Rethinking "Gnosticism"

Michael Allen Williams- author of Rethinking "Gnosticism": An Argument for Dismantling a Dubious Category.

This work is one of the first critical works that goes about comparing the established academic definition(s) of gnostic or gnosticism to the now aquired Nag Hammadi text. The main points of the book are that there is no established definition of "gnosticism" by people who use the term, let alone the acedemic world. Second the groups referred to as "gnostic" by the christian church apologists referred to themselves often by their leader or leaders' names but no group referred to themselves as "gnostic" or "gnostics".

Also, Michael Allen Williams mentions the argument that none of the groups labeled "gnostic" shared a common set of beliefs that put them in a group together. The only things close to this would be the christian heresiological use of referring to these varied groups as "gnostics". As well as the varied set of interruptions of the creator of the material world (aka Yahweh or demiurge) by these early groups. Finally Williams clarifies that the ancient "gnosticism" of the Nag Hammadi groups and the misused "gnosticism" of moderns groups and acedemia have little if anything in common. Michael Allen Williams suggests a better and more adiquite terms for these heriticial group would be "biblical demiurgical traditions".