Gnostics

This book is in good condition. There is some wear on the back cover board, and marking on the bottom pages. There is no bumping or fraying on the cover boards. The previous owner's stamp is on the first inside page after the cover board. There are no markings on the pages.

"The world was still at war with itself when in the year AD 367 an instruction came to the monastic community at Tabinnisi. The head of the community, Theodore, was instructed to read the 39th Festal Letter of the Bishop of Alexandria, Athanasius. Perhaps the instruction had come from Alexandria. Such a thing would be expected from senior bishop who had already struck fear and hatred into the deviant hearts of the unorthodox, the heretics, on many occasions. Tabinnisi was some 500 miles down the Nile from Alexandria. It was remote from the full weight of authority and Big Trouble often starts in the remote places. It is unlikely that the instruction was for the ears of the community alone. It's pioneering founder, Pachomius, had within living memory set up a rule to unite disparate and solitary people within a community whose practice of strenuous labour involved a strict, almost military discipline. The Christian life was not to be for the elevation of the individual soul alone. The Church had found that the message of love for one's neighbour, promulgated by Christ himself, could blend with and yet further ennoble that civic responsibility and state-duty which was so dear and necessary to the Roman Imperium. Faraway places, even in upper Egypt were never too far away from the voice of authority...." - Chapter One from Gnostics