Cover; Acknowledgements; Table of Contents; Introduction; Chapter 1: Moral Progress in Early Christian Stories of the Soul; 1. Philosophical Antecedents; 2. Authoritative Discourse (NHC VI, 3); 3. The Exegesis on the Soul (NHC II, 6); 4. The Secret Book of John (NHC II, 1); 5. Two Other Demiurgical Texts in Nag Hammadi Codex II; Conclusion; Chapter 2: Judas' Anger and the Perfect Human; 1. An Aristotelian View of Anger in the Gospel of Judas?; 2. The Perfect Human and "Morality Ladders" in Antiquity; 3. The Sethian Perfect Human: The Secret Book of John; Conclusion. Chapter 3: Early Christian Critics of Martyrdom1. Insiders and Outsiders; 2. "The Gnostics" and Avoidance of Persecution; 3. Responses from the Learned: Basilides, Heracleon and Clement; 4. The Gospel of Judas; Conclusion; Chapter 4: Gnostic Interpretations of Genesis; 1. Variety of Interpretations; 2. Valentinian Interpretations; 3. Sethian and Related Texts; 4. Radical Rejection of the Hebrew Bible; Chapter 5: Johannine Traditions and Apocryphal Gospels; 1. Different Approaches to the Canon among Early Christians; 2. John and the Gospel of Thomas: The Gospels in Conflict? 3. John and the Gospel of MaryConclusion; Chapter 6: Stoic Traditions in the School of Valentinus; 1. Condensation and Dissolution; 2. Emotions; 3. Moral Progress; 4. Blending; Conclusion; Chapter 7: Valentinian Theories on Classes of Humankind; 1. Two Kinds of Christians; 2. The Tripartite Division and Ethnic Reasoning; 3. Fixed Categories in Heracleon?; 4. The Soul's Double Orientation; Conclusion; Chapter 8: Paul and Valentinian Morality; 1. Paul -- More than a Man?; 2. Paul in the Fragments of Valentinus; 3. The Pneumatikos -- Psychikos Language; 4. Ptolemaeus: Spiritual Sense is Practical. 5. Paul, Myth, and Ethics in the Excerpts from Theodotus 43-65Conclusion; Chapter 9: New Testament Theology and the Challenge of Practice; 1. The Challenge of Practice: Three Perspectives; 2. What is Theology in New Testament Theology?; 3. The "Field" of New Testament Theology: Academic or Ecclesial?; 4. What is "Theology" in Pauline Theology?; 5. Paul's Theology of Weakness; Conclusion; Chapter 10: How Far Can You Go? Jesus, John, the Synoptics and Other Texts; 1. Two Johns Behind John's Gospel?; 2. John, Jesus and History; 3. Westcott Revisited; 4. Dismissal of Non-Canonical Gospels. 5. Missing Parallels in Other New Testament Gospels6. Fisherman's Friends; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index of Ancient Sources; 1. Hebrew Bible and Septuagint; 2. Other Jewish Literature; 3. New Testament (Present); 4. Nag Hammadi and other Coptic Texts; 5. Other Early Christian Literature; 6. Greco-Roman Literature; Index of Modern Authors.
Ismo Dunderberg folgt dem Ansatz, dass die philosophischen Schulen der Antike ihre Anhänger eine Lebensweise lehren sollten und untersucht Fragen zu Moral und Lebensstil in außer-kanonischen Evangelien und in Gruppierungen, die nach und nach in der Kirche als ketzerisch denunziert wurden.