By Shirley Paulson, PhD|2025-05-21T23:16:47-04:00April 2nd, 2025|Tags: Eucharist, Gospel of Philip, Material World, Nag Hammadi|
One of the things that originally attracted me to this text was the fact that it is clearly extremely interested in the New Testament. It knows much of the New Testament really well. An interview with Dr. Kimberley Fowler
By Shirley Paulson, PhD|2024-07-31T00:59:04-04:00July 31st, 2024|Tags: Christian Heresies, Concepts of God, Genesis, Gnosticism, Irenaeus, Material World|
Irenaeus may remain the champion of the God who made a difficult place for humans to grow, but the gnostic thinkers should be granted champions of the God who created the inherently good creation.
By Dr. Marko Marina|2024-07-28T20:41:20-04:00April 10th, 2024|Tags: Christian Heresies, Irenaeus, Material World, Nag Hammadi, Valentinus, Valentinus Series|
Despite Irenaeus's effort to discredit Valentinus's Christian contribution by sounding too strange, these Valentinian ideas were similar enough to some other authentic Valentinian texts to suggest that Irenaeus did not invent his "Great Account" entirely himself.
By Shirley Paulson, PhD|2024-03-28T17:00:26-04:00March 27th, 2024|Tags: Gospel of Mary, Material World, Matter|
The Savior teaches that this divine presence within everyone causes us to be connected. We have a naturally built-in good relationship with everyone and everything created by the divine source.
By Dr. Marko Marina|2023-11-20T04:57:42-05:00November 20th, 2023|Tags: Material World, Noncanonical Texts, Plato, Valentinus, Valentinus Series|
There are no radically negative views on this world and its creation and no particularly positive views of the material world, either. So the essential message of Valentinus’s poem is that everything eventually depends on the divine realm. (Part 2 of 4)
By Shirley Paulson, PhD|2023-05-08T09:36:44-04:00May 10th, 2023|Tags: Dialogue of the Savior, Gospel of Thomas, Material World, Poverty, Secret Revelation of John, Sophia|
Jesus taught how the very riches that were supposedly proof of divine favor could instead become the stumbling blocks that prevent the divine experience.
By Shirley Paulson, PhD|2023-04-25T05:01:08-04:00April 25th, 2023|Tags: Dialogue of the Savior, Elli Elliott, Gospel of Thomas, Material World, Poverty, The Thought of Norea|
What does it mean to be poor in antiquity? In addition to the well-known passages in the Bible concerning wealth and poverty, this Bible and Beyond Discussion will also look at the frequent references to “Fullness” and “Deficiency.” Presenters: Dr. Shirley Paulson and Dr. Elli Elliott (with host Hilary Barner)
By Shirley Paulson, PhD|2022-01-13T12:44:52-05:00January 12th, 2022|Tags: Fear and Protection, Heaven, Material World, Thecla|
Heaven was not found in another place or time, but right in the midst the world she inhabited. The world’s fire was blazing, but in her other dimension of thought, Thecla was holding tight to God.
By Shirley Paulson, PhD|2026-03-24T00:25:38-04:00November 3rd, 2021|Tags: Concepts of God, Demiurge, Marcion, Material World, Plato|
When you have a God that is very different, you get very different human possibilities... An Interview with Dr. Stephen A. Cooper
By Shirley Paulson, PhD|2025-03-19T02:44:05-04:00October 6th, 2021|Tags: Ancient Writings, Concepts of God, Early Christian Communities, Material World|
The modern world is so impoverished in its ideas. We have such a narrow range of ways of responding to situations and issues compared to all the ideas that people had before. An interview with Dr. Jason BeDuhn.
By Shirley Paulson, PhD|2024-12-08T17:58:48-05:00August 8th, 2019|Tags: Extracanonical Texts, Gospel of Philip, Material World, Matter, Spirituality, Tripartite Tractate|
In many different forms of the biblical message, I learned there was a difference between a perception of the not-enough-world and the abundance of the heavenly realm as Jesus taught it.
