Gnostic wars : the cold war in the context of a history of Western spirituality

Resource Information

The work Gnostic wars : the cold war in the context of a history of Western spirituality represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in European University Institute Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Gnostic wars : the cold war in the context of a history of Western spirituality

Title remainder

the cold war in the context of a history of Western spirituality

Statement of responsibility

by Stefan Rossbach

Creator

• Rossbach, Stefan

Contributor

• European University Institute, Department of Political and Social Sciences

Subject

• Cold War
• Gnosticism
• Religion and politics

Language

eng

Summary

In this unique exposition of important and yet often neglected developments in the history of Western spirituality, Stefan Rossbach reminds us of the philosophical and spiritual underpinnings of the Cold War era, drawing on the traditions of apocalypticism, millenarianism and 'Gnostic' spirituality. Beginning with the 'Gnostic' systems of late Antiquity, the analysis follows 'lines of meaning' which extend through the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, right up to the present. From the long-term perspective which is thereby established, the spectre of a man-made nuclear apocalypse appears as the latest and most dramatic expression of an outlook on the human condition which refuses to accept limits in the imposition of human designs on the world. The paradoxical continuities that underlie the sense of epoch evoked by the end of the Cold War highlight this work's profound implications for our understanding of contemporary international politics

Member of

• EUI PhD theses

Cataloging source

IT-FiEUI

Date time place

Defence date: 15 December 1997

Dewey number

• 291.177
• 909.825-G

Dissertation note

Thesis (Ph. D.)--European University Institute (SPS), 1997.

Index

no index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

theses

Series statement

• EUI PhD theses
• EUI theses