciple of John the Baptist, but broke off and formed the first Christian heresy, called Simonianism. After learning magical medicine in Alexandria he was considered to have many magical skills. To this day, a skilled magician is called a "magus." He also studied Greek philosophers, especially Heraclitus, and became the first Christian to attempt to bridge Greek philosophy and Christianity. If a mixture ever occurred Church leaders feared they would become weaker over time and not survive. According to Mead, this was Simon's great heresy -- not his magic. This interesting book shows Simon Magus to have been a brilliant man who was breaking new ground, both philosophically and spiritually.
User reviews
LibraryThing member paradoxosalpha
Mead was easily one of the sanest and most erudite of the first-generation Theosophists, and his summary and discussion of Simonian Gnosticism is as useful as anything one might expect from that vein. He catalogs the antique sources, summarizing fully and quoting at length, and provides a sober
The Paul Tice foreword to the Book Tree edition is laughably bad, and makes one wonder if Tice even bothered to read the book that he introduces.
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evaluation of their relative merits. His final section, on "The Theosophy of Simon," is an exercise in fairly freewheeling comparitivism with a mystical bias. I enjoyed it.The Paul Tice foreword to the Book Tree edition is laughably bad, and makes one wonder if Tice even bothered to read the book that he introduces.
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Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
108 p.; 9 inches
ISBN
1585092312 / 9781585092314
UPC
884526971101