Classical Studies Senior Research Colloquium

The Barbarian Doctrine: Reframing Eastern Alienation and the Religion of the Alien God

My senior research paper examines the fascinating world of Gnosticism: who the Gnostics were, what they believed, and how they fit into a complex MediterraneanĀ  world of varied peoples and faiths. I argue that Gnosticism was a means by which colonized peoples in the Near East could create a coherent identity in the face of Greco-Roman imperialistic threat. Gnosticism, by incorporating and restructuring elements of Near Eastern goddess worship, emerged as a social and spiritual repudiation of a globalized Mediterranean world.

PRESENTED BY
2025
College of Arts & Sciences 2021
Advised By
Jeremey McInerney
PRESENTED BY
2025
College of Arts & Sciences 2021
Advised By
Jeremey McInerney

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